How to Unfollow a Blog

Unfollow? That sounds so cruel! Why would you want to unfollow another blogger? There are many reasons:

• The blogger unfollowed you. Maybe they lost interest or they were just phishing for followers.
• The blogger never returned your follow or comments on his or her blog.
• Blog posts become offensive. Or the blog changes topics. Or you discover you’re just not following a nice person. (The green trolls are out there…)
• The blog shuts down or goes inactive for a very long time.
• An abandoned blog is taken over by someone else. (Always by a company that blasts out advertising posts - so annoying!)

How do you escape? If the blog in question is on a platform other than Google’s Blogger, or it was followed via RSS, it’s only a matter of unsubscribing. In Google Reader, just click on the little arrow by the name and unsubscribe:

However, if you originally followed through Google Friends Connect, unsubscribing in Google Reader won’t hack it. Like a stray cat, the blog’s feed just keeps coming back. And you are still listed as one of that blog’s followers. There are two options here.

On the main dashboard of your blog, look to the far right and you will see this:

Click on the little symbol, and it will bring up a list of the blogs you follow. You can unfollow them from here. If the blogger has removed the Google Friends Connect widget (which is what some do when they take over an abandoned blog - evil!) unsubscribing here is your only option. After that, you can unsubscribe in your Google Reader and the blog will forever vanish.

The other option is to unfollow at the source. Go to that blog and find the Google Friends Connect widget. Often it will look like this:

If you know you’re already following, hit the button to join - you will be prompted to sign in:

(And if you asks you if you want to Join this site, run away - you're really not following that blog through GFC!)

After that, the GFC widget looks like this:

Click on Options and then Site settings:

Another box will pop up - click on Stop following this site on the far right:

Now you have officially unfollowed and only have to remove them from your Google Reader if you use that feature. You are free at last from this blog. And in the case of annoying ads or negative green trolls, you are happy to be free!