HTTPS Redirect in Blogger

Update July 8, shown at bottom: 
(original post was May 8, 2016)

Hi, Crafting Friends! 

A little BLOGGER help for you:

I have tried to use "lay man" words below to help you make a decision regarding Blogger's SSL Option.

Hope it helps, and I hope I'm accurate enough.

First, if you want to see the changed dashboard options please visit Chuck's blog here.

Second, To see Blogger's Official view of the new option, please visit Blogger's blog here.

Now - the (hopefully) easy explanation:

What is a Proxy Server?  Most of us do not use proxies from our homes.

It appears the primary change MAY affect our followers who access our blogs strictly through a proxy server.

That means their device accesses the internet through another service, (rather than the way our homes offer internet service to us privately).  Those users possibly use a "work around" to access the internet outside their employer's knowledge, or perhaps use a "free" service at a public location.

For those of us with direct connections from our homes to the internet, nothing should change.

But if someone does all their accessing from a location that has limitations on what they (the user) can view, then THEY possibly may no longer be able to visit our blogs because of the new SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) address and encrypted protocol (system or set of rules).

My understanding is that for a proxy server to access a SSL location (aka a HTTPS location), the owner (of the server) pays a higher premium that would allow all their users to use SSL. They may or may not wish to pay for it, thus limiting access to secure websites.

According to Chuck Croll of The Real Blogger Status, forcing SSL on our blogs will not make our blog readers more secure. But it may cause some other problems for our followers, and possibly for those who have their own servers.

Hackers? Worms?

According to Exware Support Site, most of us are not endangered by NON SSL sites. They say:

Most attacks on websites are actually done in one of the following ways:

1. The server is attacked directly.  SSL does not protect you from this.  Rather, you need to have a good IT security policy to protect your server.
2. The user is attacked directly, either by infecting their PC with malware, or by using "phishing" to steal their passwords.  SSL does not protect you from this, either.  To protect your own PC from this, you need to use a good anti-virus program, and use lots of common sense and a small amount of paranoia when on the Internet.  However, it is unrealistic to expect that all the PCs of all of your website visitors will be adequately protected.

In other words, SSL does very little to prevent the website from being hacked.  It only prevents 3rd parties from listening to communications between the user and the website.

ERROR MESSAGE?

One error followers and readers might receive is found here.

If you have a domain name - more info here.

If I have used any words or phrases incorrectly, please let me know - I am mostly trying to convey to my non-techie blogging buddies what this might mean to us.

I do not plan on implementing the new SSL option, mostly because I know there are followers using proxy servers.

UPDATE July 8, 2016: 

It appears more and more problems are arising from implementing the SSL option - unforeseen consequences for crafters such as ourselves. Among them are a loss of past URL links, a loss of some features, inability to use custom domain, error messages when people try to access our profiles when trying to return-leave a comment.

Computer Hugs,