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Mini week: Some mini Jackies, but first a rant about Blogger

I've heard the complaints from Wordpress users who say they aren't able to comment on Blogger blogs anymore, or are only able to through a great deal of effort.

That's tough to hear. I like comments. But even a Blogger user like me has noticed the comment set-up isn't the way it used to be -- Blogger is tinkering with something for some unknown reason.

But I have a different complaint about Blogger and it has to do with following blogs.

I follow many, many card blogs. Blogger lets you officially only follow 300 (why, I don't know), but if I could follow more I would. I have been at the maximum for probably a couple of years now.

Not being able to follow as many blogs as you want is a minor inconvenience, but for a long time it wasn't too difficult to handle. If a new blog came along, I would merely search out a blog that hadn't posted in like a year, delete that blog from my following list, and add the new blog. That way I'd still be at the 300 number that Blogger thinks is so important.

Then Blogger changed its dashboard layout. I've got the basics figured out, but the reading list is irritating to me. It seems there is a function to add blogs but there is no function to delete blogs. If I want to delete a blog, I have to go to the old layout, and even that is crapshoot, because most of the time when I try to delete the blog there, Blogger defiantly spits back a bunch of nonsensical letters and numbers. It never seems to be in the mood to delete blogs.

But I HAVE to delete blogs if I want to add blogs, because of the idiotic 300 limit.

If there is something I'm missing here, please fill me in.

So, I've basically given up adding and deleting blogs through this format. It's deflating because I like to appear on other blog's followers lists, but I can't if I can't add or delete blogs on my readers list. (So if you don't see me as a follower on your blog, don't be offended).

Instead, I moved on to adding blogs to my blogroll. That always seemed to work. I just had to remember to check my blogroll when I was reading because I'm more in the habit of looking at the dashboard.

I would also delete off the blogroll blogs that hadn't updated in like 6 months, just as a courtesy to the bloggers who regularly put out content.

Well, Blogger has gone and messed that up, too. I have tried to add new blogs to the blogroll and Blogger does let me add it to the list. But then it enters into some eternal saving mode that NEVER ends and eventually I give up and the blog never gets saved.

This is very frustrating. I just want Ryan's Pitch and Get That Bat Off Your Shoulder and The Dutch Card Guy and St. Louis Cardinals Cards to know that I have tried to save your blogs to the blogroll repeatedly and have failed every time.

Blogger doesn't even let me delete any blogs off the list either. It's apparently still thinking about saving my choices.

Then there are the blogs that have changed their names, especially Wordpress blogs. Blogger doesn't like that either. The Cardboard Don changed his blog name to "The Cardboard Don" a month or more ago. I've changed the name repeatedly, too. But Blogger continues to insist that the blog is still called "My Past Time ... I Love It"

Arrrrrrrrrrrgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Fortunately, the Cardboard Don doesn't let the fact that my blog keeps listing his old blog name bother him. Or else he wouldn't have sent me these cool cards!


Here is one of the mini Jackies I referred to long ago in the post title. It's from Topps 206 a couple years ago.


I can say it's a version I don't have yet because it's an American Caramel back. And I hate myself every time I differentiate between a card just because of the stupid ad on the back.


Here's a Jackie mini that brightens my mood considerably. This is an exclusive promo card from the 2008 National card show. The Cardboard Don even wrote on the penny sleeve "It's a promo! Yay!"

Yay indeed! How awesome!


It's a card from the Yankee Stadium Tribute A&G set that was issued in conjunction with the National. I'm pretty certain this is the coolest card in the whole set. The rest is probably filled with Yankeeness.


I figured you'd want to see other cool cards from The Cardboard Don, even if they weren't minis. It doesn't get much cooler than the Walmart black cards. I think this particular Casey Blake card -- and all its parallels -- will be Blake's lasting legacy in a Dodger uniform.

Ten years from now, Dodger fans will be going "remember Casey Blake?" And the ones who aren't bitterly spouting about Carlos Santana will say, "hey, yeah, wasn't he the guy sliding into home head-first on that card?"


More coolness. An xrefractor of the Dodgers' starting left fielder in 2012. I don't care what Colletti says, it will happen.


