Maybe my age is showing, but when I was a little girl, it wasn’t unusual to see color blocks or a back and white test image on the TV screen 
informing the viewers that the station was experiencing some technical difficulties.
Well, up until recently, we were experiencing some technical difficulties here at All Things Girl. During the midst of the problem, though, we had no way to really inform anyone that tried to visit All Things Girl that:
- (one) we were aware that the website wasn’t responding correctly
and - (two) due to the technical nature of the problem, we couldn’t inform you here.
Was it how we wanted to handle things? Nope. Were we happy about it? Nope.
So What Happened
The back-end of All Things Girl is operated via WordPress. We’ve been successfully using WordPress since 2007 without a hiccup.
During a routine “update” of WordPress and Plug-Ins, three lines of code had a conflict, which didn’t allow our theme (the design) to talk to WordPress and/or a particular plug-in. We needed to disable all the plug-ins to troubleshoot the problem, however, because of those lines of code causing a breakdown, we couldn’t get into WordPress to disable them.
It was this Catch 22 of computer logic. Fun, huh? We were effectively locked out. We couldn’t log in to put up a note that we’d be back. And if we uploaded a pure HTML file on the server to let you know, we ran the risk of losing more than 5 years of archives.
In order to “fix” the problem, we would need to go in on the server side of life and remove themes and or plug-ins so that WordPress could so that we could then re-activate all the plug-ins. There were a few challenges along the way, but I’m happy to say that everything is working perfectly now.
In fact, we were able to install the most recent update of WordPress without a hitch. Nifty, huh?
Some Honesty
Some of you may be wondering why we didn’t address the problem more quickly. And I do understand the question and even the criticism.
Did we like the site being down? No. Did we have a game plan to fix it? Yes. Did we feel a sense of urgency about it? Yes and No.
To be honest? All Things Girl doesn’t pay any of our bills.
Despite the professionalism and excellence you see around here, All Things Girl is a purely voluntary operation.
We don’t charge a “reading fee” or any other kind of submission fee to those who submit. We don’t charge a “subscription” fee to those who read and view us. We haven’t asked for donations to offset operational costs or to pay our staff. And when it comes to selling advertisements, we’ve dabbled in it briefly, but overall, it wasn’t much fun.
The challenge arose right before Christmas and in addition to time with our families, we each had those end-of-the-year and beginning-of-the-year business tasks on the forefront.
Every member of the All Things Girl staff does this for the love of creation and putting the work of creative souls into the spotlight.
Who We Are
The Staff of All Things Girl is a diverse team of talented and dedicated individuals that strive to bring you a quality publication.
Most of us also have careers that demand our attention. We have deadlines and clients and sometimes bringing home the bacon takes precedence over diving into All Things Girl. It doesn’t mean that All Things Girl isn’t important.
We do our best. Sometimes, we may stumble. And in the long run, we create an outstanding publication.
The Future
The blog here at All Things Girl is back in business. You can tune in for reviews, opinions, and interviews and so much more beginning today. Our new and popular series here in the blog: The Habitation Series and Conversations Over Coffee will be back this week.
We have some new series in the works, including interviews with the staff members of All Things Girl – to give you an opportunity to discover who’s behind the masthead and what we do in our day-to-day lives.
The most recent issue of All Things Girl – with the theme of “Then & Now” will launch around February 5th and remain active until April 16th. Future editions of All Things Girl. The planned publication dates for the future have adjusted:
- Fear & Courage (Publication Date 04/17/2013)
- Dark & Light (Publication Date 07/17/2013
- Rise & Fall (Publication Date 10/15/2013)
We are taking submissions for Future Editions of All Things Girl.
Thank you.
All Things Girl is in it’s 12th year of publication – ancient in an internet age.
We thank you for your patience. For your understanding. For your submissions. For your readership.
Here’s to the future and creativity and living lives we love.
I was able to read when I was four. When the colors showed up, and the words said, “Please stand by,” I would stand in front of the television because I thought I had to stand there before the tele would start working again. So glad you are back up and running!
LoL . . .I did the same . . . .asked my Dad what “Please Stand By” meant . . .He said “Technical Difficulties.” I said, “What are Technical Difficulties?” He said . . .”Someday we will learn.”
The internet has taught us to be patient and really understand the true meaning of “Technical Difficulties!”