Saturday, December 11, 2010

Be Careful with the Publish button...

Genea-bloggers need to be aware that if you hit the Publish button on your blog writer (for me, http://www.blogger.com/), that Google Reader is really quick on the draw.  No sooner did I hit the Publish button this afternoon that I realized I meant to delete the post rather than publish it.  I quickly went to the "Edit posts" list and deleted the post.  It existed on the Internet for all of 30 seconds. 

But wait - here is what I saw in my Google Reader a few minutes ago:





When I clicked on the title, my computer said that the link didn't exist. 

But when I click on Genea-Musings in my Google Reader, it is still there!  I wrote the post because I was struggling in FTM 2011 to delete a duplicate Fact - and the Delete button didn't do it.  I read the Help section, and noticed that I can delete a Fact by highlighting it and then hitting the X button...d'oh!

So how long will the post that was published for 30 seconds last?  I don't know.  What I do like is that Google Reader finds the updated version of posts.  I can't go edit the offensive post because I deleted it!  Oh well!  I wonder if a Google search for the post will bring up a cached version?  I would guess not, but will test it to see!  Nope, not yet! 

The lesson learned:  Think twice before you hit Publish, and then think twice about deleting the entire post.  If I had edited the post title and content rather than deleted the entire post, I could have hidden the mistake easily.  I didn't, and it's out there for all Google Readers to see!

Is it in your blog reader, or did it get sent via RSS feed to your email?

5 comments:

My Gen Research said...

It is still showing in my google reader as having been written about 4 hours ago.

Jennifer said...

It's in my google reader too. :) I've had the same thing happen to me before!!

Kay Haden said...

Oh yes, the ghost post is in my google reader forever and ever. Re the original subject - in FamilyTreeMaker when you are on the "Person" screen - highlight a Fact you want to remove and right click to get the Delete Fact option.

Anonymous said...

I use Live Bookmarks for my Blog subscriptions and your deleted post isn't listed under Genea-Musings.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

It is in my google reader. Once you say something, you can't take it back! But you can write another post about it and correct yourself, which you did.