This card is also cool, although a bit sad considering where Kuroda has ended up. I'm pretty sure I can blame Russell Martin for this, too. Which makes him all the more evil.


I thought I'd move onto older times. Writing about current Dodgers gets me cranky. The shiny Don Zimmer card is amazing to me, not because of the shininess, but because my new scanner has already picked up so much dust.


I love an Eric Gagne relic card. I sure have enough of them. One day I will find out if Shawn Green or Eric Gagne had more relic cards for the Dodgers. Of course, you have to keep sending those cards to me for me to get my answer.


Oooooooh! Aaaaaaaah!

That is an amazing card. There are a lot things to potentially hate about my new scanner, but one of them is definitely NOT how it scans refractors. That is SO cool.

Allen Webster is a pitching prospect that is expected to end up in the Dodgers starting rotation in two or three years. It could be sooner, given some of the duds that are filling spots now.

As always, The Cardboard Don has an unlimited supply of cool cards and it's very nice of him to share with fellow bloggers.

I wish I could get his blog's proper name on my blog. I realize that Blogger is free of charge and everything (well, except for me who has to pay 5 bucks every year so I can upload as many pretty pictures as I like). But I just want it to do what it used to do -- allow me to add and delete blogs and to change blog names if needed.

But if Blogger really wants to make me happy, it will figure out a way that I can follow as many blogs as I like.

That would be as awesome as that Allen Webster autograph card.

Comments

Nachos Grande said…
I just thought it was me having trouble with blogger. I've also got a bunch of new blogs to add to my blog roll (that's how I do my reading as well) and can't... I keep getting the eternal saving loop that does nothing - and I've tried multiple browsers too. It's beyond annoying at this point.
Scott Fendley said…
I use Google Reader to read all of my blogs. I don't know if there's a limit there.
Hackenbush said…
I've had the same problem too. Mine won't save anything new even though I'm under 300.
Greg Zakwin said…
I've had this problem since November. Something to do with Google + being forced upon us. There's an entire thread devoted to this topic in the Blogger help area. They seem to think it's fixed, and don't really ever participate in the thread discussion.

Apparently nobody actually works for Blogger. There's also no phone # to call....

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger/thread?tid=1fd075ca903c42a8&hl=en&start=520
BASEBALL DAD said…
Nice cards !

Same problem here too.
Anonymous said…
The comment thing does suck for us wordpress-ers out there.

My wife and I have a different (much less updated) blog for family members to read what we've done after we moved further away. Well, what we've done that doesn't involve me collecting baseball cards.

My impression is - I like Wordpress much better from my standpoint. But blogger clearly reaches more people.

(comment brought to you by Lifetimetopps - just another wordpress blog)
Robert said…
I've been having a few fits with blogger myself. For some reason, I couldn't add a certain 1985 blog (gasp!) to my list.

I've got the damn thing figured out..I think. Greg, I'll send you an email, see if it works for you and if it does...share with the blogging paradigm :)
dayf said…
Oh good. I'm glad I'm not the only one having blogroll issues. I thought it was because I have over 400 blogs on the thing. I was going to simply create a new blogroll and gradually migrate active ones over there and leave the old one up as a graveyard. I should probably be working on my card show posts but instead I'm reading blogs and listening to weird indy music and eating nachos and drinking vodka. Once I have enough vodka I might do a video. I think I might be off topic now? Oh well more vodka it is then.

(it can't be healthy to eat nachos for dinner but oh well)
Anthony Hughes said…
I was getting rid of some old blogs I followed before but are dead now, and found I could not delete them. I had to literally go to each blogspot site, click Follow and then it says "you already follow it" and click the Stop Following button in order to no longer follow.
Hope this helps, I did not have anywhere near 300, so may not be same issue as you are having.
AdamE said…
Here is another new one:

http://thebaseballcardsnob.blogspot.com

Like you I tried to add him and Blogger stopped me.
Sorry to hear of all the issues, Thanks at least for trying to add me to your blogroll, appreciate the support. I guess it means you just have to manually check out my blog a couple of times a day to make sure you don't miss any of my posts !