Two weeks ago I received an email from my web host provider with regards to my storage usage, and yes, that sentence IS just as boring as anything could possibly be, but bear with me a moment. The web host was unable to back up my site – this very site that you are looking at – because my storage exceeded my usage limit. My storage jumped from 1 GB to 16.5 GB over the last ninety days.
I understand the need for an automated system, but I feel like any person with any kind of critical reasoning skills might be able to deduce that there is an issue here that was not generated by my five monthly posts. However, we live in an automated world, and so I took it upon myself to follow the step-by-step procedure to discover from where such a jump in storage usage originated. And indeed, I found the issue: on July 7, 42583 files were added to my site.
CLEARLY THERE IS AN ISSUE HERE. And let me just say that this is not my first web host issue rodeo. At least twice before, I have encountered fairly significant issues, and it is always, always a problem originating from the provider: the extra files from a site migration ended up being duplicated, for example, or there is a problem with the firewall that mysteriously leads to thousands of spam comments crashing the site. It’s all very, very tedious and boring, but there is no way out but through. I contacted the web host provider, which led to a most trying afternoon. I spent a total of two hours in some kind of weird circular conversation, in which I would say that there was a problem on their end of things, they said no, there certainly wasn’t, I said there was, and they said I just needed to buy more storage.
I capitulated. I spent ten dollars on upgraded storage, because my site had not been backed up and I live in fear that it will somehow disappear without a trace and eighteen years of talking about grocery cart returns will evaporate into the ether. And not just grocery cart returns: the story about the professor with the absolutely monstrous body odour would be gone, forever, to live on only in my memory. I would never be able to recall that I had a similarly trying conversation with technical support almost exactly 16 years ago to the day; that particular incident ended with me sobbing and the technical support person calmly telling me he would stay on the line for as long as I needed to collect myself, and that perhaps I could get a glass of water while he solved my issues. I wouldn’t be able to remember when it was exactly that I gave myself a bikini wax and ran out of wax. What can I say, in the early days of the pandemic the honeypot spiralled out of control. It was a hairy situation, if you will. Imagine a world in which such important stories are not readily available for public consumption!
The point is, I have a lot of attachment to this blog, and so if ten dollars would give me a little extra security, then so be it. However! I wanted to get at the root cause of this issue, because if life has taught me anything, it’s that if you ignore a technological problem, it will grow and swell and eventually burst, like a giant bubble of gum that gets stuck into your hair and eyelashes. And so the weird gaslighting conversation between me and the web hosting help desk continued, with me saying there was a problem, them saying there wasn’t, me saying there was, and them saying not to worry, my site was now safe and secure, thanks to the upgraded storage.
Me: There is still an issue. There were 42853 files added on July 7. How did that happen?
Them: No. That’s just your site. You have 42583 files.
Me: I did not add them all on July 7. There has to be a mistake. Something had to have changed on your end. Did something get duplicated?
Them: No. Nothing changed. Everything is the same.
Finally, after 75 minutes on their online chat and 45 minutes on the actual phone, we had a breakthrough.
Me: Please, can you just look into the files on the backend. I am sure you’ll see something there.
Them: I cannot.
Me: *stares off into space, breathes deeply* I’m sure if you look…
Them: I am just a customer service representative. Only a technical support person can access the backend.
Me: *questions what just happened over the last two hours, questions sanity* Okay. Could you please put me in contact with a technical support person?
Them: Yes.
Me:
Let’s just gloss over the fact that I had requested technical support in the first place. The upshot is that I eventually received a message from technical support with the information that backup settings had been changed, resulting in a significant increase in storage usage. NO SHIT, SHERLOCK. After some investigation, I discovered that they had changed their backup system provider, which led to a duplication of everything. Technical support assisted me in a fix, which I stoically and dutifully applied. It’s fine, I’m fine, everything is fine.
