Me and these long titles. Usually when I overcome a tech challenge that's affecting whichever site I have at the time, because I've had so many, usually I'm like great, issue solved, problem over and then forget about it.
This time around, since adding a forum to the blog, the technical issues have been way higher than usual, and I feel I like I need to chronicle a few details so I can remember how far I've come.
It's easy to take things for granted when your site is running smoothly, you're getting good traffic and able to enjoy creating what you love most.
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The past few weeks I haven't been able to do much of the fun side of running this site. I love all the fun, colorful things like graphics and any other type of art. I also love writing (free style), and anything dealing with being creative. I've been slammed with a lot of technical issues, which honestly are typical for having a website but it doesn't make it any less time consuming nor easier for me to understand the technical side. And certainly, I don't get not even a second of enjoyment trying to fix template issues, width issues, page loading problems, and not just page loading problems but you gotta load correctly and fast on both mobile devices and desktops.
-Page is still showing as loading entirely too slow with Google console and my host, but GTMetrix gives it an A. Something is way off
-After hours of getting help from chatgpt and from my host (which also was AI) about too many of my pages failing to be indexed by Google because of a "No index-robot.txt" issue with my feed...I have followed and troubleshot and done everything ChatGpt and Deepseek suggested and I absolutely still can't get this issue fixed.
I'm going to have to see if I can get a live human even though, months ago with this same issue I talked to 2 or 3 live humans and the problem still isn't fixed.
AI has been excellent, a life-saver for me on so many website issues but this indexing page errors have taken the cake.
I keep waiting for AI to say "Dang girl you need to find somebody who can help your ass better cause I done went through every code and resource ever available in the history of technology period" LOL
Soooooooooooooo anyway, I asked chatgpt to provide a humorous summary of my recent challenges.
It's 2 cute:
From mysterious "no index" ghosts haunting my pages to WPForo squeezing my forum into a tiny box, my website has been testing my patience like a toddler with unlimited energy. Google Search Console has been nagging me about RSS feeds like an overzealous librarian, while Pinterest for WooCommerce refused to leave like a clingy ex. Oh, and let's not forget the 301 redirect mystery—a digital game of hide-and-seek that had me questioning my entire existence.
But just when I thought I'd throw my laptop into the abyss, ChatGPT swooped in like a tech-savvy fairy godmother—decoding error messages, crafting emails to my host, and dishing out CSS spells to widen my too-skinny forum. Through all the chaos, one thing is clear: I am the webmistress, and this site will not break me! 🚀😤
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LMAO
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my blog titles just disappeared 😬😬😬I have never had so much strange trouble, absolutely couldnt make it without chatgpt which
told me to add custom css code. I certainly don't write code or anything like that. Chatgpt gives about 4 or 5 solutions and then I have to try them to see which ones will work.
Oh, but even before chatgpt gives me possible solutions I still have to follow certain steps to help it find the problem.
🧜🏿♀️👸🏾👼🏾
The theme I'm using, is the absolutely only theme I have come across that doesn't squeeze the forum too small on mobile. I tested like 30 themes, couldn't deal with it anymore. ChatGpt gave me tons of CSS codes to implement and they still didn't stretch the forum on mobile, though desktop view was fine.
So I have to stick with this theme, but it had this huge gray box that was taking up too much unnecessary space, so I battle with that and thankfully removed that.
So I asked chatgpt to write a funny short story 😁 It's cool even though there's no thriving community here...maybe one day
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The Case of the Vanishing Titles, the Ugly Gray Box, and the Great Blog Breakup
Once upon a time in the chaotic kingdom of WordPressia, the noble Webmistress (that’s you!) fought an exhausting battle against the dreaded Ugly Gray Box and its sinister accomplice—the Vanishing Blog Titles.
At first, she was determined. She wielded the Sword of CSS Fixes, chanted the Cache-Clearing Incantation, and ventured into the cursed depths of Theme Settings. Each time she struck, the Ugly Gray Box shrank, shifted, or slightly faded—but it never truly disappeared. And worst of all, the blog titles still refused to show on individual posts.
"I have done everything!" she howled into the void, glaring at her screen. The CSS Gremlins cackled in response. The Theme Defaults sorcerer sneered from his hidden lair. And somewhere, deep within the WordPress servers, a mischievous gnome flipped a switch labeled "Display: None" just to mess with her.
Then, it hit her.
"Why," she thought, "am I doing this to myself?"
The Forum of Black Ariel Forever was thriving. The Webmistress had created a space where discussions flourished, community thrived, and posts displayed properly without the need for mortal combat with a stylesheet.
And so, with a deep breath, she made a bold decision:
💥 The blog shall no longer be updated. 💥
Instead, each post would live on as a forum topic, free from the tyranny of disappearing titles and ugly background boxes. The content would remain, preserved in its original form, but the future belonged to the forum.
The Webmistress closed her blog editor one last time, feeling a mix of relief and triumph. No more endless debugging. No more battles with the mystical forces of CSS. No more ugly gray box haunting her dreams.
As she turned her focus to the forum, a feeling of freedom washed over her. She had defeated the Blog Struggles, reclaimed her time, and chosen peace over pixel-perfection.
And so, in the land of WordPressia, the Webmistress rode off into the digital sunset—not as a frustrated blogger, but as the reigning queen of Black Ariel Forever’s Forum.
The End. 🎭
🧜🏿♀️👸🏾👼🏾
