Thursday, August 15, 2013

Success!! My blog is back!!

As thousands of you doubtless noticed, my blog has been down for the past week due to technical difficulties. I discussed the nature of the issue here. My dear husband temporarily reinstated the old blog name www.patricelewis.blogspot.com, and for the time being we had to hobble along with that.


But thanks to the intervention of a kindly reader named Tom H., I was actually able to talk in person (gasp!) with a Google tech support person named Laura. I spent an hour on the phone with her in Dublin, Ireland (yes, Google has outsourced its tech support to Ireland, but I was treated to her charming lilting accent throughout). As frustrated as I was with Google, this woman was the soul of patience and expertly guided me through the issues that led to my domain named being suspended. She also did a follow-up phone call this morning to make sure everything was GO.


Once the domain name was reinstated, my husband spent a hairy hour this morning making sure traffic was redirected back to the correct domain name. He also had a phone consultation with the folks at eNom.com (where the blog name is registered) and got a few issues straightened out.

So now -- at last -- it looks like things are finally back to normal!

Well, sort of.

We've found a couple of weird glitches. One glitch is you MUST put the "www" in front of the domain name (i.e., www.rural-revolution.com). If you type in rural-revolution.com without the "www" in front, you'll get that "404 Error" message. We're working to get this resolved.


The second glitch we've noticed is the blog roll has disappeared. A blog roll, as you may know, is a listing of other blogs that share similar reader interests. Blogs that have the most frequent posts automatically get scrolled to the top. For whatever reason, most of the blog roll list is gone -- poof! -- into the ionosphere, so I'm going to have to rebuild this list as bloggers contact me.

If you were on the blog roll and your blog has disappeared -- or if you have a blog you feel would be a match for this blog -- please contact me at patrice@patricelewis.com and I'll either get you reinstated, or confirm your blog would be a good match. (Specifics for what we require in a link exchange are spelled out here.)

I have a few special thanks to make.

Both SurvivalBlog and Paratus Familia were kind enough to put up posts directing traffic to the temporary blog name -- to both these fine bloggers, thank you.

Reader Tom H. intervened with Google on my behalf and truly got the ball rolling. A thousand accolades are hereby being flung in his direction (along with a few complimentary books).

Google rep Laura was so very helpful and patient with me. Laura, I doubt you'll ever see this, but thank you.

To my dear husband for his patience and forbearance while I was literally pulling my hair out in frustration. This is the busy season for our home woodcraft business, and he didn't need a spastic wife just at this particular juncture.

And above all, to you, my dear readers, for your concern and faithfulness and willingness to keep trying to get into the blog. Without you, this blog is nothing.

Sheesh, sounds like I'm giving a speech at the Oscars, doesn't it?

Onward.

12 comments:

  1. Thank you, Tom H!!!

    So glad things are (almost) back to normal! I'll change the link back in my blogroll.

    I was about to send you an email, but I see you've reconstructed much of the blogroll -- including me -- already! :)

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  2. Patrice,

    It's good to have you back up and running under your blog name. My husband and I follow you and noticed the situation, immediately jumped over to your blog formed under your name.

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  3. Well, thank goodness. I was starting to get the shakes without my daily dose of Rural revolution! Congratulations on wading through the swamp successfully, and thank you.

    Tom carter

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  4. I hope you don't mind a little info somewhat computer geekier than usual, but the rural-revolution.com vs www.rural-revolution.com problem is a DNS (Domain Name Service) problem that may need solving by your domain host, enom.com

    According the data I looked up, rural-revolution.com points to the IP address, 216.239.34.21, which appears to be an IP held by le100.net, which seems to be some sort of gambling facility registered in Greenville, MS. This is obviously wrong.

    On the other hand, www.rural-revolution.com points to a google.com site, as expected. Your domain host carrying your DNS records needs to make your domain name (rural-revolution.com) point to the same place as your www.rural-revolution.com points.

    I tried to keep this as unconfusing and untechnical as I could. Hope this helps. Glad you're back up where you want to be.

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  5. When a blog is a contributor to the family income, of course it's a nuisance when it goes haywire. Good work getting the ducks back in their row!

    Just Me

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  6. It's good to have you back all in one piece. Thank you for putting us back on the blogroll.

    Fern

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  7. hi. i think gorges' grouse lost his blog roll, too. it must be something going around, like the flu.
    deb harvey

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  8. I found the news and redirect on the Orange Jeep Dad blog. This community really comes together in times of need!

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  9. Glad to hear it was just a computer glitch and not a left wing electronic warfare assault against the mean ol conservative Lewis Clan...lol

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  10. Make all the speeches you like.... I am happy to listen. Glad to have you back.

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  11. Just discovered this link on Survival Blog. Great, we need more sites like this, stay the path with this en devour

    Montana

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  12. Thank God you're back!..I wondered what happened. Hugs and blessings your way.
    Alicia

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