I Made a Rookie Mistake
Blogging, Stupid things I do December 2nd, 2008Crap. I published a post last night that, after some reflection, I wasn’t happy with. So I deleted it.
Never do that. Why? Because the post will get picked up by Feedburner and sent out to places that draw from the feed. Immediately. And there’s no undoing it.
What does that mean? Anyone who uses a feed reader, such as Google Reader, will still be able to read the post. But if they click the link back to my blog to comment, for example, the post isn’t there. Instead, you get an “Error 404 – Not Found” message. Translated, that means “This blog author is very stupid.”
The recommended course of action if you want to delete a post is to simply change the post content to something like “This post has been removed by the author.”
Or, better yet, be really sure you want to post something before you hit the Publish button. D’oh! Geesh. You’d think I’d know what I’m doing by now.
Other notable Kathy mistakes:
The night before our wedding, I made tuna casserole for my husband-to-be and me. I forgot to put the tuna in. He married me anyway, knowing full well I couldn’t cook and that the tiny roster of foods I knew how to make included tuna casserole.
I let my car run out of gas.
Follow-up blunder: I walked two blocks to a gas station, bought a gas can and pre-paid for $10 worth of gas. The can took only $2 worth. I was too embarrassed to go back and reclaim the difference.
I wore a banana hair clip into my twenties. It’s customary to stop when you’re thirteen.
On my first visit back to the eye doctor after getting fitted for contact lenses, I showed up with a lens in only one eye. My doctor so carefully danced around my stupidity, saying “I’m unable to locate the second lens.” I asked if he was sure. I asked an eye doctor, looking through $20,000 optometry equipment, if he was sure.
For the record, I was able to come up with these mistakes in less than five minutes. I could run a whole new blog on my mistakes alone. It’s hard being me.
Stumble it!
December 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Just so you know, I am wearing a banana clip now. At work. While commenting on your blog.
😛
As for commenting on your disappearing blog entry, 1. I thought it was funny, but then I’m in IT too. 2. I will feel like I can make comments about blog mistakes when I have a few more entries under my belt. Still a blog newbie.
shadowsrider’s last blog post..College pranks..
December 5th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
In 1985 I took my lovely bride to an art theater to see the newly released film, My Beautiful Laundrette. I wanted to show her that I was a sophisticated guy who knew his way around the arts. Puff, puff. When we walked up to the box office, however, I asked for two tickets to My Laundromat! I was dead serious. The old German lady in the box office just shook her head and gave me the two tickets. I thought that was kind of funny, but my bride just squeezed my hand, smiled and led me into the lobby like nothing had happened.
So you aren’t in it alone my dear.
Happy trails.
Swubird’s last blog post..THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER!
December 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
God, I wish those where the worst of my boneheaded mistakes. I have a 12 year marriage that trumps all of those.
Stephanie Barr’s last blog post..Dyna-Soar and learning lessons from the past.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I must admit, I’ve made that mistake, too. Sadly, it was amplified by the fact that it had the all-important keywords “Sarah Palin” in the title. Oh, brother.
This is the first time I’ve visited your site, and I like your writing. 🙂 I will be back to visit again. Thanks for the giggle!
-MM
Midwest Mom’s last blog post..Great Toy #4: Christmas Shopping Guide
December 5th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
i have let my car run out of gas numerous times. it’s become pretty customary and i’m getting quite sick of it. but, it’s hard to daydream and drive at the same time. i don’t have time to keep up with stuff like my gas needle.
desirae’s last blog post..Sexiest Man Alive, Desirae’s Edition.
December 5th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Well, you sure got an awful lot of nice comments for making a mistake. When I first got started with my WordPress MU community, I made the same mistake, only it turned out a LOT worse. Something had gone terribly terribly wrong with a plugin, and when I deleted a post, it deleted all of my tags, and all of the posts that make up my “tags blog” that organizes the multi-user community. So no matter how badly I write something in the middle of the night, I’m keepin’ it FOREVAH!
Roxy
Roxy’s Best Of…’s last blog post..Think NJPAC for the Holidays… and Save with NJPAC Promotional Codes on Giselle, Cirque Eloize, and Golden Dragon Acrobats
December 6th, 2008 at 5:26 am
JustinSMV — Glad it helped. My pain is your gain.