So imagine my surprise when, a few days later, I received my annual renewal notice, and learned that the new and improved backup system was not a mere $10, but quadruple the previous cost for a third of the time period. Now listen. Writing is a hobby of mine and as with any hobby, there are costs involved. If I played golf or pickleball or tennis, if I was a crafter or fibre artist, if I was into photography or painting, if I had a dollhouse, all of those hobbies would come with costs in the form of fees, materials, or equipment. Web hosting fees and backup programs are part of the cost of having a writing hobby, and I have no plans to introduce ads or sponsored content or affiliate links in order to offset those costs. HOWEVER. This uptick seemed over-the-top, not to mention I did not consent to it, which is how I found myself on chat with customer service, again, for another 75 minutes at 5:00 am on a Friday morning. The happy news is that I was able to switch to a less-expensive backup platform. The sad news is that I was charged for BOTH platforms, which required yet another conversation with customer service to reverse the charges.
Weekly Reading
I was on a road trip this week, which called for lovely light reads!
28 Summers. I have read a number of Elin Hildebrand books, and this is far and away my favourite! I loved this story of a “same time next summer” affair that spans, as the title suggests, 28 Summers. The story really captured me and I became very invested in these two people who, despite everything, continue their once-a-year affair every Labour Day. I read most of it ON Labour Day this year, which was fun. Each chapter starts with “what we were thinking about this year” and it starts in 1993, the year I was 18, so I have very vivid memories of all of the references. What a lovely book of romance and friendship – and a steamy, sexy, kind of scandalous, affair.
The Shippers. This was a cute, fluffy, totally predictable and a little bit silly story of childhood friends who discover they love each other while on a cruise ship for her sister’s wedding. Listen, it’s just fun. Let’s not overthink it! Plus, the love interests are both mathematicians!
Part of Your World. A big-city, wealthy doctor accidentally drives into a ditch, and is rescued by a B&B owner and small town mayor. They come from different worlds and are in very different tax brackets. Can they make it work? Well, I think you know the answer. This was a sweet and satisfying book.
The remedy for a week of discontent is a road trip! We had a great time travelling to see friends and my parents; good times were had, wine was consumed, and games were played. Now it’s time to get all caught up on regular life – and to prepare for a very special 21st birthday tomorrow. Have a beautiful week, friends. xo
Oh my gosh! I’m sorry you had to go through this process that could’ve taken like 45 minutes for them to solve 😭. I’m glad you stood your ground though because I don’t know if it’s me but lately subscriptions have just been straight up predatory (the gaslighting into just paying for more storage is insane)! So I’m happy you were able to find a new platform.
and Elin Hilderbrand!! I only read The Hotel Nantucket (which I was obsessed with) and don’t know what to read next! I was thinking of Swan Song but 28 Summers sounds good too 👀
I loved 28 Summers! It was my favourite of hers for sure.
The web host was SUCH a process, it was exhausting!! I hear you about the subscriptions. They are sneaky lately!
OMG, what a frustrating experience with your hosting company. I feel like Stephany went through something similar lately, too. You know it’s bad when you are asking to bypass the customer service and going straight to the tech team. I am the sort of owner of a tech application for reviewing portfolios so I spend a lot of time working with our tech team and India and let me tell you, IT IS NOT GREAT, BOB. Sometimes when I explain an issue, they will screen share and SHOW ME CODE. I am not a coder. They might as well share something in Farsi or German or . Our tech calls always happen early in the day due to the difference in time zones so it really sets the mood for the day in a not good way and I feel like everyone in the office that hears me on the phone must think I am a raging b*tch but really I am just trying to do my job/keep the train on the tracks. Sigh.
Is 28 Summers about infidelity? I am not sure if affair is extramarital or just a rendezvous. I have not read any Hilderbrand but I’d like to. But if that one is about an extramarital affair it’s NSFL. Right now I’m reading “John of John” and I’m finding it to be a bit of a slog but I’ve heard such great things about it so I am sticking with it. But I might need to wave the white flag if I don’t feel more drawn in soon.
Haha! The tech team in India! We had one of those and it was also not great!
