A couple of days ago I noticed the webmentions from bridgy had stopped coming in to this blog. It took me a while but I eventually noticed that the icons an links to syndicated posts were not showing up on my posts.
Turns out (I think) that when sempress got updated the space for these links moved to the entry-footer.php file in the theme, I had a entry-footer.php in my child theme. I’ve not had the time to figure out exactly what was going on but removing my child’s entry-footer.php file has sorted it in the meantime. I now need to figure out why I had put it there in the first place.
I am again reminded about the technical debt in using IndieWeb technologies on this blog without the full understanding of what is going on.
I really like your point John about ‘technical debt’:
https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/Blogger-Peer-Review/quotebacks@1/quoteback.js
I recently went looking for where I changed the footer of my blog to update the images. Spent thirty minutes looking. Gave up.
I am still glad I do it, but I do sometimes worry. On the positive side, it really helps with my work in supporting others and thinking of what questions to consider. Also highlights the importance of clear documentation.
Hi Aaron,
I think the clear documentation is where I fall down. I’ve no idea why I made a custom footer file now. Sometimes I manage to write comments in the code, but I often assume I’ll remember what I was doing.
I discover “technical-debt” in my work as product owner for Glow Blogs. Often what I wanted would require custom code and it would be pointed out to me that would need to be maintained. The other concept that was repeatedly explained to me was my tendency to “solutionise” which was outside my role. Both valuable lessons I’ve not completely learnt.
You know, I realized that the thing that helps me engage with the Indieweb tech I’m using at a slightly deeper level is discontent with leaving things at the surface level of aesthetics. I didn’t even realize which of my webmention footer’s icons were broken until I went to replace them with emoji I wanted. I learned a lot about the Jekyll build just by rooting through the theme. I don’t know if this is applicable to you; obviously not everyone wants to have a 90s-bus-upholstery–pixel-pumpkin-eyesore background, but maybe figuring out something auxiliary to your main content to be picky about would be useful.
Hi Maya, great point, I usually find out something unexpected when I did around. I’ve got little taste so don’t try improving the look of my site. I do like the pumpkins though.