The Good.. The Bad.. & the Very Ugly
First of all.. anyone who gets any sort of feed when I post, I apologize if you received a few of them today.
I am in a quandary as to what to do, or what I want to do, or what I will do.
I know.. this makes no sense to you. But it will in a moment. Actually, I didn't plan on talking about this just yet but the fact that as I did what I did in my blog today and suddenly realized people may be getting alerts that I am posting something new, when I am not... and so I need to discuss this.
I am about to have a blog anniversary.. this Sunday will be 3 years I have been doing a journal/blog. I am also coming up on my 1,000 post! And anyone who has read me for any length of time knows that I can't make a post without photo's.
What some may or may not know is that I began journaling on aol. When they put ads on my journal I migrated here to blogspot. Being older I sometimes don't learn new programs without a lot of help, and so when frustrated what I did was to make a "private" journal in aol... I would write my post there, upload all photo's to aol file manager/ aol pictures.. a total now of over 3,000 photo's since I began, and then simply copy and paste my post to blogspot (and to wordpress, which I couldn't master either!).
Are you following me so far?
1- 3 yrs journaling
2- nearly 1,000 posts
3- nearly 3,000 photo's used
4- all written on aol and pasted to blogspot
I received an email from aol the other day...
They are closing up their journals.
We were advised to back up our journals and to download all photo's from file manager and aol pictures because they too would be deleted.
Did I hear a groan?
Let me repeat, I've used 3,000 pictures in my blog, who's html address leads to aol, who will be deleting all files the end of October.
Did I hear a curse word or two?
So... there is good news and bad news.
Good news is, that I have my entire blog copied on Word and saved to cd, and I also have every photo I've ever used saved in folders and saved to cd. So, when they delete file manager and aol pictures I won't actually "loose" my pictures.
Bad news is: every photo on my blog will disappear. Three years worth of posts that need photo's to enjoy the post will simply disappear. And for those who don't already know this, you cannot copy and paste from Word into Blogspot. Well.. you can.. but you loose all your formatting. Re: all paragraphs run together and no photo's copy over.
Aol says they are trying to find a way to transfer an aol journal to blogspot. I wonder why since they will be void of the photo's people have used. Some of the bloggers on aol have been doing their blog for 5 years!
Yes the words may transfer but, let me repeat... if it is COPIED over to blogspot, all the html for pictures will still contain aol addresses and those will be deleted.
Still following me?
After I had my, ohhhhh third or fourth cry over this (I'm not stressed enough with my brother mind you), I started doing some small things.
1- I opened a photobucket account (free).
2- Uploaded all the photo's I used for Myrtle's blog (since there weren't all that many).
And replaced all the photo's in Myrtle's blog.
3- Then I uploaded all the pics in my sidebar to "Here There and Everywhere" to Photobucket and copied all the html to those in my template. So, now those won't disappear.
I began acting like I could handle this.
But, I am doubtful.
There's no way that in one month I can upload and replace 3,000 pictures! (though I stupidly tired a few today, which is why you who have "feeds" may have gotten post notices. Once again.. I'm sorry 'bout that.)
I am in a quandary as to what to do, or what I want to do, or what I will do.
I know.. this makes no sense to you. But it will in a moment. Actually, I didn't plan on talking about this just yet but the fact that as I did what I did in my blog today and suddenly realized people may be getting alerts that I am posting something new, when I am not... and so I need to discuss this.
I am about to have a blog anniversary.. this Sunday will be 3 years I have been doing a journal/blog. I am also coming up on my 1,000 post! And anyone who has read me for any length of time knows that I can't make a post without photo's.
What some may or may not know is that I began journaling on aol. When they put ads on my journal I migrated here to blogspot. Being older I sometimes don't learn new programs without a lot of help, and so when frustrated what I did was to make a "private" journal in aol... I would write my post there, upload all photo's to aol file manager/ aol pictures.. a total now of over 3,000 photo's since I began, and then simply copy and paste my post to blogspot (and to wordpress, which I couldn't master either!).
Are you following me so far?
1- 3 yrs journaling
2- nearly 1,000 posts
3- nearly 3,000 photo's used
4- all written on aol and pasted to blogspot
I received an email from aol the other day...
They are closing up their journals.
We were advised to back up our journals and to download all photo's from file manager and aol pictures because they too would be deleted.
Did I hear a groan?