Gandalf and Grayson — Nice save! BTW, I like what you’re doing with the collages. I liked the “One of these things..” one. Reminded me of Sesame Street!
shadowsrider — Can I talk you into switching that for a scrunchie instead? Let. Go. of. the. Clip! Ah, you know my pain then if you’re in IT. Never a dull moment. BTW, my first real mistake with blogging was not to start off with my own domain name on a self-hosted platform. But I didn’t know it would be a mistake at the time. Caused me a ton of work when I switched to junkdrawerblog.com on WordPress.
Swubird — Oh, Swubird, you make me laugh. Hey, who says you can’t make a movie out of what goes on in a laundromat? Have you been to one lately? Strange things can happen there.
Stephanie Barr — Therefore, you must blog about them. It’s in the blog manual, you know.
Midwest Mom — Welcome! I think we need to forgive ourselves, actually. I really didn’t know it was a mistake when I did it. Technically, that’s not a mistake, right? Right?
desirae — Tell me about it. I wish my car ran on air.
Roxy’s Best of — Your story scares the crap out of me. I swear, that’s what bothers me most about WordPress. You make one little change and it can blow up the blog. I feel like I’m working with dynamite half the time. Cripes.
December 6th, 2008 at 8:19 am
ah. i can relate to how a post can get away from you like that. 🙂 interesting story, and some rather interesting comments. :O
kouji’s last blog post..ice skating haiku poem
December 6th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
You’re not stupid! This kind of stuff could happen to anyone. You wanna talk stupid, I had no idea (until you just explained it to me) why that stuff happens when I pull up info from google. *blush* Thanks for enlightening me!
Heather’s last blog post..The Giveaways BEGIN!!!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Fortunately, I have a crazy, obsessive mind that is constantly telling me “watch what you do! The WHOLE WORLD will see this FOREVER!!!” But I make plenty of other stupid mistakes. If I wasn’t so tired, I’d probably tell you one or two!
Jen@Happily-Ever-After-Land’s last blog post..Home for the Holidays
December 7th, 2008 at 7:34 am
kouji — I just wish I’d considered the ramifications beforehand. D’oh! Yeah, these comments were funny and made me feel a lot better about my blunder.
Heather — Ah, thanks! I’m happy that a number of commenters learned something from this post. I’m tickled if admitting my mistakes helps others.
Jen at Happily-Ever-After-Land — Come back when you’re more awake and SHARE! You can’t just come here and say you made stupid mistakes and not tell everyone about them. Didn’t you get a copy of The Junk Drawer manual? Tee hee!
December 7th, 2008 at 10:15 am
When I was a young teen I went out on Friday night with two different shoes on, I had tried them both on to see which one looked better with my outfit and never choose one. I had to buy new shoes that night.
In 11th grade I locked my keys in my car with the car running. I noticed it when I went to home room and I didn’t feel the keys in my jacket pocket.
Thanks for sharing with us……I’m new here and I love your blog!
Karen W’s last blog post..Rite Aid Gift of Savings
December 7th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Does this count? I went to make a cup of tea (well I’m British) and the tea caddy was empty. I opened a new box of tea bags and started to fill it. They wouldn’t fit, so I pushed them down as tight as I could. Still they wouldn’t fit in. I said (out loud) “What on earth is wrong with this caddy? They always fit in usually” I looked again and realized I was trying to push them all into my cup!
Babs – beetle’s last blog post..My most embarrassing moment.
December 7th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Karen W — I’m sorry to laugh about your shoes, but that killed me. Reminds me of a friend whose husband did the same thing. To add insult to injury, when he hurried back from the mall where he bought new shoes, he fell flat on his butt because the soles were too slippery new! Thanks for dropping by. Good to have you.
Babs beetle — Oh, yes, that qualifies. I suppose you’re entitled to one mess-up for all the thousands of cups of tea you’ve prepared! You’re good for a while now.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Don’t worry about it Kathy. I’ve done it many times. All you have to do is ping Feedburner http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/ping right after you delete it and poof – it’s gone.
Miss you over at the house of Bloke. Cheers!
Blog Bloke’s last blog post..Blog Spring Cleaning for the Fall
December 8th, 2008 at 12:03 am
I have hit the publish button before and really regretted it, you know, a post full of grammar mistakes and the whole structure doesn’t flow.
paul’s last blog post..Darren Rowse’s Open Letter To Amazon Associates
December 8th, 2008 at 2:28 am
You kiddin’?! I’ll admit, I’m not perfect. Though I do put forth a valiant effort 😛
(PS. I’ve even let my car run out of gas once… But sshhh…don’t say anything).
