Blog Ownership Stuck With The First Google Account? Don't Delete It

(Edit 6/13): This is no longer an issue. Note: deleting the owner account is still a bad idea. But you shouldn't even get that far in frustration, because we now have the ability to transfer blogs from one account to another.

Under Classic Blogger, it was possible to transfer a blog from one administrative account to another, by adding the second account, then deleting the first. Incorrectly done, though, you could end up with a blog with no administrator, and no way to add an administrator. And another trouble ticket for Blogger Support to resolve.

So Blogger changed the possibility, with New Blogger 2006. Under New Blogger, you can add a second (or third, or ...) administrator, but you can't delete the first administrator. That takes care of the possibility of having no administrator. But it creates a second problem (which apparently Blogger doesn't find important) - you can end up with an account that has no need to administer a blog, but having been the first administrator, is stuck with that ability none the less.

Having accepted that fact, one bright person came up with the idea

OK, what if I delete the first account?

A drastic, but seemingly effective way to resolve the problem.

But no, that's not an answer at all. When you delete the original administrative account, the blogs associated with that account disappear. This is stated by Blogger Employee, in Blogger Help Group: Something Is Broken Since switch my blogs aren't on dashboard Help blogstars or Employee.

...the problem appears to be that you deleted the Google Account that these blogs were registered with. Be aware, when you delete your account, your blogs go with it.

In other words, do not delete an account having any blogs associated with it. And keep the account, and email address, current - and do not lose the password.

Removing the owner account from administrative status won't have the same effect as deleting that account - your blogs aren't going to vanish. But it won't force a second administrator to become the new owner, either. And if the second administrator isn't properly setup, you could end up with a blog with no administrator.

This advice comes too late for some. Let's hope that Blogger produces a workaround for the ownership transfer problem very quickly - expecting for any one account to remain as the owner of a given blog, for eternity, makes no sense at all. People do change names, and identities, and blogs do change ownership.

• lost admin after upgrade
  
• Blog Vaporized when I transitioned
  

So, did you just delete your blog? Better get to work, now. And, whether you're reading this too late, or if I caught you in time, tell Blogger that this needs to be changed.

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Help! My Blog Is Trapped Inside My Navbar!

This is the same problem as Help! My Dashboard Is Under My Blog!, just another way of viewing the symptom.

Help! My Dashboard Is Under My Blog!

We're seeing this recently, as folks get Internet Explorer V7. It's unique to this specific combination - Blogger Beta and IE V7, and it's another description of Help! My Blog Is Trapped Inside My Navbar!.

And, it's a known issue, which implies that Blogger is working on the problem.

(Edit 12/5): And now, it's a closed issue.

So while Blogger works on the problem, what are our options?

• Bloggers Immediate Recommendation.
• Use a Bookmark / Favourite, and reload the blog.
• Bloggers Long Term Solution.
• Use Firefox.
• Workarounds.
• The Final (And Correct) Solution.

Immediate Procedural Solution
As recommended in Blogger Known Issues, if you want to view a Beta blog in IE V7, right click and select "Open in new window", when selecting any Navbar links.

Use a Bookmark / Favourite
As recommended by several readers (see comments), do the obvious. Setup a bookmark / favourite to (or just type in the address bar) http://beta.blogger.com, or even to the blog, as in http://bloggerstatusforrealbeta.blogspot.com/. Now, you're back. Sometimes, the easiest solutions are right in front of our eyes.

Blogger Needs To Fix Their Templates
We're going to have to be patient, and encourage Blogger to fix the problem properly. I'll bet that this will involve a template fix, and this will present a challenge.

• Blogger has to develop the solution, and make the solution work in all templates, for all browsers.
• Blogger has to issue new editions of all templates.
• Blogger has to issue a template patch, for those who have customised their templates, and don't wish to "Pick New Template".

Use Firefox
And it may be another reason to use Firefox, at least until either Blogger corrects their blog code, or Microsoft fixes their rendering inconsistencies. Those of us who use Firefox only heard of the problem when IE users started complaining.

Workarounds
Some workarounds to this problem, of questionable legitimacy and originality, have been proposed in various forums. I'll try and provide links to articles describing those workarounds, as time permits.

The Final Solution
Microsoft needs to produce a browser that doesn't have non-standard quirks.

Authentication - And Changing The Account On Your Blog

(Edit 6/13): Changing the owner account is still not a casual process. But it can now be done.

Neither Classic or New Blogger have a simple setting to change the administrator account on your blog. There's nothing in Settings that says

Manage this blog from this account.

As I note in The Real Blogger Status (Classic): Changing The Account Name On Your Blog, though, this is not a great problem. Simply add a new administrator, then delete the old one.

Under Classic Blogger, this could be done in one step, and this was a problem. It was possible to make a new member an administrator, and end up with no administrator. This would require another ticket to Blogger Support. DOHH.

