Have You Hugged Your Inner Rock Star Lately?

My clients tell me I’m a rock star. Well, I don’t know if all that’s true, but I sure felt like one the other day. I discovered, quite by chance, that all but two of the comments I’d collected on my blog for the past few years were GONE. I don’t know how it happened, I don’t know when it happened, but it happened. And I was devastated.

I knew I had a backup but I didn’t want to restore the ENTIRE website, just the comments.  So I contacted my host through live chat.  They asked if I’d tried disabling all my plugins to see if the comments would come back, ’cause you know that’s the first thing they always tell you to try (it’s like the computer tech support guy asking you if your computer is plugged in and the power is on). So I go into the database area and look at the table; sure enough, TWO lonely little comments in the table, meaning it’s not that they’re there and not displaying.  They are GONE, KAPUT, POOF.  THEY HAVE CEASED TO EXIST.

So…I went into my backup file and chose the Browse Files option, discovering a filename ending in .sql.  Well, since it’s a SQL dB, I figure, “That’s gotta be it…Let’s have a peek.” 5MB SQL files take a WHILE to open! Scroll through. Scrolling scrolling scrolling…Hey! There they are!!  OK, back to chat with host…toldja so! Now, I’m not normally a toldja so kinda person but I toldja so!

<stream of consciousness on> Telling me to restore the entire site. Psht. I don’t wanna do that.  I’ve made OTHER changes since that backup.  i just want to restore comments…there’s gotta be a way.  Oh, look! An import button. But what format? CSV?? Didn’t work…tests returned error after error.  OK, how about SQL since it’s *in* SQL? Don’t know how to write SQL…but I’ll take a bash at it…IT WORKED!  “One row successfully added to wp_comments”. WOOT!  So I loaded up the rest and I have my comment collection back.  ROCK STAR.

What have you accomplished recently that really made YOU feel like a rock star? Go ahead, brag a little! I hereby grant you absolute license to celebrate your successes, big or small, below.

I’d love to hear all about your rock star moment(s) in the comments!

Award-winning web professional Bonny Clayton, aka Your Web Chick, offers web design, support and maintenance for small business, with a specialty in WordPress.

A Tech Geek with a Creative Streak℠, she helps small business owners and entrepreneurs everywhere establish and maintain their online presence. She is committed to serving them according to their needs, whether that means “giving them a fish” or “teaching them to fish”.