Blogging timeout

[Roadcat]

This morning I decided to write a blog. It started off as a small post about a trip I'm planning to Namibia but became a full-blown novella, taking about an hour-and-a-half, maybe two hours to write. After I had finished typing I hit the Save Post button planning on proof-reading and a few additions later this afternoon only to be redirected to the "Please sign in" page!

I suspect that the login (apache timeout?) had timed-out during my epic typing marathon and when I tried to save it my session was no longer valid. As you can imagine I'm a bit dispirited by it, but if I had just spent a week negotiating mud-tracks in the Congo and then paid the equivalent of a days fuel budget at an internet cafe only to have my blog post crash when I saved it I would be livid! Especially seeing as the site appears NOT to have saved the post after all.

[Redmurty]

I always type in shorter sessions on the grounds of I'd rather loose a little than a lot, I assume it's server time and space. Plus this gig is free and I'm glad I have access. cheers Spud

[Roadcat]

Yup, definitely a learning curve thing, but the blogs should act to attract visitors to the site, so having good, interesting blog posts is beneficial.

There's lots of free blogging platforms available, the advantage of using ABR is that it caters to people who are specifically interested in adventure bike travel, but the time-out makes it less likely that people will invest the time to write quality posts.

[qcnr]

Type up what you are going to say in Word or similar program, do your editing, proof reading,
then copy/ paste. You'll end up with a back up copy of all text as a bonus.

[midlife]

Blimey!! What were you looking for to find this thread that is nearly 5 years old!!

[steve172]

Maybe he typed his response all the way back then but his log in timedout :laugh:

I also sometimes copy the text before clicking submit button if I suspect my log in could have timed out by then.

[Simon_100]

I find blogging really difficult, whereas the 'instant' feedback you get from writing ride reports on a forum like this one is a great motivator - it also helps you keep it short and simple!

Although the 'correct' answer is to to write your copy off line and just paste it in I find I never achieve this - there's something about the spontanaity of writing on-line - spelling and grammar mistakes included :whistle: - while in Word or whatever I revert to my default setting and end up with a 10,000 word f***ing essay that no-one wants to read!

More practical tip, try Wordpress.com. It's packed with features, masses of space in the cloud (3 GB) - handy for putting images on this forum via URL, very very good at SEO - and unless you chose the premium versions, it's free! (thumbs)



The important thing is to get the stuff out there (thumbs)

Regs

Simon

[misterlaffer]

I use Google Blogger for mine. https://www.blogger.com I find it rarely times out because it frequently auto-saves content on a session save basis. You can go back in, and your stuff is there to continue on (thumbs)

I post longer bike trips abroad, events or long day rides. I like the way it integrates well with Google Photos, Picassa, Youtube so I can upload my GoPro footage later too. It has a set of web editing tools, templates and a really good free iOS app so I can publish pictures from my IPhone, IPad, IPod etc via WiFi hotspots. The app allows you to edit the blog off-line, save and then publish when you are ready - even in stages so you can edit the same post later and add more content if your blogs are based on a per-day basis e.g. like a diary entry. You can just keep adding to it off-line. I like the way it allows me to collect multiple blogs together and represent them on one single rolling blog e.g. for a particular trip away on the bike I create a new blog, then reference it in a tab at the top from my main rolling blog.

I believe it has a decent Android app too - but never tried it.