Comments on: Apologies

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:34:16 +0000

Thanks for keeping this post alive with an additional snafu, Mary! I love them!

By: Mary

Mary — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:32:30 +0000

Here’s a good newspaper publishing snafu — Back in the day, we used to get reports from church ladies, to be published in the Exeter Times-Advocate. One week, there were six young people who joined the United Church in a “Confirmation” class. The headline in the paper read: Sex Confirmed at United Church.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:13:13 +0000

Thanks for the stories, Kevin! I definitely have it easy here. And thanks for the plugin recommendation, Rob. That sounds like just the ticket!

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:55:19 +0000

Hi Trevor,
You’re on WordPress right? What you need to do is to add a small plugin to your plugin directory (and activate it of course) called Are You Sure? What it does is simply bring up a confirmation box asking if you’re sure you want to publish.

It works a charm, and has saved me premature posting a few times.
Hope that helps
Rob

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:16:37 +0000

Since you ask, Trevor, here are my two favorite “hot-type” stories:

1. When the linotype operator made a mistake, he had to finish the line to get the type out. That’s where “easdfgdfghjkl” etc. came into fashion. Then there was the guy who finished the page one story mistake with “fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck” and proceeded to take out the wrong line. The union did its job and we never discovered who had actually made the mistake.
2. Even better is that in the good old days pictures and large type were done on the “clichogrpah” and then put on the stone — the cichogrpah would only make images that went half way cross the page. This included the nameplate of the newspaper which ran across the top of page one. One day a somewhat (incompetent, drunk, we will never know) compositor turned “The Medicine Hat News” into “Hat News The Medicine” and no one noticed it until midway through the press run. Those of us who got the paper in Edmonton, some 400 miles away, were much amused.

So, putting up a draft post is hardly a hiccup in the overall scheme of things.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:22 +0000

I’ve actually done this several times, usually with a post I’m working on over several days or months (I keep accidentally publishing my year in review of The New Yorker‘s short fiction!). Usually I know what I’ve done immediately and quickly take it down before it gets up on everyone’s RSS feeds. Alas, when the draft is up for an entire night, the oversight sticks in those RSS feeds forever! At least I didn’t publish it in a newspaper! I remember when I was working for a highschool and then college newspaper, I used to be terrified of sending a laid-out page to the printer with the words “Headline Here” or “Write caption here” somewhere on the page. Even worse, publishing those inside jokes we kids used to put in to make our copy-editors mad.

I’m sure you have some interesting stories from the professional world of publishing, Kevin.

By: Max Cairnduff

Max Cairnduff — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:00 +0000

I did wonder what had happened, but figured it must be something like that.

I’ve put up entries before they had been finally checked, which can be a pain, I think you can take comfort that yours was obviously not yet ready – it’s worse if it’s 80% there in a way because it’s not so obvious it shouldn’t be up yet.

By: KevinfromCanada

KevinfromCanada — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:11:00 +0000

I’m with Rob. I have this fear every time I am saving a draft that I’ll hit the wrong button. Sorry, Trevor, but I’m glad it happened to you not me. Then again, it is inevitable that I will make the same mistake eventually.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:01:53 +0000

Thank god that hasn’t happened to me (yet). When I think of some of the things I’ve written in draft reviews… *shudder*