Arthur posted an item one day last month on his AmeriNZ blog, which is on Blogspot/Blogger. Unfortunately, there was a typo in the title, a mistake he (and I) know intellectually (too/to), but sometimes the fingers aren’t so smart.
Someone pointed out the error, and while he, like I, appreciated the correction, I think it was very irritating to him. He replied: “Grrrrr. Fixed now, but it will forever remain in the file name and that fact will always annoy me. Of course.”
I don’t know exactly how he stores his files, but I did learn something a while back by trial and error. “Actually, I do believe you can change the file name by reverting the post to draft, then reposting,” I wrote.
This seemed to make him happy. “It worked!! OMG, OMG, OMG—no more reliving my typos and grammatical sins immortalised in file names. Where’s the “extra like” button on FB? Thanks! Now, could you fix our weather, too, please?”
Heck, if I could fix his Kiwi weather, I’d fix ours first.
Incidentally, since now that my main blog is in WordPress and my Times Union blog always has been, you might think this would not be an issue for me, but since my blogs for NY SBDC (work), the NYS data center (we are affiliates) and the Friends of the Albany Public Library (I’m president of the board) are all on Blogspot, I still operate with that service as well.
Since I’m in a techno-blogging mood, I want to suggest that when people get a URL they want to link to, either in a blog or especially an e-mail, they should look for ways to shorten it. I get Daily Kos in my Bloglovin feed, and a cartoon I looked at had a URL of http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/16/1352285/-Cartoon-Bush-reflux?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos %2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29.
The ways to shorten the URL are usually after a question mark (?) or hashtag (#) or ampersand (&). So if I delete everything in the above URL from the ? to the end, I get http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/16/1352285/-Cartoon-Bush-reflux, which links equally well.
I am reminded of something Eleanor Roosevelt said about wanting to feel useful. Now and then, I do.
I read your interesting review about the Selma movie (previous post) and the issue about its accuracy. It makes me wonder why anyone would risk fudging even a small bit of the facts when every other aspect tries so painfully hard to be carefully spot on and provide a documentary feel. This happens in lots of similar movies. But it does seem like too much weight, for example, is given to the “to/too” while missing the wealth of information and greater meaning of the article. 🙂
I am a copy editor and “its” is my big obsession, ha ha.
Selma, didn’t read post, will go back and comment there. I know the original screenplay was centered around LBJ and his (supposed) “evolution” regarding desegregation and civil rights (political expediency, he didn’t give a damn!). Casting of Tom Wilkinson is film’s fatal flaw. what about “Good Night and Good Luck” and John Sayles stock player, David Straithairn? He has the height, can summon the anger and menace, and has a good Southern accent.
Tom Wilkinson is a great actor and deserves better roles than this.
David Oyelolo (sp) was PERFECT as Dr. King. And even though they seemed to cast Coretta based on the actress’s look, I have to say, she had the sly smile and spark of the legendary woman. Casting of Hoover was good – not a physical match, but the attitude was SO smarmy, loved that.
Peace, and yes, I posted. Thanks for hanging in with me, Rog. You are two much. (hee hee hee) Amy
That DID make me happy! After I fixed the typo, anyone visiting my blog would have see the correct title, but fixing the file name meant *I* wouldn’t have to have been reminded of my fingers’ typing sins…
I do that all the time with shortening link names, including when I follow a link from Twitter or Facebook—they often have similarly long file URLs (hang on a minute, are you and I among the last who still use “URL”?!).
Unrelated, mostly, there are times I want to link to something, but I don’t want to give that site any “Google juice” (for me, usually a rightwing site). I found a site that fixes that: http://www.donotlink.com/ Don’t know if you’ll have a need for that, but some of YOUR readers might, and I like to feel useful, too.
Just so on those absurdly long links: the URLs are padded to allow for some form of tracking, which is reason enough to clear out the extraneous stuff.
Being generally uninterested in Google juice, I’ve been using simple numerical permalinks since moving to WordPress, and I shorten tweeted links and such using bit.ly.