This is a guest post by Dr. Jon P. Heins of Belvidere, New Jersey.
The other day I was drafting HTML code using the WYSIWYG editor in my WordPress dashboard. My main purpose was to generate HTML code for both a custom landing tab for my Facebook fan page and my newsletter sign up form. Unfortunately in the process, I accidentally hit Publish instead of Save Draft!
Panic set in because I just sent it out to multiple RSS subscribers, Twitter via Google’s socialize, Facebook via the NetworkedBlogs application, the WordPress widget on my LinkedIn profile, and it will now show up on my newsletter!
This happened to me about nine months ago when I accidentally hit publish on a post I had written but was scheduling for a later date. When I asked if it could be undone Grant Griffiths replied to me on Twitter and stated that “Once the tooth paste is out of the tube you can’t get it back in”.
So what to do?
Your first instinct would be to quickly change it back to Draft, schedule it, or delete it, right?
It was mine too but guess what? That’s not what you should do. Why? Because it will still be in any and all the RSS feeds.
So first, copy and paste somewhere the HTML code to save it, then edit the post with the title “This Post was Removed…”, and hit update — this will then change all the RSS feeds content.
You can now then go ahead and delete the post since it’ll redirect to your now your 404 page. Then go ahead and delete the post on Twitter and your Fan Page.
NOTE: If you use NetworkedBlogs application be sure to delete it there too.
From now on, I’ve decided that, since I use the Headway, when I’m working on something the first thing I am going to do is check the Hide This from the feed option so if and when I inevitably hit publish by mistake again it doesn’t go out! 🙂
About the author: Dr Jon P. Heins D.C. practices at Belvidere Chiropractic Center. Your Family Chiropractor. Where Generations of Your Family Are Cared For By Our Family. Located at: 6 Greenwich Street, Belvidere, New Jersey.
If you’d like to connect with Dr. Heins, he can be found online at BelvidereChiropractic.com.
He’s also active on the following social media networks:
This is a great step by step approach on how to solve a problem about an article that is not finished or set to be published for a different date. Could happen to anyone who is writing a new post late at night and not paying attention.
Thank you, Dr. Burt, for your comment.
You are correct, it was late and I’m not sure what I was thinking when I accidentally did it. Then I thought, since it could easily happen to anyone, I should write down, step-by-step, what exactly happened and how to correct it, for use in a guest post for Dr. MacNamara’s Next Generation Chiropractor, as a way to give back all that Dr. MacNamara has done to help me and to help my fellow colleges, such as yourself, who are using blogging and social media to inform the public about the many benefits of Chiropractic.
Thanks for the kind words, Dr. Heins. And, it’s nice to see a conversation started through your guest post! This is a great example of how blogs promote dialogue to further the conversation.
Dr. MacNamara, you are most certainly welcome and thank you for allowing me the opportunity to do this guest post. I really appreciate it! And I really appreciate all the hard work and dedication you put into this blog to help train myself and my fellow Chiropractors on how to use blogs and social media to inform the public about the benefits of Chiropractic and how to promote the dialogue to further the conversations!