Stephany did go through that same thing AND I SYMPATHIZED BECAUSE I HAD THE SAME ISSUE THREE YEARS PRIOR. So now here we are. AGAIN!!!
Lisa, 28 Summers is NOT for you! It is about infidelity!
What a nightmare Nicole. There is nothing worse than these customer service conversations that go nowhere. I would have been sobbing. I recently went through a much smaller issue with our cell phone provider that involved phoning once a month for 4 months for a credit I was owed. Each time I was promised it was applied but they didn’t carry through. I won though, finally. I promise that if golf was your hobby you’d be spending a lot more money!
Pat, exactly!! I don’t mind paying for a hobby, and if I was a golfer I’d be paying WAY more!
Oh god, I hate dealing with the phone provider. What a pain!!!
Oh, that is so, so frustrating. It’s also giving me an uneasy feeling, because I’m reminded that something I (and we) value so much, our blogs, are largely out of our control. We’re really relying on the hosting companies not to screw everything up for us. Well- glad you got it all straightened out!
A road trip!!! With Rex! (At least, I assume from the photo that he went along). It sounds really fun. And- is it your son’s birthday tomorrow??? Enjoy!
Jenny, it is so frustrating! But I’m going to have my son’s roommate come over and do some trouble-shooting and extra backups so that I’m not totally reliant on the web host.
It is my son’s birthday! Cake for all!
Oh, wow, what a headache.
I am sending this to Beth because the service provider for my blog also says we need to pay more for storage, hundreds of dollars more, and Beth is looking for a workaround.
Happy b-day to J!
Steph, this is not the first time that I’ve had this kind of issue, and it’s always some kind of duplication problem. So frustrating!
OMG tech stuff is so frustrating! I do not have a host so cannot relate to that, but I have had some doozies. We used to always say that the reason people liked our team at work was that, unlike many other teams, our first response was not always “no.” I find that many times the answer is no, but without any attempt to figure it out. This is why AI, although annoying, can often replace these reps! If the canned response is no, we definitely do not need to spend 75 minutes on the phone figuring that out! I am glad you (kind of) got it sorted out.
I once called to inquire about canceling my internet, thinking that maybe they would decrease my monthly price or something, given I was going to switch providers. They, of course, said no. I switched providers. I then called to cancel it for real and the guy said, “what can we do to keep you?” and I was like GTFO! Don’t try to give me a discount now, after I already made the move! The stupid thing is, if he would have given me something small even, like $5, I probably would have stayed, because I had to have an entirely new install, which was a pain.
Ugh, the AI was terrible with my webhost. So unhelpful AND they didn’t connect me to the right person! I have not had good experiences with AI to say the least.
That is SO frustrating about your internet provider!!! I have definitely had discounts from quitting a service – but it’s useless AFTER you’ve quit! Gah!
UGH. We also have bluehost, and whenever something like this happens my husband deals with it, because he is much more tech savvy than I am. He convinced me to switch from Blogger way back in 2006, when my blog was less than 1 year old.
My most frustrating customer service experience was when we lived in San Francisco, and we tried some service that our cable company offered, and decided we didn’t want it, and when I asked them to come get their device, they wanted to charge me a fee. The thing is, their guy was going to be there THE NEXT DAY doing something else, and I told him no, I don’t want to pay a fee for you to send someone else, I want to just give it to the guy who is going to be here. He argued with me for about 20 minutes, and he talked in this really slow, 0.7285 speed voice, and if I could have climbed through the phone and slapped him to sleep, I would have. I ended up getting mean, and I told him if he was going to charge me to send someone ELSE to come get it, I would put it out front for him, by which I meant I was going to throw it out of my third floor window. Surprisingly enough, that worked, and the guy who was coming anyway was suddenly able to pick it up for no charge. That was in 1993 I think, and the guy I was talking to was also in San Francisco, so there were no language or accent things to manage. Today I would probably just say, “OK, if that’s your stupid process, that’s your stupid process.”
