Sorry, My Website Crashed Last Week

If your website is going to crash, the week of Thanksgiving is probably the best time for it to happen. No, I’m not kidding.  It happened to me last week. And, I discovered there’s an upside when your website crashes during a major holiday week.

It happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning. At around 3 a.m. I was making my last-minute shopping list for Thursday’s Thanksgiving dinner. Then, I logged into my website to carry out some light “housekeeping” (as you do when you can’t sleep at 3 in the morning!) This included updating my theme which is the software that dictates the way a website looks.

One Click & Your Website’s Crashed

Click. That’s all it takes to update anything on a WordPress site. One click.

And, one click is sometimes as much as it takes to make your website disappear.

This (below) is the way my blog page looked last Monday after I posted the week’s offering:

 

This (below) is the way it looked on Tuesday morning after I clicked on the update link to my theme.

Just the site title. And the rest? The dreaded white screen of death. But, no need for panic, I told myself. The super techies at Bluehost (the web hosting company that provides my server space)  would fix it, no problem. They had always fixed issues in the past.

Turned out this time, it wasn’t going to be so easy — even though all my content was still there, it was hidden in the back-end/administrative section which no-one, but me, sees.

The first techie I spoke to put me on hold. For quite a while. Then, he returned to tell me the problem was so bad he needed to “escalate” it to the next level. I should get a response within 24-48 hours, he said.

48 hours!!!! What????

A couple of hours later, I got my first voicemail: “Is it an internet problem, or is it my computer being computery?” asked one of my more faithful subscribers. (You know who you are, J.C.)

That was it for a couple of hours. It seemed no-one else among family, friends, or those who have my phone number had noticed. But then, who surfs the Internet looking for author advice and anecdotes when they’re supposed to be prepping turkey side dishes?

I stopped fretting, but emailed the developer of the theme I’d been using. One of the Bluehost techies working on my issue had suggested that the “theme css was broken.” No, I didn’t understand what he was talking about either, but it was beginning to look as if only the theme developer could help.

No Support

Only trouble was, the theme developer is located in Germany, and a staffer in her office emailed back saying I was using an old, free theme and they didn’t offer support for old, free themes.

My “scream” into cyberspace was noted by the developer who actually did email back with some possible solutions — all of which I’d already tried and which hadn’t worked.

Then, I got an email from a bestselling author I’d contacted with a request for a blurb for my novel. My email request had included a link to one of my blogs.

“Tried loading the page, but couldn’t,” she emailed.

What To Do?

Now, it was serious. It was clear that I was going to have to change my theme. Quite a big undertaking if you read all the Internet advice about it. So, I experienced a few tense moments while previewing and customizing the theme, and agonized for a while before hitting the “activate and publish button.” But then I just clicked and this is the result.

 

I would never have changed the theme if I didn’t have to. I don’t like change. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? That’s my mantra. I just don’t like change of any kind.

But now, I’m happy with the result and I hope you are, too. I think the pages look crisper and neater. I also added a tag line (the pleasures and perils of a writing life.) Finally, after blogging for three years, I’ve decided that’s essentially what the website is about!

And, if you’re wondering about the bestselling author mentioned above? Well, she agreed to provide a blurb, anyway.

Now, here’s a link to a topic I was going to write about more fully in this week’s blog. It’s about the authors who are “vying” for the Bad Sex award in the U.K. That’s an award for the worst-written sex scenes in fiction. I’ve blogged about it in the past. The British newspaper, The Guardian, however, has covered it quite well this year. So, click on the link if you want to read all about it.

Thank you for being patient while the site was down.