Created by Julie Goucher, July 2019
It has been some time since I wrote here, let alone write a Desk Ramblings. I needed to take a step back and remove one stress factor. That said, I don’t view writing here as a stress. It has simply been a casualty of me getting overwhelmed.
I am feeling much better, there are still issues for me to deal with, but the worse is behind me. My never-ending to do list has grown by several items, both caused by WordPress.
I am a creature of habit. I dislike writing in blocks and routinely write posts with the classic edit option. Except the option has disappeared and is only available to those with business accounts. Whilst I do pay for my site, I do not have a business account and currently do not feel it as value for money.
Whilst I was pondering and debating the classic edit I noticed that there were some changes on my site that I had not done, and as I pondered on that, I decided that my categories and archives were too long and could do with some tidying, so you will see some tweaks in the coming days weeks
Back in the summer I had issues accessing my Twitter or X account. After a number of attempts at logging in I finally managed it, however this was not a case of me forgetting a password.
Someone had hacked into my account, changed the email on the account and then deleted all my saved posts, messages, followers and those accounts I was following. I reached out to Twitter support and frankly they were useless. Then the hacker changed my email back so I could login and inspect the damage. I have no idea who might have done this, but the whole situation left a bad taste and Twitter support were frankly a disappointment.
This was just a few weeks after a cyber incident involving a well known UK retailer. I did not think much of it, until I had a bogus debit, resulting in the bank completely replacing my card and going through a rather tedious online form which returned the funds to me.
I firmly believe in looking forward, not back which is curious for someone who a genealogist and historian, but there we are. Meanwhile, I need to get this online space tweaked and adjusted. Whilst I am still on Twitter, I have moved my account to BlueSky, but I am still at that stage which is akin to wearing in a new pair of shoes. I have also been looking at Sub-Stack, but we shall see.
In the meantime, I am almost at the end of another busy year of tutoring for Pharos – I have just started tutoring the last course for 2025, and all courses will be available in 2026. It has been another busy year giving presentations to various groups, including the Society of Genealogists, I have three talks to wrap up the year. I am trying to conclude a couple of projects that have been underway for too long.
That said, I am keen to get back to my online space, I have missed it. Until next time!
Julie Goucher ~ Anglers Rest 
I’m sorry to hear that everything has been so difficult. I hope things get better soon.
Re social media: I have no idea if Blue Sky support is better, but though it’s still important to curate your feed, the people are certainly much nicer.
Alas, I fear the Classic WP editor is on the way out. I’ve completely ignored the block editor because it doesn’t do things I need it to do e.g. edit an image, not unless I use HTML even to change the alignment and I find that tiresome. But lately though I always start a new post using Classic (I have it bookmarked on my browser), as soon as I save a draft it turns it into Block Editor and there’s no getting it back. At this stage my workaround is not to save a draft because WP is autosaving anyway, delaying the Save until I have inserted all my pictures and got the layout that I want. But the day is nigh when I will have to decide either to stick with an editor that doesn’t meet my needs, or just give up blogging and do something else.
I just wish they would leave things alone!
LikeLike
So sorry to read about all the stuff that’s been happening – no surprise to me Twitter/X was of no use when it came to support.Interesting re: WordPress – so far I still have the option to use the Classic Editor (my preference as well), however, I’ve started trying out ways of using the Blocks Editor in anticipation of the day I’m cut off from the other one. Now I’m wondering when it will happen to me!Sub-stack is intriguing, but the thought of losing my whole blog (10 years old in February) and/or trying to rebuild it on another platform is daunting…Hope we both find a solution!
LikeLike