The Death and Rebirth of a BLOG!!! FATAL ERROR!The Nude Truth IS Up and Running!

Do you know the Romanian proverb, “Buturuga mică răstoarnă carul mare?” ( A small tree branch, in the middle of the road, will tip over a big carriage!) I’m sure there is a better translation of this wise saying, but the point of it is that a small rock, pot hole, whatever undesirable Object placed on a road, has the power to tip over and damage any vehicle which drives over it!

Applied to life: an insignificant mistake, could and would affect negatively large enterprises, our lives and work.

This is an example of how a well-intentioned app by Word Press had a “bug” and how it affected users’ blogs negatively!
Thank God the problem was solved, but here is the price I paid not in money but anxiety and sadness that work of seven years just went down the tubes in a matter of a month!

Hopefully it didn’t and the thousands who were helped by the posts on The Nude Truth, will search for it again!

Here is WHAT happened:

At the end of May I noticed I was unable to log into my blog and either write new posts or check the comments or stats. Each time I was getting a message of FATAL ERROR!!!
For a while I didn’t make much of it, but when I realized the visitors and all the readers were getting the same FATAL error message, I became alarmed!
Unfortunately, Alex, my IT Angel who takes care of the technical part of The Nude Truth, was in Europe with his family. In other words, I was totally lost without his help!
As soon as Alex came back and checked out WHAT happened, the mystery of FATAL ERROR was solved! He learned that many blogs were affected because a Word Press application, added with all good intentions to improve users’ blogs’ performance, had a “bug,” which resulted in getting the FATAL ERROR message and inability to either access the blogs or write new posts!

I’m sharing this story for a few reason:
1. To give an example of how easy it is to ruin someone’s work of 7 years.

For instance, the readership in February was 2,332 people from 124 countries. The most readers per day was 444 people, an average of 83 people a day.
In June, because of the “fatal error” message and inability to access the site, there were 4 readers and in July there was one reader! I e wonder how this person managed to get on the site!

2. The Nude Truth is not a commercial enterprise but a small FREE personal contribution to share with the world experiences and knowledge which judging by the over 1,600 comments, helped people avoid scams and improve their daily lives.
Alex, my IT friend, the wiz who fixed fatal errors, is also doing this work free. Our reward is one of the heart!
I feel sorry for blogs which depend financially on traffic to their sites and how such a small error in the design of an app could affect one’s life and work!

3. Fortunately, I didn’t stop thinking for the last two months and have a wealth of information to share with you in future posts.

For instance, one of the topics I have been working on is the “WAR on Narcotics!”

There are two sides to each coin and many angles to a story! In the next weeks, expect posts which will bring a new light on this topic and true stories about how this is handled in real life, not television!

Meanwhile, I’d appreciate any shares about how it was for you, as a reader, to be unable to access the information you needed.

For instance the information about SCAMS and skin care products, your credit cards charged for auto-shippments you never authorized and the advice The Nude Truth articles in the # BUYER BEWARE! articles provides?

I continue to be grateful to Word Press for the fine platform that it provides for millions of writers and bloggers and hope no more fatal errors!

Thank you for being you and God bless!

How To Deal With SPAM Comments!!!

I LOVE Spam comments! They teach me first hand what NOT to do and at the end of the day, I find them funny!

First, I must thank Word Press for their excellent computerized system, which prevents most spam comments to get in the “questionable q. line,” that I take the time to review.

Why do I take the time to read them?

Many times comments are in languages other than English. For instance, I found great comments written in Romanian, my native language, in the “ify” category, just because they were written in Romanian, it didn’t mean they were spam. They were valid comments which I “saved.”

Also,  it may come as a shock, but many people around the world do not write in good English, so I have to play the “guessing” game and respect the effort and make a judgement:

DID THIS PERSON WRITE A COMMENT BECAUSE HE/SHE READ THE POST, OR BECAUSE THEY WANTED THEIR OWN BUSINESS PROMOTED ON A POPULAR SITE?

After almost five years of blogging, I developed an “eye” for fake comments and would like to share with other bloggers my observations.

In my opinion, spam could be divided in a few categories. Here there are a few:

1. The “vague” comment: “Great post! Keep-up the good job!”

2. The “critique” comment: ” Have others told you they have  problems with reading your blog, because the “text is running off the page???”

