On Sunday night, my blog’s soul left its template and saw a white page.
After floating through the blogosphere for twenty minutes, wistfully remembering a time when its theme filled a tiny void in cyberspace, my blog bumped into God on his way to his weekly meeting with Steve Jobs.
God smiled, laid his hand on my blog’s astral template and said, “It’s time to go back.”
And back it did, awakening on November 24, instead of December 2, the day it died, losing nine days.
My last post, Choosing a Username for Your Self-Hosted Blog, disappeared into 404 purgatory.
404 Purgatory
In my dearly departed last post, I had ranted about Euro hackers from Ukraine and Luxembourg who tried to log in to my blog with the username “Admin.”
How ironic and odd since neither Ukraine nor Luxembourg was able to break the code. However, China did. Not a surprise since Shanghai’s educational system is the best in the world.
After taking a leisurely stroll through my dashboard, Hacker China created a username for himself and then attempted to upload a file to my site. That’s when BlueHost intervened, pulled the plug and my blog died for twenty minutes.
Hacker China was able to sneak in through the back door because I had not deleted several inactive plugins. I should have listened to Lisa at Inspire to Thrive and BlueHost. But, at the time, I was worried about my dying boiler and lack of heat. The boiler had just turned twenty-five, 100 in people years.
This week I learned more than I wanted about boilers, hackers and plugins. Specifically, inactive plugins, which are as bad as Hacker China who created a username for himself without asking. Bastard!
That’s why I suggest you uncheck “Anyone can Register”under dashboard settings. You don’t want ANYONE to register. They’ll mess with your blog and your head. I have enough murky bits floating in my cerebral cesspool.
The point of my hacker post that lingers in 404 purgatory— never choose a simple username like Admin. It’s the most hackable username in the universe and should be nuked from the English language unless your God given name is Admin.
In addition to losing my post about hackers, I also had to re-install CommentLuv and redo other assorted settings in my dashboard. Stuff I HATE doing. WordPress should have never given me administrative powers. I don’t know how to fix things and I kill plants.
I hope you “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Pingback: Karen Woodham
You know, I find your statement “…my blog bumped into God on his way to his weekly meeting with Steve Jobs.” even more disturbing than the fact you were hacked.
I thought Steve Jobs *was* God.
I don’t know what to do now.
hahahaha! I can always count on you to put things in perspective. Well, God is in charge at the moment. Steve Jobs is a smart guy. You never know. He might be the overlord one day soon.
Pingback: Lauren Salkin
“That’s why I suggest you uncheck “Anyone can Register””
Yes indeed. However, I am so glad BlueHost and WordPress were able to fix & restore your blog so quickly. HOORAY.
Thanks!!! I still have some tweaking to do. I’m not receiving notifications of comments via email. Rosanadana was right!
Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. Not okay. Sucks. On this one, I’m embracing a negative attitude.
BlueHost pulled the plug…you have such a great imagination and quirky sense of humor. I always love reading your posts.
I still haven’t recovered from my ordeal. Then again neurotics rarely recover from anything. Anxiety is like a slow drip.
Lauren I just installed commentluv on my blog too, because I loved how it looks here.. but mine ended up looking way different.
Is it because you’re running comment luv premium? Or is there some other plugin I should look at to spiff things up?
Yes, I paid for CommenLuv premium. I had the free version installed but that’s only good for commenting at other CommentLuv blogs. People can see your last post.
Last week, CommenLuv had a discount on the premium edition. They run the discount now and then. I think I paid $34 for it. If you decide to buy it, there are really great instructional videos for installing it. I should probably watch one because I’m clearly doing something wrong with the “replyme” settings.
You need to use a commenting plugin with the free edition of CommenLuv. I noticed that my site loads faster without Disqus. However, I do miss the ability to respond to comments via email.
Wow thanks for all the tips Lauren.. you’re the best and nicest blogger I’ve ever talked to 🙂
Thank you!
I’m glad I was helpful. Honestly, I’m still learning myself. : )
Here are some great sites for blogging tips.
http://inspiretothrive.com
http://basicblogtips.com
http://nannygoatsinpanties.com (how to page)
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Pingback: Lisa
Pingback: Bren
Pingback: Bren
OMG! I would have went into a panic attack. Going to go into wordpress now and looking around. Also, I am thinking of using commentluv.
It was scary. I hope you never experience the dreaded white page. BlueHost told me to delete any inactive plugins, as well as to update plugins regularly. Make sure you are the only username.
I’m still figuring out how to use CommenLuv Premium. So far, I’m happy with it. Some of the settings need tweaking.
Pingback: Lisa
Pingback: Lisa
Scary… thanks for the advice though…. time to change some settings…. Bluehost has also lost posts of mine before when a server went bad… their response to that was basically, our bad.
Hi Luke,
Good idea. Before I started this blog, I didn’t know much about cyber scum. Now I know too much.
I had called BlueHost twice before I saw the white page. The first time – to tell them that someone had logged into my blog. I was told, ‘Nothing to worry about.” The second time – I called about the same issue because it was freaking me out. Again I was told, “Don’t worry.”
Third time was a charm… after I saw the white page.
I backup once a week. BlueHost also does regular backups. They should have had a backup of your blog if it’s a self-hosted site.
Holy cow… I just removed all my old plugins! I hate getting hacked… hate hate hate. It happens a LOT to me! I am glad you are back!!!!!!
Thanks!
Getting hacked truly sucks. We have to be more vigilante to keep those bastards mitts off our dashboards.
Yikes, I hate spammers and hackers. The are at the bottom of the barrel indeed. You know you could have used this post for Silly Sunday. Scary, but you make it funny too.
Have a terrific day. 🙂
I didn’t think it was funny enough. You, too.
hy i’m from arab
I like reading a post that will make people think.
Also, many thanks for allowing for me to comment!