OMG how frustrating!!!
Over Labor Day weekend, Blogger sort of busted. Comments weren’t working, a lot of blogs actually were off-line (I heard a horror story of one of them being DELETED), and while I have a backup of my blog from maybe six months ago, I know that my blog situation is precarious and is depending on a site that is no longer being supported. So all of this brings me to the thought that maaaaybe I should migrate to another platform. And then I hear stories like this and I realize that I don’t have the bandwidth for it. If my blog disappears, SO BE IT. I guess. My husband and I talked about what I think my blog is “worth” in terms of how much would I be willing to pay per day for it and I came down to $1/day. I will not spend more than $365 a year on it. Is this reasonable? I don’t even know.
Anyway. I congratulate you on persevering through a customer service hellscape. I would certainly have cried or screamed at some point along the way.
Engie, you will be interested to know that my hosting/ backup/ whatever I have costs about $365 USD per year, so maybe it’s an option for you!
I’m with Engie! Blogger is…well it is what it is…but I’ve spent 0.0 hours talking to tech support in the past 15 years. Aw man, it took me until now to do the math that my blog is 15 years old. I should at least back it up though.
A road trip with Rex!!!! Priceless!
Happy 21st!!!
I could not BEAR to have something happen to my blog, so I am willing to pay for the backups!
Ooof! What a nightmare with your blog host! Making yet another nebulous resolution to back stuff up somehow…
But, Nicole! Those photos… So wonderful! I have a deep yearning to see Canada (I haven’t been outside of Toronto, Montreal, and Stratford). I know my Canadian friends won’t (rightly!!) visit the U.S., so maybe I should just start making plans.
Yes, you SHOULD start making plans! My very unbiased opinion is that the Canadian Rockies are the most beautiful sights in the world.
Girlfriend, I LOST MY BLOG a few years ago. So I feel the pain and I only had a few years worth of content. It was… traumatic. (And, also, in a way, a great thing for me… BUT I still 10/10 do not recommend it.)
I have a twice daily backup software that I use because one bitten (or, once deleted), twice TERRIFIED.
Technical services is a level of hell, I believe. It is frustrating, belittling, and always expensive and almost always unsatisfying.
I’m glad it’s sorted and also… yikes.
I went back and read all about your waxing fiasco because I wasn’t reading you blog in 2020 and it was hilarious, as I knew it would be.
Elisabeth, your experience is the exact reason I got on top of this problem! I could not bear to have mine disappear! THE WAXING STORY LIVES ON.
Boy, if anyone needed a roadtrip, you did. I hate dealing with customer service with all my heart and well done on hanging in. There are stronger souls who would have bagged it. You also remind me about backing up the blog, which I’m not that good at doing regularly. Like you, I use it as a calendar. When did we go to Maryland? Let me check! And, it usually pops up with a quick search. How frustrating, annoying and what a time dump. But you are right — we all spend money on our hobbies and interests (often much more than we would for a blog site). It’s wise to remember.
Jeanie, exactly! How else will I remember what happened the summer my kids were like 9 and 10? I can barely remember yesterday! I need the blog for memories! And my goodness, some hobbies are super expensive, this isn’t really bad in comparison.
Tech is a nightmare really and what a headache!! How frustrating but in very much appreciate the Mad Men meme’s they are the best. Another favorite is the one with Betty in the backyard smoking and shooting at birds or maybe nothing. Have a great week!
Lol, well, I had to do something to make the very boring topic a bit more interesting! Sheesh. I am not a tech person but maybe I should become one!
omgggggggg. I live in fear of my blog disappearing.
Girl, same.
AAAAARRRRRGGGGG! Tech problems are so frustrating! Talking to tech support for hours is so frustrating! I’m sweating just thinking about it.