Let me repeat, I've used 3,000 pictures in my blog, who's html address leads to aol, who will be deleting all files the end of October.
Did I hear a curse word or two?
So... there is good news and bad news.
Good news is, that I have my entire blog copied on Word and saved to cd, and I also have every photo I've ever used saved in folders and saved to cd. So, when they delete file manager and aol pictures I won't actually "loose" my pictures.
Bad news is: every photo on my blog will disappear. Three years worth of posts that need photo's to enjoy the post will simply disappear. And for those who don't already know this, you cannot copy and paste from Word into Blogspot. Well.. you can.. but you loose all your formatting. Re: all paragraphs run together and no photo's copy over.
Aol says they are trying to find a way to transfer an aol journal to blogspot. I wonder why since they will be void of the photo's people have used. Some of the bloggers on aol have been doing their blog for 5 years!
Yes the words may transfer but, let me repeat... if it is COPIED over to blogspot, all the html for pictures will still contain aol addresses and those will be deleted.
Still following me?
After I had my, ohhhhh third or fourth cry over this (I'm not stressed enough with my brother mind you), I started doing some small things.
1- I opened a photobucket account (free).
2- Uploaded all the photo's I used for Myrtle's blog (since there weren't all that many).
And replaced all the photo's in Myrtle's blog.
3- Then I uploaded all the pics in my sidebar to "Here There and Everywhere" to Photobucket and copied all the html to those in my template. So, now those won't disappear.
I began acting like I could handle this.
But, I am doubtful.
There's no way that in one month I can upload and replace 3,000 pictures! (though I stupidly tired a few today, which is why you who have "feeds" may have gotten post notices. Once again.. I'm sorry 'bout that.)
So... unless AOL comes up with a transfer that INCLUDES pictures, basically.. I am screwed. I do realize most people do not go into archives. But I do. And honestly, at this moment I don't know that I will continue to blog once the photo's disappear at the end of October.
For now I will try using photobucket. I've also found that if I upload from blogspot and pics can only be "small/ med/ large" that it quite often ruins (pixelates) the picture. So, we'll see. But ya'll know I'm not a patient person and WAITING is not something I do well ... and waiting to see if aol actually comes up with something is so doubtful to me, mainly because of the photo's to everyone's journals being on aol file manager and aol photo's.
posted by DesLily | 1:13 PM
14 Comments:
Oh man Deslily! I am so stressed just reading this! How frustrating! I do hope you continue to blog, it wouldn't be the same without you. I wish I could help but I'm no use when it comes to photobucket and blogger.
I am not sure I TRULY understand all this Pat..BUT....here is an idea.
Maybe some of your BlogPals can "copy" your pictures for you in sections...Like, in the Archives, each takes a month or two and copy's them and then sends them to you on a CD....!
They could copy them right off of your Blog....!
The other thing is....ALL of this should be saved in Blogspot, yes?
As I said, I may not be understanding this at all....!
I would be devistated if I thought I would lose 3000 pictures.
But you did say those pictures are saved elsewhere, right?
Sorry I sound so dense about this.
And I am sorry if this hasn't been any help, either.
Oh yes...You asked about my Camera. I have three of them...but the one I am using all the time right now is A Fuji FinePix...I believe it is the 8100...I will get back to you on that. I LOVE this camera!
I'm sorry to hear that everything is getting screwed up. Do you have any technical friends who could help you? Maybe try emailing blogger to see if they have any ideas? I have not used photobucket, so I can't give any feedback there, but I do like Picasa, which is where Blogger puts images you upload directly to their site.
Sucky! I really hope you figure out a solution.
Wow, how incredibly frustrating :/ When I first started blogging, I used imageshack to host my pictures, and then later I realized that they removed their pictures after a couple of months. So I had to go back, host every picture on Photobucket instead, and then replace the links. Of course, it was 3 months worth of posts, not 3 years. I really wish there could be a way to do this other than one by one. And maybe there is, but I have no idea what it is. I'm really sorry, this is horribly frustrating :(
natasha: oh i'm sure the blogs would get along with me lol.. but I'd lie if i said I can deal with loosing all i've done up until now.(thank you)
Kim: thanks..but my choices are few. Begin over or hope if aol can transfer that it includes the pictures.
