Tragi-comedy at rediffblogs
#Almost a fortnight since we reluctantly embraced this 'upgraded' site and much to my anguish I remain 'Aria c'. Fine that rediff iland is rechristened rediff blogs but why was I bestowed a new 'surname' to commemorate this occasion? My everyday ritual is- I click users, click edit profile, change my name which is stored as 'Aria c' to 'Aria' (I wonder who did that ' coz it wasn't me!) and click 'save' I get the message 'user updated' but hey.. everything gets reverted! I remain 'Aria c' and it goes on .. I even tried changing 'c' into something better sounding but that too in vain.
I persisted that the problem shall get sorted on its own but after exhausting my precious patience a few days later, I decided to send a mail to the admin ' to his credit I got an instant response "Dear Aria, I don't understand your problem, can you please write in detail" so I elaborated the painful procedure in delightful detail and sent again. This time I got the reply "Dear Aria, we will get back to you shortly" and since then I wonder when this 'shortly' period shall end coz I haven't got any reply and I know that the method of changing 'user information' is something that God her/himself can not divine.
#The default 'appearance' was shoddy with the categories lined up at the top and content following after. I must say I hadn't seen such an "unique template" before so rediff certainly deserves accolades for this invention but then the old fashioned me preferred categories neatly lined up in the sidebar along with the 'post titles' 'archives' et al. In short I wanted a fresh appearance but when I threw a glance at the available templates I discerned that most of them are faulty. Half of them do not have guest books/friends tab and even if they do ..it's merely a showpiece coz clicking at them shows blank pages. Perhaps the 'vital info' is shielded from mortal eyes and is treasured in a secret chest. Whatever- I wished for a 'normal all revealing template' so I hunted carefully for one and activated it. It was OK.
#A day or two later I got restless so I clicked 'widgets'. I reasoned 'one at a time' so I selected 'calendar' and clicked add. It should be mentioned here that rediffblogs suffers from dyslexia. If you add/erase something it doesn't get the command instantly. It takes its own sweet time. So if you wish to make any change you got to select the option and go for a walk and then return to detect any progress. I didn't know it then so I waited painfully staring the screen and clicking here or there. After a while the calendar did appear.. but beside the guest-book! I concluded that perhaps this widget is for the rear side but a few minutes later it appeared in the front too. I had asked for one and got two ' not bad. I had two calendars ' one at the back and other in front. But guess what? The front calendar had consumed all other widgets - recent posts, categories, archives and everything else which existed in the sidebar. I now had a huge calendar and my posts, thats all.
Needless to say I was panicking. I deleted calendar and again waited patiently(I wasn't aware of the dyslexia, as yet) the calendar refused to go. In my eagerness I activated another 'appearance' which later seemed better than the previous one ' so all this exercise at least led to something. I dare not add any widget again.
#A few days later I wanted to post a blog. I always post with pictures and so I clicked the 'insert image' icon on the post blog window and selected a picture from my hard drive and clicked upload. The image icon which appeared on the window was blank. I tried many times. Eight out of ten times the images don't show up and when they do they appear in thumbnails. Then I detected that they ask for vital statistics like ' height, width and positions like ' top, bottom bah blah. I was never good in mathematics in school and as an adult my biology sucks likewise .. however I fiddled with the numbers and clicked something I know not what ..and then something huge and hazy appeared. When I strained my myopic eyes ' I had an eureka moment! it seemed like the picture I had chosen from my hard drive.. sadly it was repulsive enough for me to abandon the mission impossible. If any of you spammers(only spammers read what I write, i.e. if they read what we write) know the trick of posting images ' kindly enlighten me, I shall be forever grateful and shall visit your spam site in return.
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To be continued.