I’ve had better luck since I switched to WordPress.com which is hosted by them. When I was hosted by BlueHost, I had an issue and lost a bunch of my older posts. They said it was my fault. I don’t remember the techy speak as to why it was my fault though. Luckily, I had a habit of printing my posts, so I have hard copies! (I didn’t repost them.) Since switching, I haven’t been printing, which reminds me that I should probably start! But then I hate to use all the paper and ink it requires. Sigh.
I’m glad you had a nice road trip! What beautiful photos! And happy birthday to the 21-year-old!
My site is WordPress but my host is Bluehost, and I honestly cannot think of migrating sites again. But I think I’m going to get my son’s roommate to come and do some cleanup and trouble shooting for me, just in case such a thing happens again!
Oh Nicole, this was hilarious! 😂 You have such a talent for turning the most tedious tech-support nightmare into a story that every blogger can relate to.
And I think the 18 years of grocery cart returns, body odour and bikini waxing absolutely justify fighting to keep the archives alive!
And where did you take that beautiful road trip? The mountains and lakes look gorgeous!
*takes bow* I live but to serve! I mean, these are important stories that deserve to live on!
We road tripped from our house in BC to Alberta, through the Rockies and to my parents’ place on a lake!
Ooof! I feel your pain. Talking to support can be a nightmare, be it for a tech platform or a service provider whose name begins with B and is four letters and rhymes with knell! Having been in IT, I can tell you that an outlier like those 42,000+ files on one day is almost always indicative of a problem on that day, and that should have been ringing all kinds of bells when you told them and they should have connected you to tech support right away! I’m on blogger which is no longer supported and I really haven’t given much thought to backing up my blog! Maybe I should. But I don’t want to think about it now. That’s a problem for tomorrow!
Pearl, when I first started out I was on blogger, but I think I migrated in…2014? Maybe? I just cannot bear the thought of anything happening so I keep paying. But yes, would you NOT think 42000 files added on a single day might indicate…something??? Gah.
Nicole. NICOLE. Nicole. Several times while reading, I had to close my eyes and breathe deeply and calmly and remind myself that It Will All Be Okay. MY GOD. The whole experience! Absolutely maddening!!!!! BLARGH! I am very glad you finally got it worked out but MY GOD THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK AND NOT BE AN UTTER SHITSHOW FOR MULTIPLE HOURS OF YOUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE.
Top tier use of Mad Men gifs to punctuate this post.
YES WHY CAN’T THINGS JUST WORK???? I was so frustrated. I could not BELIEVE that the whole time I had been talking, the person who I was dealing with was completely unable to do anything except sell me more storage. WHY WHY WHYYYYY
GIRL, first things first: you need to frequently back up your blog (you can download a bare-bones version easily to your computer – I think this is WordPress you’re on, right?)
Also, I had very frustrating blog host issues before myself… and usually the helpline is NOT helpful (remember the issue with Feedly and how I had to figure out myself that their third party security software was blocking Feedly from getting my feed?!)
I also had to switch blog hosts because my previous hosting company was going to quadruple my hosting fees… it’s so, so frustrating when they even leave you to figure out what the problem is (and then they go “oops, my bad”. )
I am very glad you were persistent and got this figured out (for now)… but I need to ask: who’s your hosting company?
San, my blog gets backed up weekly – by the backup provider from my host, Bluehost. To quote Don Draper “THAT’S WHAT THE MONEY IS FOR!” And they have been good for the most part at fixing things, but I have to put in so much time and effort every couple of years. I’ve switched providers a total of three times and I just don’t know if I have the emotional fortitude to do another site migration. My son’s roommate is a computer science guy, so he’s going to help me make sure I’m extra backed up on my end, just in case things implode.
Oh, I know they’re supposed (!) to back up your blog and it’s partly what we’re paying for, but I also do a manual backup, so I can sleep at night! I am glad your son has a computer science roommate who can help! That’s always a good resource to have.
I’m glad too because I don’t really know what to do for a manual backup! But I will find out soon!
