Have you visited our store? Click here.I can’t tell you how nice it is to be writing again. I’ve missed it so much. My last post was published on 3/2, which was 25 days ago. I haven’t been this inactive since 2012, which to date was my least productive writing year. So here’s why I’ve been MIA for most of March:
In February, I created a Calendar page here on the blog and populated it with nearly 300 hobby event flyers. In doing so, I used some software that I didn’t love but it was the best I could find at the time. After I got back from skating on the evening of Saturday, 3/4, I decided to continue my research and try out several other pieces of calendar software.
This is where things went south.
After trying out 9 different pieces of software, my site broke in half, which left me scrambling with my host to try and identify what the heck happened and how to fix it. I was on with support until like 2am. It was a total nightmare. This was the beginning of a very long month.
After lots of software scrubbing and some code pulls, we were able to recover the site. Thing is, in the wake of all this mess, my site was left with two really pesky backend bugs. Essentially I couldn’t leave comments or delete media files. These are very important processes that absolutely must work for my site to function properly.
Because I wasn’t sure if I’d have to restore a backup from back in July (which I later learned wasn’t possible because I didn’t have the right set of files), I was committed to fixing these issues before publishing again because it would just mean doubling my work later.
To tackle this thing, I drew up a series of troubleshooting plans with details, which included a list of every piece of software I tried leading up to the issues, and a list of ideas I had to find solutions. In total, there were 12 ideas and I just worked through them one at a time over the course of the next three+ weeks. As I took breaks, I’d think of something else to try but nothing seemed to work.
For a while there, I felt like I’d just gone through a really bad breakup. I’d get sad when I’d check to see if an attempt worked only to find out time and time again it didn’t.
On the evening of 3/26, I thought of something I hadn’t yet tried, which included a site restore from a couple days before 3/4. This restored folder was created during troubleshooting back on the evening all this started and coincidentally it was the first thing I tried. At the time, I thought the restore was live, which left me frustrated when it didn’t work. After a few weeks of troubleshooting, I realized this restored folder was never actually activated. On 3/27, I activated this restored folder and it corrected the issues. Essentially, my site was restored to before these issues started so it’s as if they never actually happened. Problems solved!
So technically, this didn’t actually fix the problems; it just backdated the site to before the issues were created. But alas, the result is the same: no more issues. In any case, I’m so happy to have the site back to its normal self again. It’s like being reacquainted with a lifelong friend I hadn’t seen in a while.
In other news, the Calendar page has been replaced by a Calendar subsite, which features promotions for card shows and hobby events happening all over the country. It’s organized by location to make it easy to find stuff happening in or near your area.
At the time of this writing, the link to the Calendar subsite is located in the footer but if it’s not there, just look around; you’ll find it.
Since my time away, I’ve kept a log of tasks that need to be completed to update the site, which will be done this week.
Welcome Back
Thanks, John. It’s great to be back.