(last edited on February 15, 2023 at 12:26 pm)
I spent a good chunk of time investigating a problem with the “subscribe to comments” feature of the website after receiving a couple of reports about it. The last update of the Subscribe to Comments Reloaded plugin, which has served us pretty well I think to now, introduced show-stopping usability errors that I needed to resolve right away. I hate that my site was sending annoying emails to people, and so this became the day’s priority. In the context of my Groundhog Day Resolutions challenge, it’s a good reminder that sometimes bad stuff happens and you have to deal with it. Rather than be upset about it, I’m just going to be relaxed about it and move on.
Stuff Learned and GHDR Points Earned
Today’s lesson: “Hey, sometimes priorities get bumped by problems”, followed by “Don’t stress out about it, just keep moving.” To award myself some points, though, I’m going to get creative in my interpretation of my goals for 2016:
| POINTS | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|
| 10 | Shared stuff I know. Posted this and my fix to the plugin issue database on Github. |
| 10 | In a very tenuous sense, this fix is a store improvement; people who are subscribed to comments for product-related posts would experience this improvement. I don’t know if there ARE any such people, but heck it’s worth an extra 10 points according to the GHDR Rule Book! |
| 5 | I helped myself with a past result. I used the reluctantly-acquired skills I have developed to maintain this website and fixed it myself after a few minutes of cursing. A moment of gratitude, realizing that this would have been an insurmountable or costly problem for many others! |
| 5 | I eliminated options, including updating the server, installing a different Markdown plugin to avoid the conflict, and modifying the problematic plugin. I found a good solution that works moving forward, and it was fast to implement. |
| 3 | I tried something I wasn’t sure would work. The hack I came up with might not have worked…but I tried it to see what would happen. It turned out it did! Problem solved! Sort of! |
| 3 | I overcame resistance and did the necessary tedious work, though I really didn’t want to. I could have disabled the plugin entirely and the problem would go away, but so would the ability to subscribe to comments. |
| 2 | Posted words about the work! (this post!) |
| 1 | Researched how to get certain things to happen in WordPress to do a workaround. |
Wow, that’s 39 points. Although today’s task wasn’t directly related to a big juicy goal, the point system recognizes positive-minded effort in the face of adversity, which is a key habit to have when achieving anything.
About this Article Series
For my 2016 Groundhog Day Resolutions, I'm challenging myself to make something goal-related every day from February 2nd through December 12. All the related posts (and more!) are gathered on the Challenge Page.
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2 Comments
Oh Wow, I haven’t had much time to look into it, but I had been certain that I had done something wrong when i subscribed to comments.
Mila: Nope, definitely not your fault! Hopefully the comments subscription emails and management panel works for everyone now.