Holy crap. This is my nightmare, especially since Blogger has been glitching like crazy lately. That, and the fact that Google owns them and is so capricious about simply STOPPING SOME FEATURES OF FOREVER PLATFORMS WITH LITTLE TO NO NOTICE. If I lose 21 years of writing, I’ll need therapy. And drugs.
Trying to get Customer Service people to deviate from their scripts is almost impossible. You got so much farther than I thought you would have.
Nance, I was with Blogger originally and then migrated to WordPress in 2014 (I think?). I do think it was worth it because I have been able to get backups, and any time I have had an issue I do get it dealt with. EVENTUALLY. I mean, it did take a week and it was frustrating, but my site is safe!
What a journey, Nicole! The fact that you had to call customer support (well, and technical support) multiple times for something they did and didn’t communicate – and then to be charged more (multiple times) – must have been so frustrating. Especially since you figured out what they did and had to convince them (when they did it!!). Yikes. You sure earned that road trip!!
That was exactly the issue – they changed their backup provider, and it caused me a massive headache. Gah!!!
The term “contact customer service” immediately makes me tense because it requires a lot of time and patience which usually when I need to call them, I don’t have much of either of those, GAH!!
I had an interesting customer service situation with Expedia a few years back. Two calls in and the problem was still not resolved. Before making the 3rd call, I had gathered all the detailed information from the previous 2 calls, passed this onto the 3rd person, who kept thanking me for being so organized and told me this was really making her job so much easier, which in turn solved my problem. A win-win situation here!
Driving through the Rockies – so beautiful!
Oh, that’s smart, Jacquie! With the web host, you have the option to get the chat transcripts emailed to you and so I did. But argh, so frustrating! And there is no way out but through.
Euuuuugh you are a paying customer they should have sent you to tech support pretty much immediately when you *hadn’t added those files*!
Also, I would like to remind everyone of the existence of archive.org’s Wayback Machine, which gets kludgy to navigate through since in Days Of Yore they did not back up pictures, but the text – the precious, precious blog text – including your recipes, incidentally: if they ran over your site and you can remember the domain name and when it existed: it’s Still There and it is a glorious thing.
KC, THANK YOU!!! Good reminder of the Wayback Machine – I remember you telling me about that when YMC dismantled its website. I was so sure that those recipes would always be there! Luckily I DID have most of them written down/ copied somewhere, but not all!
75 min chat at 5am!!! gosh, this is so annoying but that’s part of life maintenance. I agree with you that it’s not just the $ but justice!!! glad to hear you have figured it out after all. I also have strong attachment to my blog as it serves a record of our life highlights and can’t imagine someone taking it away. Good idea to back it up though, have you figured out how to do that?
I know, Coco, I have so much attachment to my blog! My son’s roommate is going to help me so I will have some extra security.
First of all, I enjoyed your use of Mad Men! And the beauty from your road trip!
Nothing riles me up more than attempting to deal with customer service. I went round and round last year with my mother’s final hospital bill. It was not the insurance! It was the hospital. She’s been gone now 14 months and it’s still not resolved. I refuse to make another phone call regarding it. I closed her estate in June, so in my mind, it’s over. Let them hunt me down!
Aren’t you glad we have the term, ‘gaslighting’ now? Nothing could better describe the experience of being told you’re the crazy one and that the facts are not actually real?! I’m currently dealing with my Blogger feed not updating. It hasn’t shown a new post in 6 days. I’m glad you were able to resolve the issue, but still!
Glad you are seeing the fun of Hilderbrand books!
COME AND GET ME, HOSPITAL – I remember you dealing with that and wow, what a headache. I was so frustrated with them telling me it was my problem, not theirs, and that nothing at all had changed WHEN IN FACT IT HAD CHANGED.
I just need you to know that I laughed out loud multiple times reading this, and while this experience sucked for you, I’m super grateful that you blogged about it so that I could have a good laugh.
Note to self: always check wax supplies prior to commencing a wax session.
Always check wax supplies!!! This is the takeaway! Also don’t try to do your own bikini wax, this is what the professionals are for!