Ricardo Bueno’s last blog post..Yup…I’m Addicted to Social Media! You?
December 8th, 2008 at 6:13 am
Blog Bloke — Oh, man. Are you kidding? That’s all I had to do? But my Google Reader picked it up so fast. It wouldn’t remove it from people’s readers, would it? Oh, so many questions!
paul — I think my record for going back to edit is four times. Think first, Kathy! Think!
Ricardo Bueno — I’m perfect. Perfectly error-prone. I’m like a walking BSOD.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
If your readers’ newsreader was already opened and had accessed your feed then the post would be there. But when they refresh their feeds cache after you have removed your post (and re-pinged Feedburner) then it should disappear. If they haven’t already opened their newsreader then the post should not appear at all as if it never was.
The sooner you re-ping feedburner after removing the post the better. Hope that helps.
Cheers sweety!
Blog Bloke – Helping You to be a Better Blogger’s last blog post..Blog Spring Cleaning for the Fall
December 9th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I have a new quote from “Katie” today.
Scene: “Katie” and a kid named “Ron” were talking about the military.
Her Quote: “The Army works on arms, the marines work in the ocean, the navy seals help seals in the artic, and the people in the pentagon are the ones who have guns.”
I am not kidding you she actually said that and I was there to witness it and I almost cracked up. I did not make this up I am not this creative or dumb.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Blog Bloke — This is so helpful. Thanks! Now, I don’t plan on doing it again, but you just never know. I’m keeping this tip in my back pocket.
brooke — May I pose as a teacher’s assistant or something, come to your class and listen to Katie do her thing? Do you have a Career Day or something I could speak at? I need to meet this Katie person.
December 10th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I dont think so and her name isnt realy Katie but I wanted to keep her name anonomous.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Glad I stopped by so I know what to do in the event that I delete a post and don’t want it getting out to the blogosphere.
I was working in a shoe store (back in college) and I bent down to put a shoe on a customer; when I stood up, my slip fell to the ground around my feet. Apparently, I didn’t have enough spare cash to buy a decent slip.
Jenn Calling Home’s last blog post..Solutions for a Sleepy Teen
December 10th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Wow, I almost feel normal after reading everybody else’s mistakes, thank you all!!
Sandy’s last blog post..Want To Learn About Online Shopping Carts?
December 11th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Well, believe me, we’ve all made mistakes. Now the the thing is not to repeat them 😉
December 11th, 2008 at 6:42 am
That isnt a rookie mistake, thats just something one does anyway. I delete posts quite happily and I don’t give a rats if anyone thinks I am daft.
Sue/kyteflyer’s last blog post..Bloody Hell
December 11th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Hey wow I never knew that! I’ll have to remember next time when I’m using feedburner.
Chicago Family Dentist
December 12th, 2008 at 6:48 am
brooke — You’ll have to point her out to me. Seriously, I need to meet her.
Jenn Calling Home — Nice! Hey, if you’re thin enough for your slip to fall down, consider it a blessing. That would never happen to me.
Sandy — Tell me about it. Every time I post my stupid moments, someone always out does me. It’s reassuring!
American Bison — True, true. Can’t promise I’ll never run out of gas again, but I’ll never post prematurely.
Sue/kyteflyer — You go girl!
Chicago Family Dentist — Save yourself!
December 15th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Hmm, I never considered the FeedBurner part… maybe I should make sure I do all of my “Test” posts before installing Feedburner 😉
Tom Smith’s last blog post..Brondell Swash 700
December 16th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Tom Smith — You have an interesting site. Looks right up my alley. Clean design, too. Nice job!
December 17th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Those mistakes, that with Feedburner, happens to me often. I wish they could change that.
Metty’s last blog post..Grüne Laserpointer als Waffe in Griechenland
December 18th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Metty — Me too. It wouldn’t seem so hard to me, but Feedburner doesn’t even get my subscriber numbers right half the time. What gives?
December 19th, 2008 at 12:14 am
I mean, FB does a real good job, counting feedreaders is really hard, much harder then tracking normal visitors
Metty’s last blog post..Grüne Laserpointer als Waffe in Griechenland
December 20th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Sorry if this was mentioned I did not read all of the comments. Two things. If you do it quick when you delete a post you can login in to feedburner and resync your feed. That can stop it from being sent out to everyone, but not always. Second, a plugin that can be very handy is the redirection plugin. If you delete a post and people do click through from a feed you can redirect them to another post or a custom error page saying what happened. The plugin also comes in very handy for when you change permalinks as well, but that it another story.
