If It Ain’t Broke… · 11 May 2019
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what I always say. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I am not sure why, but we seem to need to tinker. Especially, with stuff that works just fine. But then after all that tinkering, things do not always seem to work like they used to. Which is, of course, where the phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” comes from.
I like the phrase, even if English teachers and grammarians and all those sorts of people will tell you there are myriads of things wrong with those seven words. Personally, I do not like contractions, but I love the word ain’t. Which is, ironically enough, a contraction. Probably of ain’t and not. You know, as in, “It ain’t not a word.” To which any sane person would reply, “Is so.” (By the way, if you read that last section with some sort of country bumpkin accent, it is normal.)
(I could probably write a whole blog post about the word “ain’t.” It is a wonderful word. I am not sure why I like it so much. Or why I use it when I speak. It surely ain’t the way I write. But I love it. Still, it is quite a different story. I wonder if I wrote it yet.)
Anyway. Back to my original thought.
There are times when I wonder why Facebook and others tinker with their websites. Especially, the parts that work. I was posting a link to my blog one week and the preview just showed my face. Sure, it is the one I have on my web site, but it is not the picture I wanted with my blog post preview. I wanted the picture I had posted with my post. When the Facebook post preview was just my face, I lamented, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I used to be able to pick the picture I wanted to show up with the preview. Then, I could not. Then, I could choose to upload a picture if it was the wrong one showing up. Then, I could not. If you follow me on Facebook, there were several weeks when I could not post a preview picture except of my own ugly mug. It was a bit frustrating. Especially, since it worked well before.
After too many weeks of that nonsense, I decided to ask the interweb what the problem was. It sent me to a blog post, which sent me to a Facebook developer help page. These two sources said that I needed to put in some meta tags and have Facebook scrape my web page. (Whatever those things mean.) Well, I did more research and put in some meta tags and had Facebook scrape my web page. Everything looked fine and dandy. It even worked a time or two. I figured that even though they ought not to have fixed what was not broken in the first place, I might be able to work through it anyway.
That worked for a time or two. Then, by gum, they went and did it again. Or at least I assume they did. They fixed it again. I could not for the life of me figure out why my picture was my face instead of my blog post picture. I scraped and scraped. I meta tagged and meta tagged. I saw the correct picture before I published the post. Then, instead of that picture, Facebook put my ugly mug there. A doggone bait and switch. Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!
Then, I noticed something when I had deleted a post and reposted and deleted a post and reposted and deleted a post and reposted. It looked like Facebook had given me the options I had before where I could select the picture I wanted to show with the preview. (Who knows if it will stay that way.) It was as if somebody had told them the age old quote. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. (Unfortunately, they even broke that, but in a different way.)
Well, I am not sure I think they got things back the way they ought to be. I am not sure they figured it out. But whether it is Facebook or anybody else out there publishing web sites or making stuff, just remember. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
© 2019 Michael T. Miyoshi
| Share on facebook | Tweet |
|
Comment
Commenting is closed for this article.
| Dealing with Grief | Solving an Unexpected Puzzle |