Friday, October 14, 2016

My "Blogs of Interest" Sidebar Gadget Disappeared

I've read several posts by blogging experts who recommend that a blogger not have sidebar gadgets so his/her blog has a clean, unified look focused on the blogger and his or her own interests.  Perhaps I'm a bit of a non-conformist.  I think having a list of other genealogy blogs is one small way I can foster community among genealogy bloggers. 

But my sidebar list disappeared in recent days or weeks (on this blog and my others, too).  Maybe blogger decided to take it into its own hands and remove it, or perhaps blogger is making other changes and those were one of the casualties.

I didn't remember which blogs were in my sidebar.  Enter the WayBack Machine at Internet Archive.  There I found versions of my blog preserved from previous dates, including all the gadgets in the sidebar.  Thank you, Internet Archive! 

I'll return the gadget and will include a few more blogs.  I have no idea how often people click through to other blogs but I hope they do.

Has your blog link gadget disappeared (if you had one)?

--Nancy.

Copyright ©2016 Nancy Messier. All Rights Reserved. .

8 comments:

  1. Hi Nancy,

    I had a blogroll side widget a few years ago which I really liked. I was kind of like you in that I wanted to support other bloggers. Unfortunately, I had spam types of problems with it and ended up removing it permanently. I'm still kind of sad about it.

    Since you enjoy it, I hope your blogroll reappears and/or the issue sorts itself out.

    Regards,

    Cindy

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    1. Hi, Cindy. I have heard others mention that they've had a spam problem because of blogs on their sidebars but I haven't had that experience. If the problem arises, though, I'll remove the gadget. Thanks for reminding me what others have said.

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  2. I don't have a blog roll, but I always look at what other bloggers are reading, just out of curiosity. Sometimes I click, but usually I don't.

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    1. When I first began my blog it was the blogrolls in sidebars that introduced me to the wider genealogy blogger community. I think some groups of bloggers (quilters, artists, etc.) are more likely to have blogrolls than genealogy/family history bloggers. I usually read from feedly and click through to a blog if I want to leave a comment but always, while I'm at the block, I check for any new-to-me blogs if there's a sidebar.

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  3. I use to have blogrolls in the sidebar, but it disappeared as well. If there are spam issues, I might be too scared to try and get it back! I've never looked for my blog on the Waybackmachine---I will have to try that out!

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    1. Hi, Michelle. One only person has suggested spam as a result of a blog list on a sidebar, but who knows, maybe it happens. I've never had spam as a result of my blog roll. It's fun to see what the WayBack Machine saved and how often. Take a look!

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  4. You are not imagining it. Blog rolls have disappeared but I am thinking it has to do more with the template design changes than anything else ?

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    1. Hi, Magda. I agree that it was probably some changes by blogger, template design or something. I don't know enough about the behind-the-scenes technology that creates blogger but I know they sometimes edit and update things. Thanks for adding a thought to this discussion.

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I appreciate your comments and look forward to reading what you have to say. Thanks for stopping by.

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