Feed Me!


I never claimed to have mad computer skillz, y'all. All those seem to have gone to my geeky older brother who's an I.T. guy (and who, speaking of geeky, just requested from the barber that his hair be cut into a mullet. On purpose). So all this blog stuff has been trial-and-error for me, right from the start. Usually, though, even when something is difficult I can muddle through it and figure it out eventually.

But one of the biggest issues I've grappled with has been my blog feed. Now, before blogging, I thought "a feed" was when I attacked an all-you-can-eat buffet with my game face on. Apparently, though, a blog feed is necessary if you want people to be able to subscribe. So like a good little blogger, I went to Feedburner and made myself one.

Except ... I had zero subscribers. ZEE. RO. Even when I was getting new followers, my feed subscriptions stayed at a big fat nothing. So I concluded that there must be something wrong with it. And I changed it. And I changed it again.

Finally, after the latest tweak, I had the brilliant idea of subscribing to it myself. That way, if it came to my inbox, I'd know that the feed was working. And lo and behold - I started getting The Frump, right in my email! And then, what do you know: I suddenly had five whole subscribers. My Feedburner feed was working! Yay! *jazz hands*

But here's where the situation gets sticky. Apparently, I can't leave well enough alone, and I still thought that maybe something wasn't kosher with my feed. I mean, five subscribers? Really? So the other day, when I read a post over at Our Mommyhood about setting up Feedburner, I got all excited about the advice. "This must be the problem!" I thought, as I eagerly inserted my Feedburner address into the "Post Feed Redirect URL" box in my Blogger settings (while completely ignoring - and then stupidly erasing - whatever address was already there. D'oh!).

I know. This is boring stuff, right? You guys are probably dropping like flies out there. But bear with me.

After that, I wrote a post. And got, like, one or two comments. And then the next day I wrote another post. And got, like, one or two comments. And so on. I started to feel like I must be really lame, and it caused me to eat a dangerous amount of pie. From, you know, anxiety. Like why-does-no-one-like-me-all-of-a-sudden-and-is-my-stuff-really-that-lame anxiety.

Then last night, on my Facebook page, the incredibly awesome Johi mentioned that my blog updates weren't showing up in her blogroll. That's when I put two and two together, and figured out it must have something to do with my "feed tweaking." And I was all, "OMG! This means I'm not lame after all! Lalalalalaaaaa!!"

But then I was all, "Damn. This sucks." Because ... I don't know how to fix it. So there are possibly legions of people out there who have no idea I'm blogging, and they're wondering why the silence. They probably think I'm just busy being awesome, but really, nothing could be further from the truth.

So anyway. Does anyone have any ideas for me? I need some technical help. And possibly some psychological help, but that can come later.

... If anyone sees this post, that is. *sniff, sniff*


Comments

  1. I don't know about half (or more) of what you're talking about here. However, I wanted to add that I get your tweets on my cell, so whenever you update and then tweet it, I know and if I'm at work, I'm usually right over to read away. Also, I wanted to tell you when I used to write in "Fighting Frumpy" on Google, once it got to "Fighting Fru" your site was a search option. Today and yesterday all I had to put was "Fighti" and the site was an option! Ya movin' on up, mama! Cheers!

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  2. I see the post, darlin. But I can't help. I just recently did a mad overhaul on my blog and if it wasn't for the likes of the tech savvy, I would be in the same shape you are. Maybe change that feedburner addy back to the original??

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  3. I don't know what any of that means. I don't get notifications on the blogs I read. I'm old school and save them to my favorites and periodically check on them.

    Good luck!!

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  4. I am going to tell you something that you don't want to hear but once you do what you did, its done. Sorry. At least I think its done but really what do I know.

    But this at least explains why your posts weren't showing up in my reader. I saw this one on FB. So now I know and will re-subscribe.

    My advice would be to just stop fiddling and wait it out. It might fix itself, Feedburner has been known to do this, and get the word out that things are effed but and your tried and true readers will come back.

    Promise.

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  5. I just tried to add you to my reader and I got this message:

    Feed Address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/fightingfrumpy/HIUQ

    HTTP Error (Code) and Message: (404) Feed not found error: FeedBurner cannot locate this feed URI.
    What can I do about this?

    1. If you are a potential or current subscriber, contact the publisher to notify them that their feed content is not available. This may be temporary problem that requires their intervention to resolve, or the publisher may have permanently removed the feed from FeedBurner.
    2. If you are the publisher of this feed, sign into FeedBurner and visit your feed's “Troubleshootize” tab to view FeedMedic, our automated diagnostic report for your feed. A cause for the problem, and tips for troubleshooting it, may be found there.

    Maybe that will help clear things up.

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  6. I don't know what you did but I wanted to let you know that your feed works now. It popped up in my reader, all the posts that I had missed. :)

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  7. Back! It's working! You turned up on my blogger feed today for the first time in oodles and oodles. I'd been missing you.

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  8. I was just thinking about you and what the heck you are up to! Got you in my dashboard now, along with all those other missed posts.

    I think you're cool?!

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  9. I had to resync my feed a couple of times. That fixed things. Also, Feedburner takes some time to adjust feed numbers. Get to Feedmedic. I found that to be quite helpful

    This comment is from Mrs Catch who's blown up just about every part of her blog at one time or another. Heck of a way to learn! Good Luck.

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  10. You showed up on my blogroll today, so whatever you did worked!
    Thanks for the "awesome" comment, I've been feeling closer to mediocre lately, if not utterly lame, but it is winter so that is normal. :)

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  11. I was wondering where you were hiding! Thought you were busy with life thang. Then bam there ya are! Yaysies

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  12. I seriously thought you just got to busy to post any blogs. Then I thought something must be up since we had gone several days without any, and then BOOM all of them are there, so glad your back in my life :) hoping that you figure out your feed burner address.

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  13. I do good just posting, I can't even begin to start figuring out the whole feed thing!

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  14. Yay! So glad you're popping up again! Now I can catch up on the Frump!

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  15. You just popped up on my blogrolll!! Hooray, I need laughter in my life with 3 little boys (4, 3,3). You make my daily life seemed normal, and I think you are a crack-up!

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  16. You are so freakin funny! I love it. And I'm lamer than you because I didn't even know what a feed or blogroll was until today. So, thanks. Your supposed lameness made you write this post which informed this confirmed lamo!

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  17. I'm so glad you figured this out, 'cause I was seriously confused as to where you went. Then one night I happened to look at my list of people I "follow" and there were like 100 posts from you all at once. It was wierd. Anywhozle...yay, now it's all figured out. I gots to have me some Rita.

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