Sunday 30 April 2023

An Unhappy Blogger and a Happy Gardener

 Oh botheration! Now what's wrong? I am fast losing interest in blogging. First, Google takes over and messes up the system, removes followers and makes commenting into a problem. Not to mention adding photographs. What used to be so easy always takes many attempts now.

And then it starts removing my posts. Apparently some of my posts are offensive and must be taken down. Eh? One of them is a poem, fully in the public domain and not in the least offensive. There are two others which are purely history and deal with people surviving killing cold in post war Germany. Where on earth is the offence? These posts are 10 years old and more!

And when I opened my blog today I find that I have 45, yes 45, items of spam. Naturally, I checked and found that 43 of them were bona fide comments, going back to 2013! The remaining 2 were simply from people who wanted some attention.

Who is it who is messing with my blog?  And why? Does anyone else suffer this fate? I see a sad little old person hunched over a screen and painstakingly going through years and years of blogs, trying to find something to wet themselves over. Somebody with the mindset of the parents who consider the greatest sculpture ever, Michelangelo's David, a biblical figure, to be pornography? Or could it be somebody who has a grudge against me personally?

I expect not, I expect it's simply an algorithm which homes in on certain words. 

So let's go out into the garden for now.


My helpful son took me to several nurseries, patiently following me around and pushing trolleys without complaint. I bought a lovely lot of goodies, most of which have been planted but here's a picture of some remaining.


This is only a very narrow strip of raised bed, it's amazing what you can cram into it if you take care of it, feeding and watering when necessary.




Here's my "ballerina tree", the leaves out now, even if they are still small. The strangest thing, I had never before noticed that there is blossom too, but of course there must be, it's real name is 'weeping pear' and pear trees, ornamental or purely decorative, have flowers. The white flowers peering through near the ground are more of my dreaded daffodils. I must have got rid of thousands and still they come. The blossom on the cherry tree to the left are almost finished and the new rusty red leaves dominate that end of the garden now.

 
And some tulips, just for fun.  I like tulips but, like daffodils, they die horribly, messing up their beds in a very rotten (literally) way. Proper gardeners will dig them up and store them until autumn, when they replant the bulbs, but I can't be bothered. I am already storing enough plants over winter in the conservatory and I simply don't have enough space for more. I am a bit old to install a greenhouse now.

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If you cannot automatically comment please leave me your name or, even better, your blog name; it is nigh on impossible to visit your blog if I don't know who you are. Even a name alone, like Mary say, isn't much good if I don't know which Mary has commented.







35 comments:

  1. Blessed Blogger is certainly having hissy fits of late. It has taken to marking short comments as spam. Which includes some of my own on my own blog. I resent having to fight being anonymous too. Photos are another blight.
    I am loving your garden. And badly need to get into my own. The weeds are thriving and doing their best to suffocate spring bulbs - which are coming up months too early.

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  2. I have found how to leave comments, it seems on first try it no longer allows, so I use left arrow at left top of page and then it returns to this page and lets me comment, but I have to type in my name and my URL. Tiresome but worth it. I loathe censorship and others have mentioned AI going wild on censoring old posts. Still I like keeping in contact with you via your blog. My garden is bringing me much joy too.

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  3. "And some tulips, just for fun."
    I enjoyed your gardening photos and narrative very much. As for blogger? Well I soldier on grateful for the contact with friends like you. Hopefully it will settle down. Best wishes for a lovely spring to you! Aloha!

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  4. Ye gods and little fishes! I suspect the Googlites are practising AI on the blogs! Everyone is struggling...I know EC will have her Sunday Selections up, but damned if I can get onto it!

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  5. No fun all that. Blogging should be fun, a hobby, not a source of grief. I am glad you persevere and are here.

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  6. I am sorry you and others are having blogging troubles. Your garden looks wonderful!

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  7. I think most of my spam comments now automatically go into the spam folders, but I am also vigilant and drag them into the folder if I need to. But yes, Blogger is sometimes difficult, but I soldier on, so I can enjoy things like this lovely post of yours! Please keep trying, some of us would really miss your "face" on this venue. :-)

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  8. Your garden is looking awfully lovely.

    I have noticed a few comments sent to spam--don't know why as they were legit--over the past few months. One post from over ten years ago was also flagged recently for containing sensitive material. I re-read the offending post and it was fine.

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  9. thecontemplativecat here. I had one post questioned, but not taken down. Have the big eyes and voices started looking at us?

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  10. So many bloggers are having problems at the moment. It's very frustrating to sense that Big Brother is watching and judging.
    Don't give up, Ursula - we would all miss you.

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  12. Hi Friko - blogging has over the years had its ups and downs (or pain and grief v joy at doing it) ... Yup - for some reason it delivers some of my own comments into spam on my blog. Also suddenly comments appear well after the event. I subscribe to a WP account so I can comment on those blogs - some I can 'like', some I cannot ... some blogs take a while to come live - one has to wait for the Blogger 'B' to settle and stop, before one can comment - it can take a while.

    Re losing blogs is a bit odd ... I wish Reader was still around and now Feedly is playing up - I'm going to make gmail contact list for anyone who expresses a wish to get any new posts from me.

    I do check everyday in my comments section of Blogger and rescue, delete any comments I want to ...

    I haven't had a post questioned - that would surprise me. I'm not giving up ... but I don't have a garden to go out into - love the look of those new plants ... your garden is always a delight ... I think of it often.

    Certainly I would miss you - with thoughts - just enjoy the Spring and early Summer coming ... it's great being here - cheers Hilary. I hope this makes some sense?!

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  13. A few months ago, one of my old posts was removed because its content broke one of blogspot‘s rules - turns out that in my post, I had linked to a website that did no longer exist and therefore, the link was considered unsafe and my post was de-published. As soon as I removed the non-functioning link and asked for re-publishing, it was done.

