Tag Archives: hoist on my own petard

Jun 18 2012

Finally Figured It Out

I very damned near out-smarted myself.    If you were among those who read my rather frantic post yesterday on a temporary blog I set up while I was locked out of this WordPress.com account,  you will recall that yesterday I was heartsick at the thought that I had lost access to my blogs.    I never did figure out how the password got changed.   But I did finally figure out why I wasn’t getting the password re-set e-mails.

I really don’t use e-mail much at all anymore.   And one of the biggest things that contributed to my e-mail being so full of junk messages that it simply wasn’t worth it to try to spot the occasional message that actually required attention was the huge number of automated messages I receive from WordPress.com  blogs.   The trouble is they get sent out with all kinds of different return e-mail addresses that it proved very difficult to set up filters to manage the flow.   And it turns out I had set a filter that caused all messages from  donotreply@wordpress.com  to “skip inbox”.     Which is to say that I never saw the messages that were automatically deleted before being delivered.    I deleted that filter rule,  then went back to the login screen and sent myself a password re-set e-mail.    It arrived instantly and ten minutes later I am typing this post.   I will probably delete or hide the temporary blog I set up.

I can’t tell you how pleased and happy I am to be once again commanding my own blog ship.   I am frankly a little embarrassed to have mis-configured my e-mail filters such that I could not receive the one message I really needed to receive.      But I am thankful that I finally figured out what the problem was.    And I promise that tomorrow I will be back with another Just Three Words post.   My sincerest thanks to everyone who made a comment or suggestion.    I really, really appreciate you all.

Feb 14 2012

A Narrower View?

I rather doubt that I am the only  one who sorts the people he knows into two basic categories.   Let’s call them “nice folks”  and  ”@ssholes”.    You may use different labels for these two categories,  and I’m sure that some folks have more than just two categories.   I also recognize that people are complex.   Even a major a-hole may sometimes demonstrate real kindness.   And sometimes, I know,  even the nicest of people may act like jerks.   But it most always seems jarring to me when I suddenly find myself having to move someone from one list to the other.

I have to confess, right up front that I have never run a large charitable organization.   Those who know me probably also know that I am not a social media rockstar err expert,  although I do spend a lot of time doing social media and have written a book about Empire Avenue.    Some of my favorite folks that I’ve met on Empire Avenue are doing social media not to promote themselves or their businesses but to support charities that are working to make this world we all share a bit better.   And I like to think that in some small way I have helped some of these friends,  both by doing social media activities to promote their causes and by sharing my opinions on strategies and tactics.   And up until just the other day,  I’ve never had a friend react badly to any constructive criticism, politely offered.

Having posted innumerable times about my belief that it is far better to quietly block people you don’t care to interact with,  I am hardly in any position to criticize anyone for blocking me.  But I do have to say that if your response to someone pointing out something you may be doing wrong is to (as Dan Savage might say) ‘block the mother fucker already”,  you probably really do belong on my a-hole list rather than my nice people list.