I see that the previous version of the blog module can still be downloaded from Sourceforge. Those for whom it is a prioirty to have unique title tags on all blog entries may want to investigate using this previous version of the blog module, pending a new version that reinstates the unique title tag feature.

In this case you lose some bug fixes and nice design, but you only gain functionality and usefullness by downgrading.

Add to the SEO issues already mentioned, the ability to allow users with module edit rights to create their own blogs along with the ability to create, edit and delete their own posts with related image and file attachments without requiring Administrator access to use the file manager and without all users having to use the same folder to store their images.

The new blog module has castrated the module of its ability to effectively and safely manage multiple authors and their respective content. It's a portal administrator's nightmare.

Anyone who had the module implemented with many authors now faces a problem of how to deal with all the numbered files and folders that the old module used for managing content. Authors can't access their existing files and images through the module interface as they previously could and there is no upgrade path for any of this. New authors are presented with a one-way publishing system that places all files and images in the same place, risking use and/or overwriting by other users, and removes the ability to delete any of the files... let alone the task of even associating possibly thousands of files with their original posts.. what a nightmare!

There is also another issue that I've noticed in the change log. The blog normally changes the container title to match the name of the blog that is being displayed. Again this is something that enhanced a multi-author system. It meant one could use a full container for the module and the title would change to match the blog. I haven't confirmed this, but it appears from the change log that this has also been eliminated in the new release.

These were all things that the original module author had added over time to improve the module. They were also often confusing features for people who only ever used the module in a single-author environment and were not aware of what they were for.

I warned about this in Gemini prior to release and new tickets are in regarding some of the issues. The module should simply not have been released when these things were brought up during dogfooding. Instead, it was pushed to the public almost immediately.

None of this is intended to reflect on abilities and intent of the team involved.. everyone has the best of intentions and skills galore, but this is a real showstopper overall for this module.

Please excuse the parts here that sound ranty, but someone has to be noisy about this and so I'll do it and am prepared to take any resulting flak. It's a biggie because if the same ideas are applied to other core modules then much is at risk. I'm just sorry I didn't check the change log earlier and bring it up.

Rob

Eoghano - thank you for this post.  I was wondering what had happened  to my site.  My site usually had posts at or near the top of Google search results, and now it's nowhere to be found, not even in the top 10 pages of results.  And when you DO find a blog entry returned in the search results, it has the uninformative title "Articles".

I didn't realize that the blog entry title had been removed.  This is a HUGE problem.  How can we get it addressed quickly!?!  I really don't want to downgrade if I can avoid it since I fear unintended consequences.