Of course, they’re not just my comments, they’re yours too. In fact they’re mostly yours and I’ve lost them. All of them. All eleven hundred!
I’ve no idea how it happened. The hosting company has no idea how it happened.
I can pinpoint the exact time the comments were lost. One minute I’m responding to a comment and the next thing I know, they’re all gone.
The fact that I can pin down the exact time matters not, because there’s no chance of retrieving the data.
Picture: marekmarga
It happened around the time I was having some slow running problems on the site and contacted the host to try to resolve the issue. It looks like they were having problems with a server which had to be rebooted. On hearing of my difficulties they offered to move my site to another server. Just as all that had been sorted out, the comments disappeared and I fired off an email to the host. The trouble is, this happened over the Thanksgiving weekend and the time differences between the UK and the US where the hosting outfit is located meant there were delays.
The delays meant they overwrote my backup with the new data which didn’t include the comments.
The upshot is, that I can bitch and moan about it until the cows come home but the responsibility for backing up my site was mine.
Why didn’t I do it? I’m too new to this game and I had no idea I needed to do it.
Up until a few days ago I had no idea I could even access the database where the information is held.
It’s been a major distraction for the last week and I’ve tried all that I can to resolve the problem to no avail.
I feel bad for myself but most of all I feel bad for all of you who have supported me so well.
I’d like to apologise to you for my naivety. I’m sorry.
I’ve had one or two thoughts about giving this up, but I know it’s just a knee jerk reaction to the set back.
When I thought about what I should do, I remembered why I started this – To set a good example to my children – To teach them how to deal with setbacks – To help them understand the value of persistence, to name but a few.
The answer of course is that I should carry on. And I will.
The comments are still broken, but later today I’m going to mend the database and by Monday I’ll be set to resume business as usual.
Once again, my sincere apologies.
Have a great weekend. 
Dave
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