I had my post nearly ready for publishing in the morning. I went through it one final time and made some tweaks that I thought were improvements. I pressed “Publish” about 9:30 am and then looked, as I always do, at the places where it should appear: WP Reader? Check. My gmail account? Check. My home email account? Check.
I took a quick look at the stats, noted six people had read it and one had liked it, and went about my day.
But a strange thing happened–one I hadn’t experienced in the four-plus years I’ve been blogging.
That is: nothing happened.
A couple of quick looks during the day showed that after those six views, not a single person read my newest post.
I felt kinda bad. Had I so misjudged my readers? The post, “About That Special Counsel…(whose first action knocked down Donald Trump)” might not appeal to everyone, but I thought more than six of you would think it was worth a few minutes of your time. And I thought I’d included some mildly witty turns of phrase amid the legal stuff. Alas!
Around 8 pm, I decided to see whether if I read the post through my home email account, the needle on my stats would record it. When I clicked on “continue reading,” WP informed me: “Oops; there’s nothing there.”
Well, that explains it. I went back to the original, and the damn file had somehow become un-published. I clicked on “Publish.”
Voila! It appeared–only not the version containing my final edits. And though it was in Reader, those of you who respond via email could have missed it.
So I’m adding the link to what I believe is the final version here. I do hope you’ll read it–and respond to my closing question.
There’s something kinda strange going on with my WP account, I think. But I’ll save that particular concern for another day.
Cheers,
Annie
annieasksyou... 
What a revolting development that was!
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I’m so glad you had the opportunity to reemploy that phrase, mm (rolls her eyes)…
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You are in good company, Annie, they even misspelled my name, losing the “n” at the end.
Joanna
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Thanks, Joanna. That’s bewildering!
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Agree!
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That kind of thing is really annoying. I hope you’re able to get to the bottom of things so that it doesn’t happen again.
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Sure is, Neil. The problem is I’m pretty sure I would be told either: a) I need to take a screen shot of what happened (?); or b) I need to clear my browser. I’m doubtful I’d get a helpful explanation.
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I got an e-mail notification that you had a new post up, but when I checked your blog it wasn’t there. I figured you had just posted it, decided you wanted to edit something major, and unposted it to re-do it. That happens sometimes.
These blogging platforms do have occasional glitches. Still, WordPress seems to work OK most of the time, and will presumably continue to do so — unless Elon Musk buys it someday.
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Hi, Infidel. I understand occasional glitches, though I’ve had instances when WP folks insisted the problem was my browser even after I’d cleared it; then the problem would disappear without their fixing anything.
I hope you’ll revisit my Houdini post when convenient. I always welcome your thoughtful comments.
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Did you do a post about Houdini recently? I don’t see one.
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No, Infidel. That was my weak attempt at humor after my post did a disappearing act by unpublishing itself.
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Way back at the beginning Delete came without that helpful “are you sure”. Good times! Makes one look forward when it’s the computers running things.
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WordPress at least gives us two chances to hit “Publish.” So I’m careful…but those gremlins…
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Glad you persevered…
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Thank you, Will. Any thoughts on the question I raised in the revivified post?
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I pretty much gave up posting on WordPress when they “improved” their system and went to the “bloc” system. I am just tired of relearning new systems when the old systems worked fine. I can’t seem to control font size, paragraphing, etc. It is probably just me, but I don’t understand why they need to over complicate simple systems.
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This is the blogging community’s loss, Joseph. I miss your often trenchant posts. Trust me: not many people are more tech-deprived than I am. I simply don’t venture far into stylistic matters, even those as basic as fonts and paragraphing.
PS: Would you care to share your response to the question I asked at the conclusion of the post that prompted this one–about the impact of Jack Smith, the Special Counsel?
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have had my share of frustrations too – we bloggers deserve medals…
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Annie, I just read your post, but I’m behind 4 days. I haven’t had that happen to me, but have heard other bloggers complain that their posts don’t show up. They’re there and then not there. WP works in mysterious ways sometimes.
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And they nearly always tell me I must have done something wrong…sometimes they’re right about that! Thanks, Joni.
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I clicked on the link when it showed up on my blogroll, but there was no post there. I figured you took it down. Will check it out now.
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Thank you for your perseverance, bluzdude. I welcome your response to my concluding question.
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Good to know re the gremlins Annie!
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Yes, Matthew; they do visit–unannounced and uninvited–from time to time.
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