A ‘Technical’ Week: Mostly Working on Widgets

First, not-so-good news.

A month after deciding to start using WordPress blocks before their classic user interface became one with Nineveh, Tyre and rotary telephones — I don’t have the usual Saturday post ready.

The good news is that I’m more comfortable with WordPress blocks than I’d feared.

And, more good news, I’ve finally finished updating this blog’s widgets.

The frustrating news is that updating, fixing and in some cases removing widgets took all this week. I finished the last (I hope) of that task Friday afternoon.

The process would have gone faster if the WordPress ‘blocks’ user interface didn’t take between ten minutes and an hour to load all of its nifty new ‘blocks’ widgets editing page.

The page itself, along with several dozen ‘you got problems’ messages, came up promptly. What sometimes never loaded were the little — dialog boxes? block bits? — that represented ‘pre-block’ widgets.1

That was then, this is now. The nifty new ‘blocks’ widgets editing page now loads with no more than up to a half-dozen ‘you got problems’ messages. And, thankfully, most of the little — dialog boxes? block bits? — load without giving me time for a coffee break.

Now some definitely not-so-good news. Although it could be worse.

Hello HTTPS; Goodbye RSS

Brian H. Gill's 'Meet Norbert Nerdly.' (2015) 'Norbert Nerdly — my frustrations, personified.'

A Catholic Citizen in America is now on a Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) domain — which I gather is a good thing.

However, anyone who had been using this blog’s RSS feed stopped getting new content the moment that “https” thing went into effect. After a little checking, I’ve found no way of restoring A Catholic Citizen in America’s RSS feed.

And I’m pretty sure that RSS and https won’t work together. Which may be part of why HTTPS is so much more secure, and that’s another topic.2 Topics.

Checking in each Saturday, or however often seems convenient, is one option for seeing new content here.

So is getting notifications via email. I really wish email notifications were easier to find. And that alternatives — I’ll get back to that.

Email Notifications Available: But Not Easy to Find

Image of A Catholic Citizen in America's comment form, showing 'Notify me of new comments via email' and 'Notify me of new comments via email' checkboxes.
(Note: This is an image of the comment form, not the real thing.)

Right now, the “Notify me of new comments via email” and “Notify me of new posts via email” checkboxes are on the comment form. At the bottom of the comment form.

And those “Notify me of new…” checkboxes will not appear unless you make a comment, or at least click in the “Enter your comment here” box.

I don’t know what would happen if someone clicked a “Notify me of new…” with a blank “Enter your…” box, and then clicked the “Post Comment” button. [Update July 16, 2022 – apparently there must be something in the comment box, or the ‘post comment’ button won’t work.]

This “Notify me of new…” option should work, and is part of this blog’s Jetpack software. More about Jetpack on the Privacy Policy page. [Update July 16, 2022 – The “Notify me of new posts” service apparently does work. It did for me, at any rate. Once. 🙂 ]

I’d prefer having more options for folks who want email notifications or something like the now-unavailable RSS feed.

Make that acceptable options. I found widget-using software that promised easy handling of email lists.

Easy, I got the impression, for folks who see no problem with spamming their readers.3

I could be wrong about ‘Spamalot Services’ — catchy name, that, but fictional.

Like I said, I could be wrong about the software I’m not using. But if I’m right, that’s emphatically not what I want to do.

So that’s what I’ve been doing this week. Working on widgets. Mostly.

I’ve also been reading Kramer’s “History Begins at Sumer,” enjoying a visit from son-in-law and granddaughter; and plan to take it easy this weekend.

And hoping that next week I’ll have something about science, history, Faustus — or pretty much anything other than another ‘technical’ report ready

Last week’s ‘Saturday’ post, and earlier ‘technical’ stuff:


1 Social media stuff:

2 Acronyms:

3 Something annoying — and expensive:

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About Brian H. Gill

I was born in 1951. I'm a husband, father and grandfather. One of the kids graduated from college in December, 2008, and is helping her husband run businesses and raise my granddaughter; another is a cartoonist and artist; #3 daughter is a writer; my son is developing a digital game with #3 and #1 daughters. I'm also a writer and artist.
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6 Responses to A ‘Technical’ Week: Mostly Working on Widgets

  1. Raphael J. Beckman says:

    Are Woman Being Oppressed By The Church, Over This Abortion Issue ?
    In addition to more resources for mothers considering abortion, we need to hold men as accountable as we hold woman. By introducing a program for men to be taught integrity and accountability. It takes two people to create a baby, and we need to teach the men to be functioning members of society and know the consequences of his actions. I hope you all will consider bringing a few of my ideas into the church. Thanks, Raphael J. Beckman

    • It’s about two millennia too late to bring the idea of personal responsibility for folks into the Church. It’s been there, for men and women, since day one.

      And for two millennia we’ve had individuals act as if personal responsibility didn’t apply to that particular “me.” What can I say? We’re human.

      Also for two millennia, different cultures have applied their own notions of who should and should not be responsible.

      I remember when my native culture’s version of “boys will be boys” was losing credibility. Maybe it’s time I return to that cluster of topics. Then again, maybe not.

  2. Even more good news: My email notifications for your blog’s updates came back starting with this post, it seems! Also, I’m actually quite the youth, but it seems like it’s gonna take quite a while before I really get used to the Block Editor here in WordPress. In other words, I might be an amnesiac fossil preserved through some wicked sorcery, and even worse news according to my past experiences: I’m not the only one of my kind! But seriously, I’m glad to be interacting with you and your works more easily again, Mr. Gill, and on the matter of post editors, I’m keeping in mind the possibility of the Classic Editor being taken down, but I think I’d like to make the most out of what I’m used to while I still can, all while slowly familiarizing myself with the Block Editor. 😀

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