Hi everyone,
1. New ad network
Today I experimented with a new ad network, and apparently things went wonky. 😛
I thought I’d approved selected rows of ads interspersed into each review, but Beez alerted me that she saw literal entire pages of ads. 😱 How awful. 😫
If you encountered that today, I’m very sorry.
I’ve since deleted everything and started over, and now, what I have in place – supposedly – is single rows of 3 ads, to be allowed every 1,000 words, plus a single row of 3 ads, at the very end of the post. I’ve removed pop-unders, and I’ve also removed the banner ad at the top of the page.
Do let me know if the updated ads format isn’t working, and I will see how to fix it.
2. Glitchy upgrade
Another thing that’s been contributing to my structural woes, is that I recently upgraded my blog plan to the Business plan. It’s a chunk more money, but I did the upgrade because it promised to give me a lot more options that weren’t available before, and I was able to pay for it, thanks to the contributions that you guys have made via Paypal, and through Patreon.
Thank you! See, you really are helping to keep the blog going! ❤️
The downside of this, though, is that the upgrade has appeared to create glitches on the site. Things were behaving a bit weirdly here and there, and I’ve been online with Tech Support for many hours in the last couple of days, trying to get things sorted out.
3. Edit button for comments!
An upside to the upgrade, is that I’ve managed to install a plugin that allows you to edit your comment, up to 15 minutes after you posted it. I’ve tested it and it seems to work fine. Woot!
I know some of you (like MeriJ) have been asking for this, so I hope you guys like the new feature. 🙂
4. The back-end stuff is turning out to be quite time consuming
I have to admit that after several days of wrestling with back-end stuff like code and plugins (which are a whole new world to me), both to sort out the upgrade glitches, and to sort out the advertising stuff, I’m feeling quite tired out and rather discouraged. 🙁
For one thing, it’s hard to make time for or be in the mood to write about dramas, when my eyes are glazed over from trying to understand how to use code. You need to get into the mood to write from your heart, y’know? Also, who has time to watch drama, when you’re in emergency mode, trying to keep things working on the site? 😛
Another thing is, I realize that it’s hard to find a balance between making this blog a reasonably enjoyable experience for you guys, while trying to include enough ads to make (hopefully) a bit of income for me. I’m feeling quite perplexed about this, to the point where I (casually, I promise!) wondered whether it was even worth the effort to keep blogging, if things were going to be so difficult.
ANYWAY. I made this post because I feel like I’ve had a lot going on behind the scenes in the last couple of days, and that’s kept me from replying to comments as I usually do, and I also felt like I ought to at least let you guys know what’s been up with me.
PLEASE do let me know if you notice weird glitches on the site, or if the ads aren’t behaving the way they’re supposed to.
Thanks for listening, thanks for your patience and support, and really, thanks for being here.
Big hugs. ❤️
~kfangurl
Aww, I’m sorry to hear how much trouble you’ve been having. Tech stuff is such a nightmare. Just so much that can go wrong. I hope you’re able to take a break from it all when everything is sorted then maybe you’ll be more in the mood to write. I know me and everyone else loves your blog, but we want you to be rested and enjoy yourself 🙂
Yes, tech stuff can be so hard to work through indeed! 😝😝 Thanks for the empathy and the encouragement, Kay.. ❤️ I do very much look forward to when everything’s running as it should, and I can just let the blog do its thing, while I write about dramas! 😅
KFG,
Sorry to hear about those frustrating tech glitches! I hope they get resolved soon.
Thanks dear Snow Flower ❤️, I really hope they get resolved soon too! (So that I can just return to (mostly) watching and writing about dramas!) 😅
I like that when I go to your website now, the address bar on my computer is showing now that this site is secure. This is my go-to for kdrama review.