3. Many times THE SAME Site owner who told me they had a problem with text running off the page, would write another spam comment, telling me how “WELL” they could read the post and contradicting their previous statement.

4. The “I  clicked the notify button, and now I receive everyone’s comments, how do I stop it?” Well… there is NO “notify” button:)  so in your dream, click unfollow.

5. The worst kind are the sexual spam comments, the penis enlargement, Russian brides, wives who could be your next door neighbors ready to have discrete sex for a fee.

How do I know? Because I  TRY to click on each side from which a comment comes, to make sure the site is legitimate and it does not promote articles which are not in line with certain values I try to promote. Not that I have anything against large penises, but I will not promote them on my site. Sorry guys.

Some quick ways to scan spam:

Look if the comment comes in response to one of your MOST popular posts, but the comment has nothing to do with the topic. For instance, one of my posts has over 800 comments. It was a scheme I shared a while ago and which “touched” many. As a result many genuinely shared THEIR experiences, but that “triggered” the computerized spam machines too…

Determine if the comment is simply an advertisement for a product and again, it has NO connection to the topic of your post.

If someone comments “I LOVE the video,” on your site, and you did not post a video, that is a problem:)

Then, there are the spam comments asking you how to get rid of spam.

Oh well…I guess, read this post:)

In conclusion, spam, hacking, porn sites, are the down side of an active internet presence. If we don’t want the down side, there is the choice of not having profiles on various networks, or to  do what I’m attempting to do now, which is notice the funny side of the annoying while learning to  limit and deal with it.

Answers to This Blog’s Computer Generated Comments (Part II)

Answers to This Blog's Computer Generated Comments (Part II).

Answers to This Blog’s Computer Generated Comments (Part II)

Hello Everyone,

Thank you so much for following my blog and for taking the time to comment.

Many colleague bloggers  continue to ask  if I encounter ANY of these problems. These are RARE comments, but because they exist and other colleagues ask if I run into them, I decided to share the truth of the  computer generated comments…as I am suspicious of them, and hope the information that follows will be useful to many.

As you know, the goal of my posts is to bring you stories and facts which hopefully will not only help you in your daily lives, but do it in an entertaining way. Everything shared is true and it represents a personal point of view, so, it may or it may not be shared by everyone. As the saying goes, ‘one cannot be all things to everyone all the time, but some things to some people, some of the time.’

Judging by a  great majority of comments, I am happy to let you know that the goal seems to be accomplished and indeed most of the readers confirm that they  benefit from subscribing (following)  this blog. Schemes have been discovered and hopefully stopped, practical tips on, for instance,  how to improve one’s credit, or donate money to a favorite charity and make sure it reaches who or what one intended, or, tips on dating a younger man, one of the most popular posts. I guess love is close to our hearts… even on the internet.

However, once in a while, because I am ONE PERSON doing it ALL, I feel that writing a post about ‘ computer generated comments,’ is the best, most efficient way to clarify certain questions asked by fellow bloggers.

Honestly, I do try to read and answer each comment. I must thank Word Press for protecting the blog from a majority of computer generated comments because I lack the technical abilities necessary to administer the blog. I also have to confess, I am dyslexic, which makes it even more challenging to be  ‘perfect.’ I am a writer. That’s it… ONE woman who does it all imperfectly, because I am also not computer generated literate, but an totally imperfect  human. I promise, I do my best.

Rarely I receive comments which note that there are some typos in the posts. Well… yes, there are typos and only if I  start charging  for the content, which takes me hours of research, and judging by a majority of readers’ comments, HEPLS in people’s everyday life,  I will have the funds available to hire a proof reader (but I am NOT!)  All that comes to mind is to suggest,  that if someone is offended by typos,  please stop reading the blog. I will not be offended.

There are a few comments which indicate that the site “loads slow,” and ask if “other readers,” have the same “problem?” The ONLY problem is that right UNDERNEATH such  comments, there are 5-6 comments which praise the platform that I use for how FAST it loads. Such contradictory comments, with a vast majority affirming that the site loads just fine, make me believe that something doesn’t add up… and I believe the 5-6 comments letting me know the site loads just fine. Yes, along the lines of being human, again…

Another small category of comments, starts by saying the person dropped the phone in the toilet, or a mother went to the shore with a baby and something pinched the baby and she (the mother) had to “share with somebody,” and she knew her story had nothing to do with a post about schemes or dating, or insomnia, but “she just had to share,” with ME. If I check the name of the originating site of the writer of such comments, many times, the originating site sells viagara or is a porn site… Just like the people who just HAVE to share and found ME as the recipient of their confession, I, in my turn, have to confess that I do NOT post comments sent from any type of sexually explicit sites. Not in that market, lol.

