As a blogger, when things don’t go my way, and the blogging platform I’m using seems to be doing its own thing, aka, not minding my ‘but all I did was tried to run the update’ clicks – it is a great feeling to finally have everything running all ‘okay’ again.
The Happiness Engineer did respond to my email demands for assistance. And she provided me with a helpful link to by-pass the ones I had found that took me to pay for advice service on Bluehost.
I was frankly scared to death to uninstall anything unless it was absolutely necessary, so I opted to check with Bluehost first.
And then, as if all the opposites in the world connected;
and the temps inside and outside the house matched up;
I took the risk to follow the email directions.
I paused during my lunch break,
Re-read the email 3 times, then clicked the link to Bluehost.
Within seconds I was on an online chat session with the free Bluehost help desk.
And, Sohan was there to help little ol’ me.
Me: “I’m unable to run the Bluehost Plugin Update 1.4.5. I wrote a blog post with all of the details and provided the link.” (Details…details…not just with hope to get one more view to my post for the day…bloggers do like visitors, though…! LOL!)
Sohan: “Hello, how may I help you today?”
Me: “Hello, Sohan, nice to meet you. I’m hoping you’ll be able to assist me today.”
After the obligatory verification to prove to Sohan that I was who I said I was, Sohan replied: “Okay, just wait here while I look into it; give me 2-4 minutes.”
So I waited…(hoping he/she enjoyed my blog post…)
Me: “Okay.”
Sohan: “Should be all fixed now, the update ran, please verify.”
Me (mostly happy, slightly stunned): “Yes! I checked, it did. Weird…what did I do wrong? Why didn’t it work for me?”
Sohan: “I just opened it up on my server here and it ran just fine.”
Me: “Okay. Thank you, have a wonderful day. You’ve helped me with the problem I had, so no further assistance needed.”
Sohan: “Okay. Now if you could do me a favor, please? Fill out the survey and provide feedback by clicking the upper right-hand button as you exit the conversation.”
Me: “Okay, will do, thank you again.”
And there you have it. Problem solved.
But, I wouldn’t be doing proper due diligence (despite the fact this post is way longer than ONE line) – here is the rest of the message from the WordPress.com Jetpack Happiness Engineer. You know, for all those inquiring minds who provided excellent advice and support to me when I went all Mad on Monday.
As I’ve mentioned before, my blog is self-hosted. Therefore I have two accesses to writing and managing my blog. The .org and the .com. The .org is my Bluehost access via wp-admin. The .com is a separate but linked to the .org. It is access to Reader where I can also send and receive comments with fellow WordPress.com bloggers. I only figured that out on my own over time. Plus the Editor in .com is way easier than Gutenberg! Apparently, there are some good links that explain more about this stuff way better as provided in the Happiness Engineer’s reply (see screenshots above).
Now I’m off to read the links so I can understand better…
Post Inspiration – A-Z Blogging Challenge 2019 – O and Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday
PS – Did you find this information about blogging issues helpful? I hope so! Do you ever feel silly asking for help and find out that the solution was really easy, but no matter what you tried, there’s no way to solve it because it was a server issue? Did you notice that the Happiness Engineer mentioned a high volume of support questions of late? Yikes…
Good for you. I like reading about problems solved. Another happy camper, as they say. I’m still trying to figure out why I cannot like and/or comment in an easy consistent way. *shakes head and wanders off to play outside*
Thanks, Ally! So…let me ask (for when you return back inside) what does work? Is it when you like from Reader or when you go directly to my website to comment/like that it does or doesn’t work? I seem to have different problems on websites too. If I don’t like it first, I don’t get the easy option to comment, but I can always comment if I click on the post’s title first. I’m wondering if there is a tried and true, step by step method that can be discovered? Or if it is all just random luck? I’m off to ponder that on the treadmill…!
I don’t use Reader, I use Feedly. I am able to click through directly to your post, then I have to input my detail information every time I comment here. I check the save box, but it does not save. Yours is not the only blog that requires me to fill in the details every time I comment on it.
I can then type a comment, such as this one, but I cannot like anything on this blog. Even if I try to like first, I cannot do it.
I have similar problems on many blogs, but occasionally one still lets me like and comment without any trouble. I find it frustrating because sometimes I have nothing new to add to a conversation on a blog post and would prefer to just like it, indicating that I’ve been over to visit.
Also, after I hit the post comment button it’s an 8 or 9 count of suspended nothingness before the comment is accepted. I cross my fingers during that time.
Oh, my goodness, Ally – way to add to the dynamics of commenting! As a novice to all of this, I’ve never looked much into Feedly. Now I need to research that too. Do you have trouble commenting or liking on Dan’s feed at NoFacilities.com? Are you using a Mac or a PC? I’m intrigued, as I’m sure there are others who get frustrated and just leave and never come back instead of sharing their concerns. I so appreciate you taking extra time to share and comment. And to help with trouble-shooting.