LGR’s last blog post..Google Friend Connect Canvas
December 21st, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Metty — It seems it must be. I don’t know why my number often drops to zero and then up again. I’ve read people complaining about it as a bug, but perhaps it has to do with how Feedburner calculates everything. Big mystery.
LGR — Yes, but how do you “resync your feed?” I’m always afraid to mess around with my RSS stuff. For instance, I have three feeds, the current one and then two older ones I had when I was on Blogger and before I got my custom domain name. I wish I could combine them into one, but I fear messing around in case I blow everything up and all of a sudden have no readers. I do have that redirection plugin. Wish I’d thought of that. It’s a brilliant idea! Thanks for the feedback.
December 25th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I locked my keys in my car while it was running. I had stepped out to inspect what I believed to be a flat tire and on my way to the driver’s side, it wouldn’t open. Not only did I not have spare keys, I was late to work and had to wait an hour for roadside assistance to send someone to unlock the door 🙁 Won’t let that happen again.
Lucy P.’s last blog post..Ho Ho Ho…
December 27th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Lucy P. — Yep. Once you do something like that, you never forget. If it makes you feel any better, my husband once left his car warming up at night out in our driveway. Then he forgot about it. We both went to bed. When he left for work in the morning, not only was his car NOT stolen (incredibly), but it was like a sauna in there. Don’t feel bad. You’re in good company.
January 1st, 2009 at 8:00 pm
hi…
Great sharing… I’m subscribing to your site now. thanks a lot…
cheers,
special effect contact lenses
hasnuri’s last blog post..All about special effect contact lenses… (Special Effect Contact Lenses)
January 20th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Running out of gas isn’t so bad. Try locking your keys in the car with the car running and the radio blaring. It’s bad enough when you have the car turned off, but with it on…
Oh, and turning spaghetti, which should be the easiest thing ever to cook, into pine straw…
Or getting a black eye from your dog (don’t ask) and having no one believe you at work the next day…
As for blogs, I’ve done a lot worse than delete a post. I accidentally deleted the title tag. Google of course managed to crawl all my posts the next day, so they all showed up as the blog title in the search results, and my visitor count dropped to seven. I’m still trying to recover.
Staci’s last blog post..Birthday Wishes and Chocolate Cake Dreams
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
hasnuri — Welcome aboard!
Staci — My husband did the leaving-the-car-running thing before. All night. Can’t believe no one stole it. We were lucky. Yeah, but I have to ask about the black eye. You can’t just say that and not give an explanation. Please? Sorry about the Google thing. If I knew how much maintenance a blog would require, I might not have started one. Kind of a pain now and then, eh?
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Sorry. I’m just now seeing the reply. Teaches me to check the notify box next time. I tried to help my dog jump on the bed–she usually tries and misses–at the same time that she tried to jump. The top of her head collided with the bone right under my left eye (the eye socket?). She screamed and ran under the bed. I saw stars. It was black/dark purple for days and then that yellowish green that bruises turn. Makeup wouldn’t phase it. I don’t think a soul believed me that the dog did it. I think they thought it was the same thing as “I walked into a door,” which I’ve also done by the way. I’ve cornered the market on clumsiness. All those darn ballet lessons for nothing. They just made me gracefully clumsy.
Staci’s last blog post..My Cocker Spaniel Now Has Electrical Plug-a-phobia
February 6th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Staci — Awesome story! Although I’m sorry you got a faceful of dog for trying to help her and a nice shiner to prove it. How horrible! “Gracefully clumsy.” Yep, me too. I don’t know why doorways seems so much smaller to me now. I’m constantly running into them. Maybe I should wrap myself in cotton balls.
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
These mistakes are exactly why your blog is so popular. I read this the other morning while my husband was getting ready for work, and the gas can thing cracked us
up because it sounds like something I would do. Women can
now say to their husbands, “Kathy did it too, and she’s famous.”
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:17 pm
misspiggytoes (I can spell that easier!) — Oh, that’s too funny! I love to be thought of as famous, even if it’s only in my own mind. BTW, I love that you’re enjoying the blog! I hope you stick around for a while. And I love that you’ve been commenting on my older posts. It’s giving me a chance to relive them and laugh at my own stupidity again.