What else? Oh, yes, the comments written in poor English. While I post comments which have ‘typos,’ just because I commiserate with everyone who is dyslexic, I would not post a comment which has no connection to the post commented upon, and all it provides in the ‘comment,’ is  a link to their site.

Then, there were a few comments praising the ‘sound quality,’ in the post. Wow!!! Well… wow! the posts have NO sound track and rarely have images. Why? Confession,again, because my technical abilities are not a strength of this one woman show…

What else? Oh yes, the very long comments which to make sure one of the words used hits the meaning, simply take our good old friend, the dictionary, and write ALL the meanings given to a word, may be, just may be, ONE is the correct meaning. Another confession, such comments, when the Word Press ‘protector’ doesn’t protect me, is sent to ‘delete permanently.’

The last category I would like to mention, ‘how do I FOLLOW’ your blog. Again, thanks to my lack of technical abilities, since hundreds of people do follow the blog, I assume that if the icon called ‘follow,’ is chosen and thank you very much, one clicks on it, then one will receive an email when a new post is published. Then, there is the opposite, someone clicked ‘follow’ but now asks me to ‘un-follow,’ because they receive everyone’s comments… I am very sorry but I don’t have the ability to manipulate anyone’s accounts. Frankly, personally I would feel violated in my rights of privacy if suddenly I am unsubscribed from a blog or newsletter by someone else, but myself. When I decide to unsubscribe to anything, I look all the way down the page. Generally, in small print, there is an icon, ‘unsubscribe.’ I click on it and is not guaranteed, but generally, it works.

I hope now, that I shared these ‘secrets,’ you will not unsubscribe, and we will continue together on a life journey, which I do my very best to make useful and humanly typo-less (is there such a word?) and most importantly, USEFUL.

Wishing everyone a great weekend, and please know that I appreciate everyone’s human comments and especially when we all learn from one another, as it was the situation of Buyer Beware! The DM Face Creams, which has THREE updates, as the scheme seems to still be alive, but hopefully not well!

Best wishes,

Rodica

https://www.proventherapy.com/Rodica

My Response To Similar Comments To My Posts

Hello Everyone and thank you for continuing to visit and read the posts on my blog.

I am trying to respond personally to EACH comment, but when the comments are inappropriate or simply an advertisement for a product, or  related to sexuality (including the mention of viagara) I will NOT respond personally.

Why? one might ask her/himself? Simply because by responding I have to list the contact info of the person or company which/who commented. In other words I will NOT reward computer generated comments, rude comments, advertisements or porn.

However, some of the comments are intentionally or unintentionally funny and this is why I decided to share some “types” of comments with you.

I hope they will bring a smile to you, as they did to me…

1. Comments which state that other commentators seem to be “brain dead!” What in God’s name makes one think that I would post such comments?

This blog is read by people from 22 PLUS countries. Not everyone knows English, but many people know enough to derive the benefits of learning about a topic of interest to them. I am NOT going to honor rudeness by posting insulting comments. I am a bilingual person and it took me years of struggle to speak and write in English as well as in my native language, Romanian. I assure you, on the long journey of learning, I was not “brain dead.”

2. Comments which call me “DUDE.”

I explained this before, but I still get the “dude” comments:)) I am a WOMAN. ONE. That’s IT.

3. The comments asking me technical questions. So sorry, but those types of questions are really in bad luck. 😦

I am technologically speaking illiterate and wish I weren’t.

In fact, I would like to partner with someone who is technologically literate, so if you are, or know of someone who would like to work with me strictly  on the IT part of my blog, have them email me at rodimihalis@gmail.com.

4. Comments which ask me to LIST ALL my social media resources (Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram,  Twitter, Pintrest, Stumbble upon,  etc)

While I do have accounts on a majority of them, what I PUBLISH on this BLOG, is automatically published on ALL of the other accounts.