Hi Vi! Sorry about the “insecure” status, Tech Support found the cause just yesterday; it was my Countries widget in the sidebar that had an http instead of https code, and now that we’ve rectified it, all is well again. The blog was secure all this time, not to worry, it’s just that the widget caused Chrome to react. But, it’s all fixed now, yay! Seeing the secure padlock on the site now, makes me happy too. 😉
Kfangurl,
Your reviews and the comments on your blog have become my happy corner on the internet. Thank you for all your efforts.
Aw, I’m so pleased to know that this space has become your happy corner, Snow Flower! ❤️❤️ Thanks for being here! 😘
Everyone!! I’m just so happy to say that I’ve managed to get the blog theme widened, so basically now we have broader paragraphs for better readability, and this also means a more spacious comments section where nesting isn’t as quick to get weird-looking. 😀 I know it’s not perfect (images just get a bit compressed and less sharp even after I manually resize them), but short of changing the entire theme (which I am not prepared to do coz there really isn’t a perfect theme out there that does exactly what I want it to do), this is a pretty decent outcome, I feel like! I hope you guys like the improved look of the blog! 😄
PS: I’ve allowed a couple of ads at the bottom of the sidebar, and an additional row of ads at the end of posts, so there may be times when you see 2 rows of ads after a post. I hope that’s ok. 😅
EDIT: I forgot to say, the issue we had, of multiple pages of comments appearing in weird order, ie, neither oldest first nor newest first, has been resolved! 😀 WOOT! So if you go to, say, the Healer review, the comments are now newest to oldest, split into pages of 50 comments, as it should be! 😀
kfangurl, if you are reading this, then I have discovered a workaround to my comment issue. I went inside WordPress first, searched for and navgiated to your site, and am leaving this comment from w/in WordPress. Still unable to connect from inside your site, but will keep trying to figure it out. Good luck with the other issues!
Hi Jeff, I mentioned your problem to Tech Support, and they suggest that you connect with them directly via your account, which would be the best way they can help you directly with logging in issues and such. You can write to them at help@wordpress.com. I hope they manage to help you sort it out soon! Fighting, us! 🙂
Aww…I can understand that it can be quite tiring, handling all the back-up issues.
Just take your time. Watch and write at your own pace and do take time to relax. I’m sure the tech issues will get resolved soon.
Hugs
Thanks snow, I hope the issues are resolved soon too! I will take your advice and take some time to rest. Hugs back! ❤️
As for you feeling the slightest guilt about how quickly or exhaustively you reply to our comments, for a couple weeks Beez and I experimented (accidentally!) with receiving notifications for ALL comments made to this blog — not just posts where we had commented and then checked the box to receive new comment updates.
Omg. Just seeing that torrent of unopened messages in my inbox was exhausting, without even bothering to open most of them. I honestly don’t know how you find time to reply to any of us.
So, again I say, girl you rock!
She rolls too merij1! I get that full torrent as I truly enjoy reading all the comments. I love to read the different opinions. When I signed up for that full notification I could not get over how many responses she posts. Sometimes I get a drama to watch from the comments. I enjoy this site so much! It is my go-to happy place. 😊😎😁 Fangurl – no reply necessary!
Aw! Thanks for enjoying the torrent of comments, phl! 😀 I love that you enjoy the torrent of comments! And knowing that this is your happy place, just made my day, thank you! 🥰❤️
Ahahaha! I love your accidental immersion story, MeriJ! 😆 Yes, sometimes the comments get pretty overwhelming, but it’s a happy thing, that folks are enjoying the blog and feel engaged enough to want to talk. 😀 Sometimes I fall so far behind that I give up, like recently, when I got into replying to older comments, and just had to stop, several days, and 60 pages into the comments page on my dashboard later. 😅
I read your blogs n I don’t mind the ads as long as I can navigate around them.
Thank you Kiki! I really appreciate that! ❤️
Fangurl – I truly feel your pain. Truly. Between the upgrades to WP and the issues when installing plugins (holding your breath as you unzip that file) is enough to give you grey hairs. I am not a big fan of WP but I am forced to use it. I sincerely hope you get your questions answered. It is stressful.
