Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Switched to New Blogger

I finally made the switch to the new blogger after being prompted for weeks (maybe months) about switching.

I didn't need to have a gmail account which is great because I already have enough email accounts and passwords to keep track of. Now that I think of it, I have three different academic accounts collected from the various teaching positions I've held. One of those is probably totally defunct but I wouldn't know because I haven't logged in a long, long time. My password still works for the purpose of online journal access which is FANTASTIC because sometimes when I can't access a journal at one of the other two, I can at that one. Yeah! Another account is a shared home account and I have yet another that I communicate with friends through. I think that makes at least five different places I can be emailed.

The big switch was hardly noticeable at all. It took a few minutes and voila! Everything still looks the same. Plus, on the start-up page I found an old blog I started back in Sept to be more anonymous if I want to be... I don't have a problem with people knowing who I am but I do feel consigned to write mostly academic posts. I would blog a mean streak if I could be assured that I was totally anonymous, but I don't think that can ever truly be achieved. So, I carry on as if I am identifiable. I think it makes life easier. I never have to worry about whether someone from my department, a job prospect, a student, etc finds me out. I am thinking about deleting the other one.

7 comments:

ScienceWoman said...

Congrats on making the switch with minimal hassle. I guess that's one big advantage of using a default template. As for the anonymity thing, it's definitely something we all struggle with. I applaud you for being willing to associate your blogging with your real name. You may feel restricted to writing about academic things, but I, conversely, feel limited to not talking about my research, etc. because it would compromise my pseudonymity.

StyleyGeek said...

You say you didn't need to have a gmail account? How did that work? I would LOVE to unsmoosh my blog and my gmail account so that I could stop accidentally logging in with the wrong username.

Field Notes said...

It asked me to log in with an email account - I chose my home account because I use most often and is a good default that I won't forget. It's not a gmail account - just local cable service. I had to pick a password but I just used the same one I use when I logged on to blogger before. Same blog - same old password. The only difference is that now my user name is my email address instead of the user name I had made up for the old blog.

StyleyGeek said...

Thanks for the clarification.

That must be new. I'm sure when I signed up it had to be a gmail account. If it eventually lets us change logins, I might try using a non-gmail one so that I don't have to keep logging back and forth from my blog gmail to my real one all the time...

Anonymous said...

how did you switch? i'm having a hard time. i have a gmail account. i tried to log-in using it but it seems that i have to create a new blog. i want to keep my old blog. how's that?

Field Notes said...

i just clicked on the "switch now" button and followed the directions. There wasn't anything tricky involved!

Anonymous said...

You don't have to have a gmail account, but do have to have a google account. Those are two separate things. Google accounts can be set up using whatever e-mail address you want. Gmail is optional, however, once you sign up for gmail, you can no longer use any other e-mail address on your Google account, it has to be gmail address someone@gmail.com. For instance, my brother has a Google account with his yahoo e-mail. My Google account is associated with a gmail account (which I sorely regret and can't get rid of). Hope that helps.