Please restore my administrator status. My blog has no administrator.

In New Blogger, this is a problem, possibly intentionally so because of the latter scenario.

• Add a new blog member.
• The new blog member accepts the addition.
• Make the new member an administrator.
• The new blog administrator cannot, unfortunately, remove the old administrator.

And there's the problem. You have one account that can't be deleted from administrator status. And, in Blogger Help Group: How Do I? Switching Blog to anothe rgmail account?, we see this problem. And note the warning: do not delete the owner account, in an attempt to force ownership upon a second account. You'll end up with no blog.

This is just one of the many details that needs to be fixed, in New Blogger. Let's tell Blogger that this is a major concern.

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Migration To Blogger Beta - Evaluation - 3

In this series about the migration to the Blogger Beta product, I've described (briefly) the technique of a migration project, the overall status of the migration, and where (I suspect) that Blogger thinks this project is right now.

As the Google Blogger Help community reacts to last weeks announcement (carefully hidden in the forums)

We're looking forward to migrating all users to beta in the next few months, so, as there's limited time left with regular Blogger

I see an interesting mixture of reactions.

I just migrated my blog, and I'm having no problems. You should migrate now, and enjoy yourself.

and

Don't migrate now, wait until all of the bugs are worked out.

My own personal opinion varies from day to day, according to what problems we are seeing (Classic or Beta), and / or what responses we are getting (or not getting) from Blogger Support. Several times in the past week, I have experienced moments of euphoria (from various causes), where I have contemplated pulling the pin, and migrating PChuck's Kitchen.

Being able to use MultiStyle Topics, to cross reference my recipes, would rock. PChuck's Kitchen is not large, and could be rebuilt if necessary, so it's a perfect candidate (to me) for migration.

Unfortunately, none of this matters, as Blogger says to me, and many other folks

We're not ready to allow you to migrate just yet. But setup a new Beta blog - and try out the neat features!

So, of the folks using Beta blogs right now, how many are using new blogs vs how many have actually been migrated? My guess - and I am being liberal - is maybe 1 Beta blog out of 3 was migrated - 2 out of 3 are new Beta blogs.

There are a lot of Classic blogs waiting to be migrated. Almost certainly, the blogs that haven't been migrated are the ones with interesting features. And that means that those features, and other features used by more complex blogs that can't be migrated, haven't been tested under Beta just yet.

Features that haven't been (won't be) tested under Beta are problems waiting to happen. Blogger is simply saying

Migrate anyway, and we'll deal with the problems after you migrate.

And after they migrate, they'll be saying

We can't respond to your problem personally - we're too busy dealing with all of the problems. Please describe your problem in Google Blogger Help - Troubleshooting, and wait for answers from your peers.

If there are features in Beta that you can't, or don't want to, wait for, then it's in your own best interest to migrate. Those of us who don't want to migrate our blogs immediately will benefit from waiting, and watching the problems that occur without us, occur without us. If you migrate, and you experience problems, then I can learn from your experience, as I watch you struggle.

Those of us that do eventually migrate will benefit from many having migrated before us, and already dealt with the problems. But the choice to migrate is not given freely to everybody. You can only migrate when you're allowed.

We're not ready to allow you to migrate just yet.

So here, again, is the suspicion that Blogger is ignoring the idea that many blogs are owned and cared for by real people.

• People who have hopes and dreams.
• People that won't enjoy migrating with the fear of having problems, and knowing that once you go forward, there's no coming back.
• People who know that possibly they will wait, but one day, possibly in the process of making an urgent post (new or updated), they will get the notice
  

  You must migrate now.

  
  Where now might be any future time convenient to Blogger Support, though not to the blog owner.
• People who know that one day, possibly in the process of making an urgent post (new or updated), they will get the notice
  

  You must migrate now.

  even though now, they see

  We're not ready to allow you to migrate just yet.

And that's the real downside of not migrating immediately. You have no idea when that shoe will drop. And there is another problem with The Silence.

(Edit 10/19): One week later, we see the third statement by Blogger Employee, and this story continues.

Migration To Blogger Beta - Evaluation - 2

So where are we in the rollout of Blogger Beta? The rollout, for me, began on August 16. Let's be casual, and call it 2 months.

And Blogger Employee, in Google Blogger Help: An Open Question to "Blogger Employee". says

We're looking forward to migrating all users to beta in the next few months.

Although my personal preference would be a year, I'll suspect we'll be lucky to see that stretch into 4 - 6 months. Let's equate "a few" to 4, which makes the total migration project 6 months. I'm using my Migration To Blogger Beta series and the (straw man, and yes, I realise the limitations here) 10% - 80% - 10% triage, as a reference.

When Blogger makes a reference like "a few months", it looks like they think that the pilot is over, and they're going to migrate everybody homogenously. Given a 6 months (24 weeks) overall project, and we are 8 weeks (1/3) into the project, with a 10% - 80% - 10% weighting, that puts us well into the main part of the project. Even at a 20% - 60% - 20% weighting, we are well into the main part.

