But it may be a hollow victory!

For those who have been suffering patiently along this horrific Picks soiree, I must offer my deepest regrets and apologies. I had foreseen some of the problems that happened I just didn't expect that they would all happen at once.

The story began nearly two-weeks ago when the Current List went into an eternal loop producing no posts to read, let alone Pick. As I tried to hold it together it seemed that errors were happening on a number of fronts and in the end I decided that it was time to update some of the code that runs this application.

Where is the Current List?

Alas, this had its own teething problems and has failed to deliver as expected in some areas but better than anticipated in others. Needless to say the Current List is now a casualty of these changes and will no longer show as part of Picks. The reason for this is that it was just getting too big and cumbersome to handle efficiently and with each new blog addition to Blotanical it was getting harder and harder to deal with.

What about Blogger Feeds?

Blogger.com feeds are also another casualty of the updated feed application. I'm not sure exactly why this is and I could hypothesize that maybe Google is no longer spending time in this area now that they own Feedburner - but I won't! Perhaps there are other reasons that are unclear to me right now but I won't be able to guarantee any Blogger feeds showing in the Picks area.

They may still show in other parts of Blotanical as Picks has its own software to handle these operations. My suggestion would be to go and burn a Feedburner feed and then update your settings in Blotanical to reflect the new RSS Feed Address.

Other Updates

I noticed that a few people were getting a little hot under the collar regarding the changed formatting and my apologies for this. Unfortunately my attentions were detoured from completing the changes in time and so this has been a little more protracted than originally hoped for.

For those who like to skim read all 200 posts in each section you will still have this ability. I have updated your preferences under the About Me tab in your Plot. You will now find a section titled Picks Settings which gives you three options; (1) the colour of the page background, (2) whether you want to have post summaries showing and (3) the number of Picks you would like to see on each page. Change the settings and then enjoy Picks the way you want to.

My Posts

You will notice a new page within Picks titled My Posts. This page gives you a descending ordered list of all your posts that have been picked. It was a request by one of our members who thought it might be helpful in understanding why some posts become more favoured than others.

What's to Come?

Well...now that the crisis is over I can back to getting the Forums up and running. Plus, I will have a new page out in the near future within Picks that will help you search for posts that you've picked. The facility should be very helpful in helping you trace down those wonderful posts that you thought were so good when they first came out. It will be very similar to having your own Bookmark feature. Stay tuned.

If you're still having problems with your feed not showing?

I can't guarantee that all the problems have been ironed out, but the major ones are now done and dusted. However, if your feed isn't showing still please leave a message at the Help Desk. NB. Don't leave them here as I don't always look back at these ones.