Speechless~~

Just when you think everything's peachy with those nasty gremlins their big ugly uncle comes a'visitin'...

At this point I'm rather speechless with all the image issues we had and I'm sure all of you are even more frustrated and baffled. I do sincerely apologize. Even though these type of things are out of our control we can't help but feel a sense of responsibility for it all.

Today's issue was caused from a server outage with GoDaddy so none of our lovely PrL images were showing up, not even my website. ugh! Several headaches later, the issue has been resolved and all is as it should be. (you may need to refresh/delete your browser cookies to see them again)

Sometimes I think about getting out of  theme game, although there aren't alot of problems they sure do wreak havoc when there are... but then I remember how much I love making pretty things. So if the monsters are done now, the faeries and I can get back to work~~

A Few Bad Apples

It's crazy how much time I've had to spend on copyright issues lately. I find the whole thing entirely exhausting and nothing can sap my creative juices faster.  Sadly this seems to have become a regular part of my work these days. From customers using blog banners for other purposes, to bloggers removing my logo from blog images ~ these type of issues just seem to be popping up everywhere.

Of course I'd rather be creating new imagery than writing messages filled with legal jargon. Explaining the do's and don'ts about using someone else's work isn't my idea of a fun time, but it seems a portion of the general public has suddenly become clueless on what's ok to do with other people's creations (!?).

The other part that's frustrating is that I truly like and want to keep things "upbeat" and "positive", so writing about this is not among my top choices for blogging topics. Still it is an aspect of running a business, and sadly negativity is part of this world we share, both online and off, so I guess it's bound to seep in every now and then. And since this little blog of mine is about the business I might as well use it to share all of it ~ the good and the not so.

So there's my little rant ~ which really wasn't much of one, but at least I've gotten it off my chest. I think that's a better approach than having to go the route of a "Wall of Shame" or some other random  thought that pops into my head during weaker moments of frustration.

Best,

Followers & Comments ~ What's up with that??

In an earlier post one of my visitors asked about the issues she's been experiencing with disappearing Followers and the inability for visitors to leave comments. I think we've all noticed how glitchy Blogger has been lately with these two aspects and I'm sure we're equally hoping a fix is just around the next blogger corner.

While the Followers issue seems to be ongoing and affecting most, if not all of us, sadly I haven't found anything that directly affects or repairs this issue. On the other hand I have successfully assisted some of my customers in overcoming the Comments issue and so I'll share with you know how we accomplished that...

The first step is to delete your browser's cookies, this is helpful as it can affect functionality and clear up online glitches but I must warn you that it will also log you out of all the websites you're automatically logged into. What I use to remedy this situation is Xmarks ~ it's a great tool that helps remember all of my log-in information so I don't have to. I've found it to be a free and reliable service so feel free to use them.

Once again you'll need to determine what browser you're using to figure out how to delete your cookies. I've included links below for how to remove cookies from the most commonly used browsers...

❀Internet Explorer

❀Firefox

❀Chrome

❀Safari

Click on the above link to go to a page that discusses how to remove cookies for your specific browser. Or you can also use this page which lists more help for deleting cookies from specific browsers.

After you've finished removing the cookies, I also recommend restarting your computer. This helps to ensure that the next time you start your browser you're getting a fresh clean start.

Once you've done this, I suggest visiting the area of your blog that controls comments. To do this, log into your blog and navigate to the "Comments" area under the "Settings" tab, as in the example screen shot below from my own blog...
On this page is where you can set all of the specific attributes related to comments on your blog. Now this page can be individualized in many ways and much of it is up to personal tasted but I've included a screen shot from my own blog so you have a guideline on how you might want to have your options set....

remember ~ to view a larger version just click on the image above

The most important areas to pay attention to are the "Who Can Comment?" area and the "Comments Default for Post". You'll want both of these to be set up so you don't have to worry about postings on a case by case basis. To do this, I recommend setting the "Who Can Comment" to "Registered Users", this helps lesson the amount of spam comments and the "Comments Default for Post" to "New Posts Have Comments" so that visitors can automatically comment.

When you're finished making any adjustments, be sure to click the "Save" button at the bottom.

While I don't profess to be a guru of any means, and I certainly can't make any guarantees, I do hope these topics have been helpful and maybe even relieved some of the issues you've been experiencing.

"Followers" ~ Where'd They Go?

I'm just popping in on this holiday weekend to give a little heads up on the "Followers" issue. Some (or all) of you may have noticed the lack of that Followers gadget on your sidebar. Seems Blogger is undergoing a little glitch in this area. I've checked into it and they are aware of the situation so hopefully it will be a fixed shortly.

I try to remember during times like these that Blogger does offer our blogs for free ~ it's a big help when things start glitching our here in blogland.

Can you imagine what life would be like without blogs and blogland? All those creative souls we've touched and friendships we've made would never have been. Not mention, I'd be out of a job, hah! So here's a big ThAnKs to Blogger for giving us a voice to touch the world, one creative soul at a time ~ now just fix our "Followers"... please. ;D

Enjoy~

Gulp ~ Where are my images??

Ok... this isn't pretty, is it?!? It appears my tride and true image storage company has decided to glitch out and call it "maintenance". So, I'm sending out a VERY sincere apology to all of my customers.
They claim this "maintenance" will be taken care of by this morning but in the meantime I'm scrambling to find a new ~ more reliable ~ image hosting company.

Thank you for your patience~

Update: Photobucket has posted that they now intend on having the issue resolved by 11pm tonight. Here is a link to their Twitter which they are utilizing for updates: http://twitter.com/photobucket

4/13 Update: Photobucket still ensures all images are safe and they are working hard to restore all image links. Updates are being posted at:

http://s806.photobucket.com
http://www.facebook.com/photobucket/posts/10150544331825632
http://twitter.com/#!/photobucket

Thank you again to all of my customers for your continued patience. I pay each month for a business account with Photobucket so that we can all enjoy uninterrupted images, so this is a huge shock for all of us.

Again, if you need your images I can post them on a temporary site ~ just send me the info related to your blog (link and theme title) to my email address: plumroselane at gmail dot com and I'll email you the temporary code with a followup once the situation is fixed.

Thanks so much for your patience♥