Technical Upheaval

I have to ask y'all to bear with me in the coming weeks. The Rundown is actually run from template I got for free from a site which offers Blogger templates. I liked it then and I like it now, but the search engines don't like it quite as much - or so I have been told. Errors in one's template can impact one's ranking and this may have something to do with ours.

Now, I don't know this for certain, but the plan all along was to develop a custom-made presentation; The Weirding is custom-made from the ground up, and far from being just a bragging point, it's done to impart a specific experience when visiting - I want it to be a site which stands-out in your mind for being visually neat, in addition to offering great original content. The blogs have never truly synched-up with the rest of the site and it's been a thorn in my side since I began.

I chose Blogger over WP for several reasons, but one of the biggest is because it's simply easier to use. Unfortunately, the reason for this is because it offers fewer options and features than the aforementioned platform. But I tried many, many blogging platforms before finally deciding on Blogger, so I took all of the limitations into account before making my decision. There are lots of hacks, tips/tricks, and workarounds to get more out of Blogger, the problem is that some search engines - well, who are we kidding? Google; Google is the search engine we're talking about, as always - don't like you using these hacks and workarounds and will penalize your standing for doing so.

It's wrong, but Google is wrong on so many levels that it's really not worth going on about; we're about to start campaigning heavily to make them aware of our disappointment with them, and hopefully that will result in some positive change... but don't count on it; Google is known for being obstinate and giving us what it wants, not what we desire.

Most aggravating about all of this is that I don't even know that coding errors are an issue; Google refuses to explain anything it does on the grounds of being "proprietary." Kosmix is a better search resource, anyway; truthfully, Google is not very good, it's just the most popular - and I really don't say this just because it has been so Evil to me and other bloggers. I want to do whatever it takes to make my content easier to find - in all the search engines - but I take umbrage to being told what I can and cannot do with my blog and intellectual content and I don't have time to do Google's job for them. Especially since they not only do not pay me, they have willfully and intentionally employed tactics to deprive me of earning wages with my work.

Still, I have always wanted to customize the blogs to mesh better with the overall design of the site, so this just gives me another reason to actually do it.

And the reason I'm telling you all this is because I'm going to be messing with it in the weeks to come. You may find things askew, and I would really appreciate it if you would let me know if something is broken, not displaying correctly, or any other problems you experience. For all sorts of reasons, I don't always see what you do, so I don't always know things aren't showing up properly unless someone tells me!

This may also cause issues with The Rundown (and the other blogs) even showing-up at all; fear not, we are still here, just experiencing momentary technical issues. Again, you need to let me know if this occurs, as I may otherwise be unaware of the problem.

© C Harris Lynn, 2009