I got about 50 e-mails this morning about the problems people are having getting their free subscription feed delivered daily.

Several of the messages were like this one:

What have you done Jon? Your messing with the program yesterday because some people complained has blown us off the receiving end of things. I have received your blog by email for many, many years and I’ve read many of your books.  Is our “relationship” to end like this?  Please get things back to normal where I receive several blogs you have written the previous day in one email every morning. Yesterday the blog came as normal by email.  I saw that you wrote about trying to “fix” it.  Later in the day you sent a list of topics in an email and, if I bothered to click on any, I could see that post. I do not want lists of topics. I want the several blogs in one email every day. I hope you can get the situation back to NORMAL quickly. If you do not send it that way, I can’t read it so it will be a parting between you and me, aka adios from you to me.  I am not creating the breakup but you are. A long, long time reader.”

We live in a time of frustration and disconnection. We believe no one on the other end cares or is listening, and we learn to be angry and demanding so that we can be  heard. I’ve done this myself, and am now on the other end of it, which seems just.

First off, I do not set up and operate the feeds, that is being done by my Web design and Maintenance company, Mannix Marketing in Glens Falls, and they are very good and I trust them totally to sort this out.  I am not singling people out, it’s not personal.

The tech people are working very hard on it. I’m not sending anything, it isn’t personal, I rely on technical people and software to do that. And Mannix has built this blog with me, I trust them completely to figure it out.

That isn’t flip or callous, it’s what I believe. They are on it.

People stopped getting the original  feed from Feedburner early last week – this has been happening more frequently – and we decided to switch to a different feed company, a complex and expensive process that takes days and has lots of bumps and glitches. We fantasize that technology is simple and efficient, it is not always true.

This mail service has nothing to do with paid subscriptions or blog support, anyone with an e-mail address can subscribe to my blog, just go to the bottom of the Farm Journal page.

Some people are getting the new feed (and some people don’t like it, and some people do) and yesterday something happened as we sought to “migrate” the subscriptions over to the new feeder, SpecificFeeds.com. This morning, I woke up to about 60 e-mails, many of the frustrated and angry because they either didn’t get the feed, didn’t like the feed, or get it some days and not others.

So I’m getting lots of messages, and I appreciate hearing what is happening, although I’ll be happy when it is resolved.

So this is case where  technology has not instantly solved the problem, rather it seems to have made it worse. That seems familiar to me.  I do not know or quite grasp what it happening, but the people who do understand and grasp it are working on it, very hard and intensely.

Some people are getting the new feed, some aren’t yet. I have no way of knowing how many are having problems, from my e-mail I’d say it’s quite a few.

I am switching from a free feed service to one I have to pay for – I am happy to do it if the blog gets mailed out faithfully. I can’t guarantee that everyone will like the new feed, but we will do the best we can as quickly as I can. I appreciate that people care so much about my blog, this is humbling and affirming.

I will continue to put out the very best blog in the very best way I can, and if this new feed doesn’t work, we’ll switch it and keep going until we find one that does.

If people find this outrageous or offensive, I understand their frustration, but this is the world we all live in. If threats and anger worked, we wouldn’t have any technical problems. Technology can drive people mad, I know that first hand.

I love my blog and don’t need any prodding to do right by it. And I love the people who support it, and will do the best I can for them as well, and without being told.

Hang on, things should be happening soon. In the meantime, people can access the blog manually and for free. www.bedlamfarm.com.