The BEST way to keep updated on what I publish, is to FOLLOW this blog http://rodicamihalis.wordpress.com

If you wish to contact me for counseling, please go to https://www.proventherapy.com/Rodica

I hold a Master of Science in Counseling and Clinical Psychology and am an online Counselor for Proven Therapy, a Global psychotherapy company. On line counseling, in my opinion, is the way of the future. It offers quality counseling at very reasonable professional fees, 24/7 (by appointment with the counselor of one’s choice) in strict confidentiality. Online counseling is done via live texts or phone, emails, as well as very convenient weekly,  email subscriptions.

5. Comments which ask me if people “steal my work.” Because the issue of stealing intellectual property came up so often, I wrote an entire article on PLAGIARISM, a while ago. Any person who is truly a writer, knows that one MUST give the source of one’s information. One must give the well deserved credit to the person who wrote the information.

Do people “steal” my work? May be yes, may be no…

I have a versatile blog, I put  hundreds of hours of research in the posts which give information about  specific, practical  topics. If someone steals the information, shame on them!

A large portion of my writing is based on very personal experiences and written with my very personal sense of humor. Could people steal this type of writing? Probably, but anyone who reads  anything by me, would know.

At last, the poetry and essays.

This type of writing comes to me from a source some call God, some Muse, some “a gift.” It may be called whatever one wishes but the truth is, when one expresses  this type of writing, we, as writers, are  facilitators  of ideas coming from a source  superior to us, humans.

In conclusion, please continue to read and comment and share YOUR experiences.

If your English is not perfect, so what? I bet the type of a person who has the indecency to call another “brain dead,” might be brain-dead him/herself.

I cannot make the rules on other blogs but on THIS blog, there are NO silly questions and all comments are welcome and will be answered as long as they do not belong in any of the categories stated above.

So… “dudes and dudettes,” :)) FEEL FREE to comment!  Your comments are valuable and so are YOU!!!

We are learning together!

Warm wishes,

Rodica

https://www.proventherapy.com/Rodica

 

HOW SOMEONE WHO DIDN’T KNOW THE DEFINITION OF BLOG, BECAME A BLOGGER !!! Happy 10,094 Views on http://rodicamihalis.wordpress.com

Dear Friends,

Thank you, the readers and followers of this blog. My special recognition goes to the readers who  commented and the wealth of information shared with us. I like to believe that in a small way, together, we made a positive contribution but small steps, together amount to significantly bettering our world. At least, we try!!! 

We are celebrating today over 10,094 views total,  and as many as 533 views a day on http://rodicamihalis.wordpress.com.

Nothing would have been possible without everyone’s active contribution and our goal to help others. 

Many of you have been with me from the beginning.

At the end of 2010 I broke my  right ankle and became literally my own slave in a place where I had moved a week prior to the accident.

What to do? “Blog!” suggested somebody, ” you write well.”

“Blog? What does that mean? Blog about what? Where? How do you do THAT?” I took a picture of my injured ankle… hmm and who cared!!!

We are now in October of 2013 and 10,094 views later, many followers and  well over 100 meaningful comments.

I am saying THANK YOU to  the followers and readers  of my blog and also to WORD PRESS who guided me at every step and turned someone who didn’t know the definition of blogging, into an avid blogger.  My gratitude goes to my colleague bloggers who voted this blog “MOST VERSATILE!”  Such is LIFE, and we attempt to keep up with it.

Many of you know that this blog began at the end of 2010. It started as a memoir, which at the end of 2011 was published in paper, than e-pub and Kindle formats under the title, The Gypsy Saw Two Lives.” 

After the book was published, my mission was accomplished, or so I thought. Actually, my passion for writing has never been accomplished, but I was thinking of the “mysterious process of blogging.” 

After the book was published,  every time I checked the blog, I noticed that it still had a significant number of visitors.

People were still reading it, as if expecting more.

Oh! Let’s face it,  the joy overwhelmed me!!!

Someone,  not my immediate family or friends, was still reading what I wrote!!! For any writer, or most writers,  isn’t this a dream come true?

The present post is a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who stood by me and who contributed to this blog not only by reading and sharing it  with their friends and on their networking pages, but by making valuable comments.

My promise is to do my best and together with you, to continue taking small steps, which I trust will continue our journey to improve our world.

Rodica Mihalis

Online Counselor

http://www.proventherapy.com/Rodica