Donate to WordPress Foundation. I am.
At midnight last night, this site was deactivated by WordPress for supposedly violating the terms of service. They had a link to report a possible error but nothing from there to indicate a real human was listening. It was midnight. I hoped that they had people there 24/7 but, knowing the constraints of a free site, was not sure just how long it might take to get a real human to look at what had happened.
I had not violated any of theTOS – no spamming site, no ads, etc. – and figured it was an automated process here. But if anyone tried to access the site, it said it was closed due to service violations. I have been writing this blog for almost 10 years and was worried about the end of it here. I had not really realized just how important it has become to me. So I was worried – although they still allowed me to get all the data and export the site if I wanted to. {So they are actually bending over backwards to deal with the really bad sites. They simply prevent outside access but do nothing to prevent the content from being moved somewhere else. One of the signs that they do things right.)
But worried still. I love WordPress and did not want to be forced to leave due to an automated mistake.
Because once you enter the maw of many automated systems, it can sometimes be hard to extricate oneself. I sent an error message as soon as I lost the site. I waited patiently for an hour and sent another. In this day,we sometimes expect instant gratification but again, I know the constraints and while i hoped there might be someone to answer my plea, I expected there would not until the morning.
After a fitful night – I got up a few times to check for any emails – I sent another request at 8 am. At 8:15 am, Ryan M sent me a nice email explaining that a link from an article I referenced caused their anti-spam software to trip. It was not my fault and they re-booted the site. I’ve asked for some clarification of what to look out for to avoid this in the future (and got a reply within minutes).
So, the upshot is that WordPress actually did a great job here. I was a little fearful of having to wait for contact but now that I know that there are real people there – unless Ryan is some sort of Turing machine – who will fix things without a great hassle. WordPress is a wonderful site. It is free but I am going to donate some money to their foundation to support this great site. You should too.
Build yourself a cheap and easy-to-assemble photography tent with a box, fabric, a white bristol board, lights, and standard office supplies (tape, glue, and a ruler). Cut out the walls of the box, leaving the borders and bottom of the box intact. Affix an unbent piece of bristol board to the box. Cover the remaining holes with fabric. The Digital Photography School blog explains how to create this cheap light tent in detail with photo illustrations so that you don’t miss any steps on the way. Once you’re finished, you’ll need to light up the box, and with the end result, you’ll be able to make some professional-looking photographs of smallish objects to showcase to the world. The best part? Nobody will know that you took the photographs in a cheap box.
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