Ugh, I had a long comment about customer service and the time I threatened to throw some company’s equipment out of my 3rd story window once but it disappeared. Suffice to say, I HEAR YOU, and I FEEL YOU, and OMG, being in loops with customer service agents who either cannot or will not send you to talk to the correct person are ENRAGING. Burn it all down.
I’m on wordpress with bluehost too…converted from blogger in 2006, when my blog was but an infant. Thankfully that was my husband’s decision for his own blog and web page and so on, so when something happens and they need dealing with, he is the one to do it.
It didn’t disappear! It just was in response to Kyria for some reason.
The loops of having the wrong people – FOR TWO HOURS – that was the most frustrating part! Like, could we not have connected me to tech support WHEN I REQUESTED IT THROUGH THEIR STUPID AI MENU??
I saw that my original comment is there! Who knows why it was in response to Kyria, that wasn’t my intention. Oh well! And wow, yes, SO FRUSTRATING, when you ask for tech support and don’t get them for SO LONG.
After reading your comment on Jenny’s blog I decided to come over and have a look and say hello. Just UGH about the hosting problem! That can be such a pain in the a**!
My husband and I had a business account with a local hosting provider until December last year. They claimed it was for “resource hungry websites” and could host up to 20 websites, ecommerce and whatnot. My husband was only using the DNS, I was using it for my blog and for my two online shops (of which one had still very little traffic and the second was just under development). All of a sudden I started seeing outages and that my resource usage limit was reached, several times a day, for doing nothing. I got nothing done for a while other than troubleshooting and frustration! After a long time I happened to see that the name on the invoice was different, and learned that the company had been aquired by some other company in the UK. It happens very often that when a company buys another company, they either shut it down or they decrease the quality of the service. I suspected the latter and we eventually moved all our hosting needs to an own server.
Website hosting is such a jungle and there are so many bad providers. I’m sorry this happened to you. Well done for your perseverance.
But I’m glad you mention about the costs of blogging as a hobby. So many people seem to think that you shouldn’t pay for a blog platform if you don’t monetise your blog, but still people happily pay for other hobbies and I think that’s so odd.
Hi Susanne!!! Nice to have you here!
Argh, how frustrating for you!!! It’s awful that they can’t give you that information from the get-go.
I totally agree – this is a hobby, hobbies cost money, and there is no need for me to monetise it in any way!
Thanks for coming by to say hi!
Oh Nicole, what a nightmare. I would have lost my mind somewhere around the second hour of trying to convince them that 42,000 files appearing in one day was NOT NORMAL.
But I completely understand why you kept at it. I’ve been blogging for so long now that the thought of losing all those years makes me feel sick. Our blogs really do become these little archives of our lives.
Also, I think a road trip was exactly what you deserved after all of that. Those pictures are gorgeous. And happy 21st to your son! 💜
I remembered someone who used to blog, before she shut down her blog she had it all printed off into a book. I have thought of doing that, but it kind of feels overwhelming. I’m sure there are services to do that but it would be such an enormous undertaking! Anyway, I will keep at it, and be happy with my little corner of the internet.
One more thought, I just read this comment above mine from Susanne: But I’m glad you mention about the costs of blogging as a hobby. So many people seem to think that you shouldn’t pay for a blog platform if you don’t monetise your blog, but still people happily pay for other hobbies and I think that’s so odd.?
Yes, this.
EXACTLY!!!! Also, I think that readers would trust me less on Favourite Things if I was being paid to talk about those Favourite Things!
Your round-and-round story with the non-tech support is infuriating. I could feel myself getting angry just reading it in second person. Remember the old saying: Going Postal? What would it be now? Going Internet? What an absolute time suck, but glad you got it taken care of.
Happy birthday to your son! I’m assuming it’s your son and not you, your husband, or Rex.
Twenty-Eight Summers sounds interesting and fun to me!! I mean, I’m not going to have a twenty-eight-year affair, but reading about someone else’s is intriguing.
