Technical Stuff -- A Necessary but (Mostly) Serious Post

It's that time again -- to talk about technical and serious stuff relating to the blog. I know, I know, this is not what you tuned in for. Take a look, though, because a lot of your questions will be answered. Even better, our regularly scheduled blog entry will be posting at 2:00 PM today to make up for your pain. Here we go.

1. Comments. Some of you have called to my attention that you are not able to make comments to the blog anymore. I have investigated this, and apparently when I changed to the new format and background, something was incompatible with the new format. I have fixed this. You can now go ahead and leave your comments on the blog, and I encourage you to do so. I understand if you don't go back and comment in all the places you would have had this technical problem not occurred, but it sure would be fun for all of us if you did.

Thanks very much to those of you that reachd out to me on Facebook and email to let me know you were having problems. I was thinking you were all just reading this out of charity or something.

2. Following. Some of you have asked me what the purpose is of "Following" a blog, and what do you get out of it? If you sign up to "Follow" a blog, you create a user ID, and it gives you something called a "Dashboard" where you can keep track of all of the blogs you are following in one place. Basically, instead of bookmarking my page directly, you log into Blogger, and it tells you on that page which of the blogs you are following has a new update and lets you link right to it. If you follow multiple blogs, I highly recommend it.

On the flip side, if you only read this blog, then I'm the only one who gets something out of it. What I get is the satisfaction of knowing you find my blog enjoyable enough that you want to read it regularly. I will then include you as part of my SIBF statistics in my periodic jokes about my own popularity, or lack thereof.

3. If I follow your blog, do I have to tell you who I am? No. You can pick your user ID. Also, I'm pretty sure you can also hide your user ID from the public. I don't know how exactly you do this, but one of the followers already seems to have done this, so I think it is possible. (Either that, or someone has the oddest user ID I've ever seen, and it has way more characters than I can possibly remember.) This "anonymous" approach is totally fine with me. I'm just thrilled to know someone wants to follow the blog ... I don't need to know who you are. I might be a little curious from time to time, but I don't need to know. The mystery is half the fun.

4. Will you be linking your blog into Facebook? Umm, maybe. First, I have to figure out how to do that. Second, I need to figure out how to deal with some privacy issues. This blog is open to the public, and my Facebook account is not, and I am not at all sure how those two work together. Maybe one of you who has already linked your blog can chat with me and help me figure it out.

For the health and safety of everyone, I will keep this brief. If you have any more questions, please let me know. If things still aren't working they way you think they should, please let me know. Thanks for reading, and be sure to tune in at 2:00 today for another post.