Decisions...
Okay, so this Blogger Beta thing's been around for a while now and I've been toying with the idea of changing PFP over.
I do like the idea of being able to tag all my posts. But I'm leery of change and set in my ways. I don't trust these new-fangled thingamabobs.
But it does sound kind of nifty. So what I'd like to know, from you folks who've made the switch already, is what's it like? Are there major downsides? What are some of the advantages?
Tell me what it's like? Is it worth switching over?
I do like the idea of being able to tag all my posts. But I'm leery of change and set in my ways. I don't trust these new-fangled thingamabobs.
But it does sound kind of nifty. So what I'd like to know, from you folks who've made the switch already, is what's it like? Are there major downsides? What are some of the advantages?
Tell me what it's like? Is it worth switching over?
posted by kalinara @ 5:24 AM
8 Comments:
At November 15, 2006 8:55 AM,
Anonymous said…
It's okay. It allows you to have a ton of other stuff on your sidebar (like RSS feeds) and there are no more publishig times to worry about. You still need to tag each and every one of your entries though, so that would take you some time.
The only problem for me I think is that you can't blog using third-party blogging software, as it gets confused with the username (your blogger username or your gmail)
At November 15, 2006 10:27 AM,
Matthew E said…
I've been toying with the idea of switching over too, but Blogger hasn't opened it up to me yet.
But for another perspective, check recent entries at Progressive Ruin. Mike Sterling is not happy with Beta. Although he may be doing some FTP stuff (or... something) that you aren't.
At November 15, 2006 11:31 AM,
Anonymous said…
I have been happy with it. I used the straight stuff offerred by the other version. No extra techy stuff from me, so Beta actually opened my Blog to a better look and easier control.
You have to save and resubmit your template. I would watch out on your links section as it gets wiped out and has to be redone. It is easy, but you have many more links than I had.
Images are easier and previewed before hitting done. Tags are not that bad, once entered the edit post page has an easy addition function. For those like me who just use what is offerred it works well.
What I read when it came up is that when all is said and done, Blogger will switch all Blogs to Beta. When this happens may be a long time off. Just needed saying. They are adding things all the time.
Good Luck, it will make my commenting quicker when and if you do.
At November 15, 2006 12:33 PM,
Anonymous said…
I've been very happy with it- it made organizing the site and adding links much easier.
Two things I had to change were the code for post summaries (which I don't think you use anyway), and the Statcounter code. It took a bit of searching for Blogger hacks to figure out how that worked, but it was basically a one-time inconvenience.
At November 15, 2006 4:22 PM,
Anonymous said…
I've been on beta for over 2 months and love it. I upgraded some of my blogs to the new format, which gave me full labels functionality, but not all of them. A couple are still on the old format, running same as always. I can label posts on those blogs, but can't get a labels widget for the sidebar.
My comic blog http://shellyscomics.blogspot.com has been in the beta template format since late September, I believe, and except for a rash of post feeds being resent, no one seems to have noticed.
At some point, maybe the end of the year, Blogger will shut down classic and beta will the the only format as they need to shut down the old, dying system. Right now, all new bloggers signing up with Blogger default to beta. The old system is suffering its death throes right now, which is why Blogger has had so many outages lately. I don't know the actual timetable to shut down the old version, but I don't think they want to move too many blogs at once, so it'll probably take another month or two.
I also love the new Denim template. I hope they add other new ones.
As for moving over links and such to the new format, you can simply copy from your old template to an html/java box in the new format, or you can add them one by one to the links widget/page element. I needed on average, 2 nights to redo each of the templates I upgraded. But the upgrade isn't done automatically when you move to beta. You have to click the upgrade template link once on beta.
Also, back up your template before you move.
At November 15, 2006 5:50 PM,
Anonymous said…
I switched about a month back or so. I had been using a del.icio.us hack for categories, and this is much preferable. Catching up is a bit of a pain, but the recently added a function where you can tag a whole bunch of posts at a time - I tagged most of FT in an hour or so.
There's also a nice scheme for doing plugins, and moving sections of the page around.
I really like Beta, and had no problems with the upgrade.
At November 16, 2006 6:16 AM,
kalinara said…
Thanks guys! I think I probably should plan my shift-over soon! :-)
At November 17, 2006 8:20 AM,
Avi Green said…
Hmm. I rarely have time to comment on most other blogs, but, while I haven't received an option for Beta myself so far, I do know another blogger who's been given the option, but so far, he hasn't bothered to try it out, because he read some of the arguments on Google's Blogger tech forum that there were errors that were causing the use of Beta to get messed up. By now though, I'd expect that Blogger has fixed whatever bugs were accompanying the Beta mode, so I suppose it'd be worth trying out.
I'll have to write to the other blogger I know who's got the option but still isn't trying it, all because he's worried about the possible errors that could happen if he switched over to Beta. And I sure hope I'll get an offer someday too. These waiting times for publishing really make me impatient at times, especially when I'm doing a template overwrite!
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