Feedly is a RSS service that I like better than WP Reader. Feedly allows me create my own simple folders in a way that makes sense to me. Reader forces me to use their way of doing things.
I cannot like, only comment, on Dan’s blog. I can like & comment on Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge, for instance [just did]. Dan is newer to me, philmouse I’ve followed for about 7 years. I don’t know if that has something to do with why the system works better in some places… 🤷♀️
I’m on a very old Mac most of the time. It’s living on fumes, so any day now I could have a newer machine. it’ll be interesting to see how all this plays out with something up-to-date.
Good luck with what you’re trying to achieve. Hope this helps you.
Thank you, Ally – I think you’re on to something…!
As far as your old Mac goes, it is hard to part ways…sometimes easier to do so, though, before sudden death occurs, so I hear. My youngest had that happen to her, and she wasn’t happy about it. Thank you again for your time spent sharing tidbits of valuable info! Much appreciated.
It is good to realize that solutions are easy. I often approach black boxes assuming the impossible rules.
Nice photos of that bird.
Thank you, Frank. I had so many problems with my blog at one point, that I jumped to assumptions of the worst case scenarios. I’m thankful this one was a quick fix once I connected with the right party. Thank you – Mr. House Finch appreciates the compliment :-)!
It’s great you got that cleared up. And you’ve confirmed that I don’t want to take on a blog anytime soon. 🙂 Good for you for sticking with it. I’m off to try and close a few of the 1492 tabs open on my brain browser. Ha! You can see why I hesitate to add any more right now.
Thank you, Laurel! LOL – yeah, blogging isn’t a pull it out of the box and it works right away hobby! Happy tab closing to you… PS – I’m SO into that hobby too!!
I’m so happy it got solved. It can definitely be nerv wrecking. I find that sometimes WordPress is so heavily used that plugins temporarily don’t work as they should. Overall I am so happy with WordPress that I would never leave. I hope you’re having a great week!
Thank you!! I agree on the plugin issues. I do like WordPress (after spending so much time trying to figure it out, I kind of have a love/hate relationship though). The week is shaping up nicely, not as bright as your new garden, but still nice. We’ll have rain here today to green things up. Hope you have a great one too!
We’ve been given the Gutenberg editor, and I still use the editor you find on wp-admin. They’re always cajoling me with, “Oh, this way is so much easier!” when I (and probably they) know better….
LOL – end users tend to know better than the ‘way easier’ gift givers, right?! You are knocking it out of the ball park with your “X” take on the A-Z. I’m so impressed!!
I’m glad you got this sorted out Shelley! Self-hosting is not fun. Those darn plugins can cause havoc.
Thanks, John! I’m seeing more and more the difficulty of it all!
Good for you persevering! When those things happen, my mantra is “it’s only a machine…it’s only a machine.” Taking for granted that humans can figure it out. Eventually. Last month, a nice guy named Ryan from WordPress actually called me on the phone – out of the blue – identified himself and gave me his phone number (showed on the caller ID too). But not for tech advice. But to be “a resource for growth.” He followed up with an email. Probably to get me to upgrade $.
I never feel silly asking for help. No harm in asking and I enjoy reading about your blogging issues!
Apparently the Happiness Engineer is reading your blog posts too!! 🙂
Thank you! You’re right, that’s great advice you’ve shared. Wow – that’s interesting that they called you. I think you’re on to the upgrade theme of the call, but that’s just me being skeptical. I try to make my pleas for help desperately funny so that they feel sorry for me. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I was impressed that they read the post. 🙂
I’m glad you got through to them. We’ve had to do this once with our company site, and once we just pair for them (GoDaddy) to do the upgrades for us. I have been given the “higher than norm” info – to which my reply is either fix the problems of hire more staff.
Well said, Dan!
Shelley, I am confused about the Guttenberg editor? Is it on your Bluehost .org site or is it the New Editor on this WordPress .com site?
It is a WordPress editor. I access it through my WordPress.org login. It can also be a plugin. I don’t see it when I use my WordPress.com login. Hope that helps?!
There’s a new editor in WP you can access in the draft, so I’m thinking it must be the same thing. I’ll try it out next week.
Sounds fun and daring – I’m sure you’ll figure it out and do great! Let me know when you do so I can see how you survive the adventure!
I one time had a stray italics code in my post and the next time I went to write a post, the italics was still there, and no amount of toggling the “i” for italics could turn it off. I went back and tried to save the post in all italics, then no italics, removed the quote I had italicized – nothing. I reached out and they said “well I found the code right away and removed it” … I’m sure they thought I just noticed the italics and didn’t bother to figure it out. It was a long, long time until I used any italics in a post going forward!
I can see why you’d make that choice!