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- February 23, 2016
Handling Unexpected Problems (GHD022)
February 23, 2016Read more
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.
- February 23, 2016
Fixing “Subscribe to Comments” Problems
February 23, 2016Read moreOver the past couple of days I’ve had report of problems with comment subscription:
Could not manage subscribed comments; the subscription management page displayed code instead of an actual user interface.
Garbled notification emails with lots of extra junk in them were being sent, which not only made them look terrible but did not provide clickable links for subscription management.
I think I have fixed these two problems, which were caused by the most versions of the Subscribe to Comments Reloaded (StCR) plugin. If you are still experiencing problems or want to be unsubscribed manually, please contact me privately and I’ll take care of it. Sorry for all the trouble!
For those looking for information about how I resolved the problem itself, continue reading (more…)
- February 22, 2016
Resurrecting my Product Photo Rig (GHD021)
February 22, 2016Read more
I spent part of Monday cleaning up the living room, mopping the floors and clearing the tabletops. Once the tabletop was clear, it reminded me that I wanted to setup my off-camera flash strobes again so I could take more photos of things I liked to share on the blog, including product photos of everything I make. But that meant I had to fix my old flash radio trigger, which had died a couple of years ago before I got my current camera. Time to screw around with photography! (more…)
- February 22, 2016
Working with an Editor to Create New Works (GHD020)
February 22, 2016Read more
Sunday was largely a day spent writing in notebooks and private discussions, but I did finally get to start working on a new writing project with my friend Britt Raybould, a professional editor who shares my fascination with process. She’s agreed to help me learn what an editor can offer to a spazzy writer like me for an extended collaboration. (more…)
- February 21, 2016
Testing Screencasting Software (GHD019)
February 21, 2016Read more
Saturday was surprisingly productive, perhaps because it was a Spring-like 55 degrees outside instead of being in the -10s! The major GHDR-related project for the day was setting up screencasting software on both the PC and the Mac in preparation for the first Project 1404 Music Composition videos. (more…)