Unfortunately, they're still telling a lot of folks

We're not ready to allow you to migrate just yet. Just setup a new Beta blog, and test Beta out.

Now, my suspicion is that they have no idea what problems might arise as the Classic blogs are migrated. They can't really. They have no ideas what features are used on any blogs, because they don't support the blogs. They only support the blogging infrastructure. All user support is provided by the users, in the forums.

The unfortunate thing (for us) is that many blogs haven't been migrated, because Blogger says

We're not ready to allow you to migrate just yet.

Now the reason why they aren't allowed certain blogs to be migrated is that they are still trying to work out the issues. Some issues they know about, and have delayed migration for those blogs. But without those blogs being migrated, they don't have any idea what other issues may be awaiting us.

And the reactions in the forums is interesting. I see a few Bloggers saying

I just migrated my blog, and I'm having no problems. You should migrate now, and enjoy yourself.

Other Bloggers advise

Don't migrate now, wait until all of the bugs are worked out.

I suspect that the answer lies in the middle. So, next I will discuss the variety of Bloggers and their opinions about the migration.

Migration To Blogger Beta - Evaluation

In my Classic blog series Migration To Blogger Beta, I wrote 4 posts to give an overview of the principles of project management, as it applies to migration projects. In those posts, I talked about principals (computers, software, users). What I was really talking about, once you get the principles down, is blogs.

You migrate blogs, just as you migrate computers. Even though you can't see blogs, as you can computers or users, they are still very real. And they are are owned, and cared for, by very real people.

I mention that fact first, in the hope that Blogger may realise this eventually. Because I don't think that they realise this, right now. At least, after reading that specific post in Google Blogger Help.

So next I will evaluate the progress in the Blogger Beta Rollout. I'll start by describing where (I suspect) Blogger Support thinks that we are. Then I'll continue with where other Bloggers like Roberto thinks that we are, other Bloggers in the Blogger community think that we are, and where I think that we are.

A Limit In Blogger Beta?

How many HTML / Javascript page elements can you have? My bud Roberto asked me about this last night.

I keep getting "unable to complete your request" when trying to add another widget.

And I tried myself, and I saw the same error. I used the Add widget, selected "HTML / Javascript", and there it was - our old friend (not)

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.

Well, nobody can say that Roberto's Retreat 2 - Beta isn't pushing the limit. I advised him to think of his viewers, and limit the complexity.

But as we explore the amenities of Beta Blogs, I'll be surprised if we don't run into limits like this occasionally.

(Edit 9/9 21:00): I see that there is actually a Known Issues entry for this problem, from 9/8. Maybe the BKI blog will actually be useful.

(Edit 9/11): In Google Blogger Help - Customising Templates: Is the number of HTML/JavaScript widgets limited?, we see a suggestion for a workaround.

Cool, the Text elements accept HTML and JavaScript so I can still carry on adding stuff with codes

So, forget about HTML / Javascript, and let's see how well you can customise a Text element.

(Edit 9/13): In Known Beta Issues, this problem is reported as fixed.

Restore The Main Page Link To The Title

For every seasoned Blogger, whenever you setup a Blogger Alpha blog, and go to view an individual article, selecting the title of the blog would always get you back to main page view. That is one of the most standard features in any Alpha blog.

Not so with Beta. And since you can't edit the template, you're stuck. Right?

Wrong. You can't edit the template itself - raw template access isn't provided. But you can edit the individual page elements.

Go into Template - Page Elements, and edit the element with the title in it. In my case, I find

The Real Blogger Status Beta

and I select the Edit link. I see the Configure Header window. It has the Blog Title

The Real Blogger Status Beta

I add a hypertext link, and make it

<a href="http://bloggerstatusforrealbeta.blogspot.com/index.html">The Real Blogger Status Beta</a>

select SAVE CHANGES then SAVE. When I select View Blog, I see my blog now as before, but with one difference - clicking on the title now takes me to main page view.

Having said that, I note several exceptions.

• The title is now clickable from every view (no more distinction between main page view, article view, and archive view).
• The length of the title is critical. See the above setup for my title? Try adding just 2 more characters. One more may add, but a second won't. You won't get an error - unless the necessary character is a control character that affects the syntax, as mine was. Here's a hint: the title of this blog used to be
  

  The Real Blogger Status - Beta

  Do you see the difference?
• Look at the entry in the dashboard. Not too neat now. I can live with that, though, to have a clickable title. Can you?
  

All in all, it's a workaround. But, until BS gives us raw template access, or puts back what should be there in the first place, we're stuck. But this still beats Blogger Alpha.

(Edit 9/2): While surfing, I just noticed that many blogs don't have this limitation any more. Another fix provided in silence.