Going internet!
Suz, this is the thing – I am not having affairs, but I LOVE reading about affairs! And this one was such a good book. I just loved it! A 28 year affair, imagine. Well, not for US but for us to read!
Just reading this really stressed me out! I can grasp some smaller pieces of the tech world, but there is a lot that goes over my head. I would have cried more than you..lol. I’m glad you worked things out..I think? Did you work things out? Technology is great until it isn’t.
I did work things out, and I am going to hire my son’s computer science roommate to come over and do an extra check on things!
I’m so glad you were persistent and worked things out. I would be SO sad if your little corner of the interwebs disappeared.
Reading experiences like this makes me realize I should probably be more educated about my blogging hobby. Not related, but I tried to take a coding class and I was so confused from day one, so I never go very far. But maybe it isn’t that bad? I dont’ know.
What a sweet and cozy week of reading you had!
Thanks so much Diane! I feel like I need to learn more about the inner workings – but it feels overwhelming!
Apparently, there’s more than one hairy situation mentioned in this post. Yikes x 2. I will refrain from any “honeypot” comment even if I make my tongue bleed because I’m biting it so hard.
I’m paying for a space upgrade on WordPress and even with that, I’m at 97%. This does not bode well, because the next tier up is a freakin’ business plan that’s 3x what I’m paying now.
But I love the blog and I can’t not share photos, so I suppose I’ll limp along for as long as I can before begrudgingly switching to the pricier plan.
Yikes!!! I feel your pain. I’ve had to upgrade a few times and I feel like it’s pretty pricey, although it does average out to be a fairly reasonable number when I think of it as “my hobby.”
That’s the argument I use to convince myself, as well.
Nicole, I am sorry you had to deal with that. But I laughed out loud while reading your descriptions paired with Mad Men memes. I loved it. I especially needed the laughter this weekend because I’ve had my own, crazily frustrating situation with the YMCA. Thankfully it’s resolved but I was crying and rage-vomiting.
Lastly, I love the very last photo of a moody sky and melancholy trees.
Yikes, Daria, your situation sounds so frustrating! I hope you got it all sorted. xo
You KNOW I can empathize with you because I have BEEN THERE and being on with tech support is so frustrating! Everything is finally squared away with my hosting but now I’m having all sorts of commenting problems. It just happened again this week and when I went to tech support, they were all “ooh, sorry, we can’t help you.” I had to pull up my transcript from a previous chat where they helped me for THIS EXACT ISSUE to tell them WHAT TO DO to solve this issue. And then, magically, they were able to solve it. Am I tech support now???
I really hope you solved the issues and don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to fund your hobby! Like you said, I am definitely willing to shell out money to pay for my blog/fund this hobby of mine, but it has to be reasonable, too!
Hahaha maybe you ARE your own tech support now!
Oh Stephany, it was such a thing, and I had my son’s roommate come over yesterday and troubleshoot. He was like “Um, I think I found your problem.” It took him less than 15 minutes of poking around to figure it out and get it fixed. I think I’m just going to pay him every time something goes awry because at least he wasn’t gaslighting me about needing MORE AND MORE STORAGE.
That customer “service” experience sounds horrendous. Well done for having the stamina to see it through to the end. I suppose they bank on people not being able to see it through to the end though.
I had a hair pulling experience with KOBO customer service earlier this year when they sent my a faulty device then kept emailing that they couldn’t find my return in their warehouse (never mind that it was only a few days after I’s sent it back and they shouldn’t expect to have the return yet). They kept wanting me to send the my tracking information which was at home on my desk because by the time they got their act together to send my the return info we only had a few hours to post it back before ai left for Noosa. So annoying I think I got three emails asking for the tracking information before they emailed that they had it. This was on top of the many emails trying to get the return barcode sent out.
A road trip sounds like the perfect antidote. I hope the party was a success
ARRRRGHHHHHH that kind of thing is SO frustrating!!! I’m sorry you had to go through it. What a massive pain!