Nymeth: that's what happened when I first moved to blogspot, I only had 6 months worth and copy and pasted one post at a time... the problem is the photo's are on aol. I PERSONALLY won't loose them I have them all in folders.. but i'm not about to redo 3,000 pictures to the blog one by one
Oh, that sounds like one rotten day. How incredibly frustrating! I hope you manage to find a way to sort it all out, sigh. Hang in there!
Oh my. It took me a while to understand this but when I finally got the gist I could easily see why you're so horrified and upset. You put a lot into your posts and to lose all of the wonderful corressponding photos would be very sad indeed. Not being a techy person I've no idea if there's any way round this. You're clearly not the only one with this problem so is there any chance that aol will try to solve the problem?
I'd certainly miss you, Pat! Yours is the first blog I go to every morning. I sincerely hope you don't give up blogging. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who loves your blog...
Pat -
That truly sucks! I wish I had a magic wand I could wave and take care of the mess. I can say that I have used photobucket and I think my photos have all been okay. And, you don't necessarily have to get it all done by the end of the month if you have the photos saved elsewhere. You could just do the most recent posts and then work on the archives a bit at a time.
I would truly hate for you to disappear!
cjh
naomi: I do have them saved in folders.. but once they disappear there's no way of telling what photos go where..not to mention replacing 3,000 would overtake my life!
thanks Darla.. my only real hope is that aol will find a way to transfer journals..but i still think they would be without pictures.
cath: you come here first?? you are a sick person! LOL LOL..must be why we get along hahahahaha
I will check at the site aol set up every day in hopes something happens. I do think they will find a way to transfer journals, it's been done by others like wordpress but the photo addy's would remain the same (as far as I can tell) and that would mean they would still disappear.
cj: photobucket does really well and it's simple. the only downside (and it's annoying as hell) is the ads all over the page. it seems you can't have anything anymore without ads on it.. and they have to be animated to make it all that much worse, so you can't ignore them.
Oh my! I hate AOL. They're not very nice. I sure do hope the Google server that holds my photos doesn't ever do this to me (especially since I delete them from my deskstop afterwards)! Maybe you can just make a new blog or open up a Wordpress and see if it will let you transfer that way? Or see if AOL or Blogger can find a way to help you?
I am so sorry to hear this. I certainly had similar not-sure-that-I-want-to-do-this-anymore feelings when I thought I had lost my blog entirely to hackers several months ago. It immediately takes all the wind out of your sails and makes you feel like what you did was pointless.
That being said, I would encourage you not to do so. This community has been an integral part of your life and you have been an integral part of the lives of several other bloggers. While it is important to have archives (and I too love going back into people's archives), what is more important is our connection. That should not be severed because of technical issues.
Normally I would encourage people to follow their hearts on this one and do what they think is in their best interests but at the risk of sounding like a pushy bastard I have to say that I don't think that would be the right thing to do. I believe, based solely on things you have been trusting enough to share with this community, that you need us. And again, we need you. This isn't just a simple matter of 'I'm moving on with my life because things have gotten too busy'. I truly believe this support is important to you and I believe..no, I know...that what you share with us is both good for you and good for us.
Since you've done the hardest part already, making sure you have copies of your posts and your image files, at least you know this problem is correctable, although a lot of work. I hope you can find someone local or nice online with some good knowledge and an ability to teach in layman's terms how to, first of all, continue blogging and uploading your photos from another site. Then you can, at your own pace, slowly reconstruct the rest of your blog if that is something you want to do.
Sorry if I am sounding bossy, please know that it is out of love for you that I'm being blunt. I don't want to denegrate your frustration, like I said I would be very, very upset if the same thing happened to me. Very!!!! And I have had those same feelings. But I know that I need you all and I think you need us as well.
Love you. And I'm sorry you are going through this.
Oh Pat...what a royal pain in the ass, huh? Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Anything aside from losing you! I couldn't deal with that! There have been times where I felt like dissing blogging too, but in the end I don't think I ever could. You all are too much of a support for me, especially you and I don't know what I'd do with you gone! Like Cath, when I finally(!) get online, yours is one of the first blogs I always come too. And I echo so much of what Carl said. Love ya Pat!
Geez, I can barely figure out how to make a comment. I hope you are able to keep your pictures. There are so many good ones.
I didn't read your other comments - but someone told me recently that you could get your blog (or journal) hard copy in book form. I forgot the name of the group that does it. sorry
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