Thursday, October 7, 2010

Just scared myself stupid, or, how I reaffirmed how important my blog is to me

Oh. My. God.

Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod.

Oh. My. God.

I just killed my blog. Killed it. As in dead. As in all of my photographs and all of the text, vanished into the ether, replaced by a stupid little widget I was trying to install. A little widget, as the ONLY content of every single post I'd ever made.

*excuse me while I hyperventilate*

The backup template - didn't work.

The blog itself hadn't been backed up in far (far!) too long.

*continues hyperventilating*

Oh my effing god.

But it's back.

By some tiny twist of fate the internet gods were smiling on me and I'd followed said widget's advice to paste the html code for the template into a text editor first, just to make it easier to find and replace the tiny bit I was looking for.

I copied that code. I pasted it back into the html editor.

It was wrong.

I tried again.

It was still wrong.

I tried five or six times. Wrong. Wrong. All wrong.

After what was probably the longest half hour of my life I finally managed to reverse the right number of edits to find the last correct version of the template and was able to replace it and all is again well in the universe.

(It IS well, right? All of you out there can actually SEE the posts now, right? Right???)

I've spent the past two days redesigning the template on my practice blog to see if I could create a more streamlined less cluttered look for this blog and apparently I got comfortable enough to get cocky.

Heed my lesson people. Back those blogs up, and for god's sake back up your templates before you decide to screw around with them!

16 comments:

Dimple said...

Phew! Glad you got it back! Yes, I can see it!
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Jael said...

Wow,that is scary! Happy that you got it back:-)

ninja said...

All's well what ends well.. and that post grabs attention.

Daryl said...

Next time, and there will be a next time, do not freak .. there's a revert button .. how do I know? Because this morning I tried to insert that Stumble button/logo/badge into my HTML and it worked, I got the logo/badge to appear but the photos and posts all vanished .. GAH... I went back and tried to keep breathing calmly ... remove edits didnt work but the revert button on the left did .. I decided I dont need no stinkin' Stumble logo/badge

kayerj said...

glad you got it back . . . I started tweaking mine one day, and chickened out.

Robin said...

That's exactly what happened Daryl! That stupid Stumble badge! Grrrrr...

And yes, I did eventually figure out that revert button on the practice blog but it was too late for the main blog, I'd already screwed around too much trying to fix it.

All's well that ends well, right? (That, and my hairdresser will be busy this month covering up all the extra gray hairs this little escapade gave me!)

-----------------------------------
My photography is available for purchase - visit Around the Island Photography and bring home something beautiful today!

Fiona said...

I tried to tweak mine the other day and it just wouldn't behave. So now I'm leaving it alone till my heart rate subsides!

quilly said...

Okay, I am going to ack up my blog, and no stumble badge for me, either! Glad you're back, Robin.

On the plus side, your heart just got one heck of an aerobic exercise workout and you didn't even have to suit up! ;)

Dina said...

You lucky, lucky blogger.

Sandy said...

Oh been there, done that. Reminds me to back up right now. Have you considered having your blog printed? I did it last year with a site called Blog2Print. I like it because not only does it preserve your words and photos, it makes a neat yearbook. Just a suggestion!

Jen said...

AGH! Glad you fixed it! And now wondering how in hell I back mine up!

Kelley @ magnetoboldtoo said...

I know that terror all too well my dear.

But at least it makes you think and then back up everything INCLUDING your computer harddrive...

Right?

anymommy said...

I didn't even know that you could back a blogger blog up. I'm going to rock in a corner now.

Steffi said...

Glad you got it back,Robin!

Jill said...

OMG, I think I'd poop myself if that happened ... seriously

So glad all is ok again in your world. And your blog doesn't need any changes. :)

qandlequeen said...

Yeah I've had a few panic moments playing with my settings and html. ACK!!!! Glad you recovered!