2012 - 65

Blogger is still Shit

Now that I've calmed down a little (not a lot, just a little), I thought I'd bore you with why Blogger, now owned by Google, is shit...

Several months ago Google acquired Blogger and changed it, because that's the thing to do nowadays. The reaction was really bad and so they gave people the option of using the old style and many, many people took up this offer. The new style was also riddled with problems and most older users - who it seems are the ones more likely to blog - found it confusing, vague and really unpleasant on the eye.

This week they changed everyone to the new style and then deleted the old style - got rid of it completely, so that there was no way to change it back and then basically stopped you from doing any real complaining by allowing the dissenters one small forum to air their views, to which they deleted many comments, not because they were rude or offensive, but because the people were making valid points about how crap the 'new and improved' style was and sounding like they were going to leave for Blog pastures new. They also put some faceless twat in charge of this forum who would only answer technical issues (and most usually with a 'I'm going to have to email Google about this' - the professionalism of it all is mindblowing).

Here's just an example of some of the quite sad posts on the Blogger support forum: I am retired, pushing 70 and only in the past few years have I owned a computer.  I enjoyed blogging, the approach seemed straight-forward and I have blogged almost 4 years.  I've been reading a lot of helpful suggestions here but I am woefully ignorant of how to perform many operations.  At this point I have informed my readers I am no longer blogging.  

How fucking tragic is that? He got no response from admin; a kindly fellow suggested he migrate his blog to Wordpress, which is complicated, but not half as complicated as Blogger's new look; but surely these complete and utter twats that run these things must have some sympathy for people who aren't tech-heads? Obviously not; I mean, face it, anyone over 35 is going to be dead soon and is probably computer illiterate; who gives a fuck about them?

I'm investigating a couple of new blogging sites; to people who read my blog via that wonderfully democratic social networking medium of Facebook won't be affected; those who follow this blog will be fucked about and 50% of them won't bother following again (even if they can on whatever new site I go to) and in the end a lot of people, myself included, now have a hate on for Google as well as other places that have changed things for us without wondering if the change will be well met.

Everything about the new look is different; there's barely any similarity between the horrible looking thing in front of me and the really easy to use and simple interface that I had just 3 days ago. There are just so many things you can't do now, or the way you do them has changed to such an extent that seasoned bloggers are even complaining. There's now more emphasis on things that the average blogger doesn't use. I can't upload multiple pictures of format them now; everything has to be done individually and I don't even want to go down the route of how much different and what rubbish jargon they're using. It just stinks. I didn't like it as an alternative and I hate it as the new default. I hope many, many people migrate their blogs elsewhere and send a massive Fuck You message to Google. but somehow I just think that most people will just bare it.

Oh and Google not content with fucking up one of the things I use most frequently, have changed the app called Google Docs. It was basically Word on line that allowed you to work, save and move about and have anything you're working on available a the touch of a button. It's been changed to Google Drive and they recommend you watch a 7 minute video to highlight the changes.

Why?

Look, I'm not a Luddite; I'm actually quite keen on change where it is needed, but frankly I'm so fucking exasperated with the Internet and all the shit we get force fed that I might just end up exploding and dumping the fucking thing in favour of using emails, yahoogroups and ... oh yeah, it appears that Yahoogroups will be discontinued in the next year and replaced with something more modern. I'm beginning to wish computers had never been invented. I miss my typewriter and my Tippex...

And If You Thought That Was Boring

I have allowed myself and my anger to boil over in the last few days and because I'm me I think a lot of it is totally justified. I've done something I usually belittle and got involved in a couple of Internet discussions - you know the kind that have absolutely no impact on the world save for the four or five idiots putting the world to right.

My extra disgruntlement has been about my football team Spurs and the fact they have a shit new manager - signed for economic reasons rather than anything else - and are going backwards when they should be consolidating their recent improvements. What has happened is that I've grown to hold pinko fucking wanker Spurs fans in the most utter contempt, mainly because they exhibit as much ambition as dead pigeons and as a result of this I have decided that AVB - Andres Villas Boas - is a complete fuckwit and couldn't manage a straight piss let alone my football club.

It might as well be 1995 again the interest I have in football. I have to pull away from Spurs for a while because my blood pressure is going to go through the roof and I'll probably give myself an aneurysm. I actually wanted the team to lose on Thursday I'm that convinced that the new manager is a buffoon. I want him to fail and that's a really bad thing to admit about your club. I love Spurs and have done for many many years, but if I'm getting that sour and disillusioned with things (as is clear I am) then I need to try and be ambivalent about it, at the very least.

I know what 'proper' football fans would think of that last statement, but I don't care. I've followed a largely shit team for nearly 50 years and every time they look like they are on an upward curve, some wanky chairman comes along and sacks the manager and puts a foreign idiot in charge. For all of Harry Redknapp's failings, he restored my pride in my team and they played some of the best football I've ever seen and people are condemning him because he was independently ambitious and not getting the right support from his chairman - how dare he have his own interests at heart...

What annoys me the most are the sanctimonious fans who feel that AVB be given at least a season to establish himself, or are saying he brings something to the club it hasn't had before. Well, that's fine, but it doesn't seem to have had an immediate effect and when you support a team as big and as consistent as Spurs have been for the last few years, you tend to expect a new manager to come in an improve the results, not just the tactics. If he's such a brilliant tactician how come we've been playing two defensive midfielders and a short lone striker up front, at home, against teams we should be beating - teams that the real top 4 will beat 99 times out of 100.

I want to be proven wrong. I want AVB to be a huge success for the club and the fans, but he isn't going to be on the evidence we've seen so far and what he failed to achieve at Chelsea and I'm going to leave this now because it upsets me and angers me and I'm no one who has any effect on anything...

When In Rome

I have also felt a teensy weensy bit of a racist this week as I have grown extremely angry at other races and cultures over their beliefs and what they think the British owe them. I'm wondering what Muslims would think if some of them burned the Bible to try and propagate unrest amongst Christians? Or what the Pakistani President would have to say about that? Not a lot I expect.

Stuff

• It's far too cold.
• I have been listening to Porcupine Tree.
• I haven't been reading much, I've been too busy moaning.
• I've had to be accommodating at work to the point where it would be nice if some of the people I was accommodating reciprocated.
• The spell checker mentioned in the previous blog is suggesting unbelievable things, such as spelling 'offensive' as 'offencive' or 'proven' as 'pr oven' - this is progress you know... 
• The next time you see this blog it might be somewhere else or I might just stop doing it...
• Now, how do I publish this thing; where's the button..?