Blogger breaking bad

Having Blogger as my blogging platform has its pluses and minuses. Among the pluses: free web hosting and ease of use. Among the minuses: Blogger is about five years behind other blogging platforms in terms of functionality (people on WordPress, for example, have access to all sorts of design-related doodads that aren't available on Blogger), and you're at the mercy of any changes or glitches that Blogger experiences.

Right now is a good example of something annoying. I'm pretty sure it's a bug, not a feature: Blogger's "reading list" window, a sort of RSS feed that gives a bird's-eye view of my own site plus those on my blogroll, is currently showing only one blog at a time, and changes what it shows only when another blog has updated. Imagine if your Twitter timeline showed only one tweet—ever. Sure, the tweet would change, always updating to show you the latest Twit's thoughts, but you'd only ever see one tweet at a time. While that would be a peaceful contrast to the normally vomitous torrent of updates, it would also be frustrating as hell, like experiencing life by watching it through a slightly cracked door.

I hope the glitch goes away soon; I imagine other users are complaining even as I type this. If, after a week, there's no change, I'll add my own voice to the crowd of complainants, but I doubt that that will speed things along. The bigger Blogger gets, the more sluggish it becomes, which means using Blogger is an opportunity to practice patience.


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