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  14. Friko, from the comments here, I'm thinking that Blogger must be doing some re-structuring or something. I know that I haven't gotten comments from some of my followers that used to always comment... didn't think much about it, but maybe their comments went to spam or got lost in cyberspace. Guess we just have to deal with it. Enjoy your garden! (Hope this goes through as from Rian)

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  15. I wrote a post recently about some of the same things you're complaining about with Bloggers and more. You can find it here: https://misadventuresofwidowhood.blogspot.com/2023/04/mystery-in-blogs.html I was shocked the first time I noticed they had pruned comments from my older posts, even changed the fonts size to probably save bandwidth, I'm guessing. Since it's a free service we just have to bite the bullet and go with the flow.

    Love your garden!

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  16. I haven't been having any problems with blogger. I do occasionally find a comment in the spam folder though but have had no problem commenting on others.

    I've about got all my major chores and yard work done. we've been having a lovely cool spring.

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  17. I also notice strange things going on in the blogger, Friko. Some comments end up in the spam of my mail and are not published in the post. I always return them to the inbox. Many photos of posts from 2012-14 are not shown in the text. I don't know what to do. You bought a lot of new plants. I think that your garden will be even more beautiful this year.

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  18. It's a blessing to be able to see these pictures of your beautiful garden, and to know that you enjoyed visiting a nursery!! But the stuff about Blogger is so disturbing, all of it, but especially the removing of blog posts. Yikes. WordPress is not what it was, either, but it's mostly the formatting changes they are always coming up with, that are such a nuisance. I am afraid that one of these days my lack of patience for learning their newest "improvement" will force me out. But where will I go? Not to Google, that's certain. I hope they work it out somehow.

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  19. Agree, love your garden photos! As for blogging, I haven't had the problems. Or I haven't noticed them. Maybe I haven't been paying enough attention.

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  20. Well, starting with the good part -- the garden! It's absolutely blooming! What a good son to help at the market (and perhaps dig a hole or two?) You will be more than ready for open day. I love that climbing plant -- a rose? It's lovely.

    You are having blog problems that (for the most part) I haven't experienced. Since Linda told me how to bypass the anonymous comment problem on google blogs, I haven't had trouble commenting, and never a post removal. If this was happening to me, I'd hit that question mark on the dashboard and complain about that. Not that I'm sure it would do much good but it's always worth a try. The only time a post has disappeared for me is when I accidentally deleted it myself, accidentally hitting the trash button instead of the one beside it on the dashboard. The one problem you are having that I have experienced is some spam comments. Since I moderate, none of those get published right off the bat and I can delete them as I approve other comment. A few were for posts from 2010! But certainly NOT the amount you have. I suspect they're doing something related to the blogger mainstream -- and it IS free.

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  21. I have not had the issues you have with blogging. I do know that if you have put an ad blocker on your browser system it may stop you from commenting on some blogs. I have not seen any blogging style changes, but perhaps I am just too old to notice. Your garden is gorgeous and I am glad you can get back to doing that.

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  22. I seem to be unable to comment. Gerlinde

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  23. Ok, no it works. I am getting frustrated with the technical part of blogging . Blogger doesn’t seem to like me. Your garden looks beautiful . Gerlinde de Broekert,

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  24. I have been MIA for a while Friko but back in the saddle now. No issues with blogger but I will check the cache for the uglies.

    Love the garden and admire your energy and commitment.

    XO
    WWW

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  25. Your garden is marvelous, and you are the first person I've ever known of to label daffodils as "dreaded".
    I've not experienced the blogger problems you've mentioned and I wonder what goes on in the technical realm that I cheerfully want to know nothing about. Just let it all work the way it's supposed to. I am checking my comments more frequently and finding bona fide comments in spam, which is frustrating.

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  26. well, now I'll see if my comment comments! I'm sorry about the wrestling match with blogger. I miss the old days of blogging so much. Too many changes, many of which I'm not aware or don't understand. But you have friends here. I hope you'll persevere.

    Your garden is beautiful. I'm a gardener too. Slow and sure.
    Love kj
    OPTIONS for a Better World

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  27. I would be awfully frustrated if faced with the problems you have been having with Blogger. The only problem I have is having to remember to change my status from anonymous every time I comment. Your garden is looking beautiful.

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  28. Blogging is a hobby; it's one thing to put up with boring marriage but a boring hobby makes no sense - Jane Wagner.

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  29. I used to have problems with comments, but never with deleting. Should I knock on wood? Frankly, I'm not surprised, with al what's going on worldwide. For me also "Давид" Микеланджело - абсолют совершенства. I would advise you, if I can, to ignore these inconsistences. Your blog is special, dear Friko, please keep writing. And gardening! I don't know a thing about it, but it is enjoyable to see wonderful things made in one's garden.

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  30. I know how frusrating blogging can be. I am unable to leave comments on my own blog. But i continue on. I just bought flowers this week. They make me so happy when I sit outside in the evening and admire them. Such a simple pleasure, FLOWERS.
    Here they plant daffodils along the highways on the sloping hillsides. Looks pretty. I did not know they were such a pain. have a great week.

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  31. Your garden is beautiful, Friko.

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  32. It is always wonderful to read your words. Why they have been taken down is beyond me. I understand your frustration about blogging. I gave up and then started writing on Substack. I love it there. I don’t know if the “google gods” will also me to link my Substack, but I’ll try: https://sallywessely.substack.com/ Come on over and visit. I’d love to connect again. I used to write on Blogger under the name of: Retired English Teacher.

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  33. I have missed seeing your posts. Hope you are OK

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Comments are good, I like to know what you think of my posts. I know you'll keep it civil.