Gosh, thanks phl, I feel so much solidarity from your comment! ❤️ Just knowing that plugins can fail & that people get nervous about them somehow helps me feel less alone. My first plugin was a disaster. It was a plugin that promised not only to let everyone edit their own comments, but make better use of narrow space (which I’m keen to do, since the nesting of comments can get weird after several levels, with this new theme), and it didn’t work, BUT, required me to disable Jetpack comments in order to install it, and then when I gave up on the plugin coz it wasn’t working, and tried to revert to Jetpack, the “like” button for comments stopped loading. 😫 It took a long session with a Tech, followed by a site-wide sync that took almost a day, to get things back to normal. 😝 And by that time, nothing had actually changed! 😭😭 I’m just so relieved this other solution is working well! 😅 But, still at the drawing board to figure things out, and people have been popping up and informing me that stuff isn’t working. Jeff messaged me to say he can’t sign in to comment or like at the moment. 🙁
I just wanted to say thank you for all you do. If we have to tolerate a few more adverts so be it!
Your reviews are amazing and the amount of time you dedicate to the reader is obvious.
Aw, thanks Sharra.. your kind words mean a lot. ❤️ Thank you for valuing the blog, and thank you for your assurance that it’s ok to have ads on the blog. ❤️ I really appreciate it, especially after these last couple of overwhelming days! 😅
Oh, I feel for you. I had to deal with coding issues in my previous job and those could be proper pain in the backside. And that was a relatively simple site too. Take all the time you need. Rest is also important. ☺
Thanks for your empathy, Timescout!!! I knew I had a learning curve ahead of me with code, but just a couple of days of even assisted exposure, is making me wonder if I did the right thing! 😝😝 I can only hope that everything will get sorted out and un-glitchy soon, so that I can go back to focusing on writing again! 😅
Fangirl, keep the big picture in mind. We’re with you! Thank you for your hard work. Fighting!!!
Thank you, Georgia Peach!! It’s so good to see you! ❤️ So happy that you’re here. 🥰
Hello kfangurl,
Keep doing what you always do – creating an ongoing and wonderful experience. Your blog is beyond enjoyable and no amount of adverts will ever get in the way of that.
Sometimes it takes time to ensure quality is not compromised and I think we all understand that. Besides, it’s quite okay to have some down time too (which you should)
Keep fighting! 😊😊😊
Aw, thank you so much for your kind words, Sean.. Such a balm to the heart, truly. ❤️ I so appreciate your support!
I’m testing to see how editing my comment works. There should be lots to correct since my Swype thinks it’s so smart and creates lots of Swypos.
EDITED TO ADD: It works! 👍 👍 👍
EDITED AGAIN TO ADD: And it looks like if there’s time left on the click you can edit a second (etc., etc.) time!
EDITED FOR THIRD TIME: FYI – the clock does not restart to another 15 minutes after each edit. You only have the initial 15 minutes that begins counting down (you can see the clock counting) 😊
Woot! That’s great! Thanks for testing it out! 😀 Is 15 minutes a good time frame then? I think I have some wiggle room to increase it, if we think it’s necessary.
Hmmmmm. 15 minutes seems fine to me but I think you’ll have a better idea when some post inspires the comments to be flying furiously back and forth so people are reading others’ responses and then look back and realize they have something they want to correct on their own comment. Then you’ll know for sure if we start saying we need a bit more time to notice our errors.
Well, let’s how it goes then! If you see a need to increase, let me know, and I’ll do that! 🙂
So incredibly awesome that you paid more to give us this feature, KFG!
And, yes, 15 minutes should be plenty of time to fix typos or copy-edit for greater clarity. The “re-writers” of the world thank you from the depths of our ever-tweaking hearts!
You rock!
Aw, I’m so glad you’re enjoying the new edit feature, MeriJ!! I know the lack of it was really wearing on you for a while. May all your conversations henceforth be typo- and error-free, just the way you like ’em! 😉