Channels and permissions

Channels, not groups

Bloggram only works with Telegram channels. If you add the bot to a group or a chat, Bloggram ignores it and no blog is created.

In a channel, only administrators post and everyone else joins as a subscriber. In a group, members write to each other. If your chat shows a list of members who all post, it's a group. Create a channel for your blog, or use one you already have.

Public and private channels

Public channel (has an @username)

Bloggram reads the channel's public web preview at t.me/s/username and imports your history. The preview must be switched on for the channel. Later, Bloggram checks those same public pages to see whether old posts still exist, so deleted posts leave the blog without any extra permission.

Private channel (invite link only)

There is no public history, so the blog starts with the first post you publish after connecting the bot. To notice deleted posts, Bloggram needs the Edit messages of others permission.

Permissions the bot asks for

Post messages

The connect link and the dashboard ask for it as part of the standard setup. Bloggram doesn't post anything in your channel.

Edit messages of others

Used for the deleted-post check in private channels. Bloggram asks Telegram to re-apply a post's own buttons, which changes nothing, and reads Telegram's answer to learn whether the post still exists. Bloggram never edits or deletes your posts.

If the bot doesn't have the edit permission in a private channel, the dashboard shows a note about it, and deleted posts stay online until you grant it. Public channels don't need it for this.

Reconnecting

You need to reconnect when you deleted the blog in the dashboard, or when you took the bot out of the channel and want the blog to follow the channel again. Deleting a blog makes the bot leave the channel by itself, so it is usually no longer listed.

1. Open your channel, then Manage channel, then Administrators.
2. If @bloggygram_bot is still listed, remove it as an administrator.
3. Add @bloggygram_bot as an administrator again, with the same permissions.

Adding the bot while it is still an administrator changes nothing, because Bloggram already knows the channel. After a real reconnect, a deleted blog is created again from scratch and a public channel's history is imported again. If you only removed the bot and never deleted the blog, the blog stayed online and picks up where it left off. For a public channel, the Import the history again button in the dashboard fetches posts you published in the meantime.

A blog created again counts toward the daily cap on new blogs, and toward your limit of 3 blogs.

Taking the bot out

If you remove the bot from the channel, the blog stays online with the posts it already has. It just stops picking up new posts, edits and deletions. To take the blog down, delete it in the dashboard. See The dashboard.