Blogger Went Down: What I Learned from Their Screw Up

On Wednesday 5/11, Blogger performed some scheduled maintenance work. Something went wrong which resulted in lost posts and comments. Thankfully, only one of mine disappeared. 

I found out about the issue on twitter (my source for all breaking news). Ranting tweets started showing up in my stream, so I did a search to find out what was going on.

Folks were pissed off in all different kinds of languages! This was a global mishap. And while I'm only fluent in English, it doesn't take a genius to translate, "What the hell happened to my stuff and when is this shit gonna be resolved?".

Blogger sent periodic updates letting us know they were working to restore posts and comments and everything lost should be back by this weekend. Well, it's Sunday and my last post is still MIA. If it's not restored by tonight, I'm reposting it. If you're a subscriber, this means you'll get it in your inbox again. BTW - I apologize for old stuff landing in your email, but it's happening due to Blogger trying to fix the problem.

As I was reading tweets that came up in my search, I couldn't help but notice the number of people who said they were moving over to WordPress because of this issue. I can't speak for anyone else, but my blog has been powered by Blogger for three years and this was my first time experiencing anything like this. And truthfully, it's not a big enough problem to make me want to pack up and relocate.

I started to think about how we respond and react to problems that arise in our lives - be it business or personal. Some of us are quick to jump ship at the first sign of trouble. It's almost as if we sit around and wait for a glitch so that we can justify abandoning the project. I heard Russell Simmons give a radio interview about six or seven years ago and he said something that stuck with me through the years. He basically said we can't accomplish things or experience success because as soon as we hit a rock, we move to another spot and start digging a new hole. When we hit a rock there, we do the same thing - move to another spot. Before we know it, we look around and we're surrounded by unfinished tasks. Abandoned goals.

Instead of getting all emotional and Blogger-bashing, I decided to focus on how I could fix the problem. Sitting around hitting 'Refresh' and checking every five minutes to see if the post was up again was taking a toll on me. I needed to do something - it was time to start digging again.

I texted people who subscribe to my blog and asked if they still had the post in their inboxes. BINGO! Problem solved. Thank you, Linda D. Wilson, for being an email hoarder. Keep up the good work.

How many times have you hit a snag and thrown in the towel? How many half-dug holes do you have in your landscape? What's stopping you from picking up the shovel and going back at it?

photo: Nicole