The first step to getting things fixed is to know they are broken. This is true whether you work for a software company, are coaching a little league team, or write a blog. None of us is all-knowing, and we all make mistakes. I would venture to guess that most of us, if we have made a mistake, especially on a project that we care very much about, would like to fix it.
So thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who have pointed out errors on my site. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that my mistakes are not hanging out for all the world to see anymore. That would be embarrassing! What kind of mistakes do I mean? Here are a few of the more recent ones:
- The Mesh gallery on my recent Making apple pie: a photo essay was broken. My dad reported it to me, as did several readers in the comments. As a result I was able to report feedback to the Mesh team, and they got it fixed up.
- I misspelled “lobotomy” in every instance in my Half-full post. Thank you to my friend Dee, of birchnature.com, who texted me and said “Hi hon – love the new post! Heads up, though, it’s lobotomy, not labotomy.” Thank you, Dee ❤️
- I entered some HTML into the visual editor instead of my text editor on a recent post, and the code appeared on the front end of my site. My coworker Kelly pinged me to let me know it was showing, and also make sure it wasn’t an error with the editor. No, I assured her, it was not the editor. It was a case of PEBCAK.
I know it can be hard to tell someone, hey, you’ve got a big chunk of black bean on your front tooth. But that’s the kind thing to do, right? Better to tell them and be embarrassed for five seconds than to let them walk around ALL DAY with gunk in their smile.
Not that that’s ever happened to me.
Butterfly Mind 
Hi Andrea, I actually saw the Mesh thingy not working but did not speak up… My reasoning for it was very logical, though 🙂 I was sure that tons of people must have already told you and that I’d be the 50th person to do so – and hence annoy you -, and because the little icon said there was a Mesh problem and that it was being worked on to me meant it was being taken care of.
Having said that, your post made me realise that personally I would prefer 50 people telling me something was not working or wrong on my blog than no one telling me at all. When I re-read older posts I sometimes find mistakes in my recipes, and because no one’s said anything about it, I just assume people didn’t read the whole post (or made the recipe, it didn’t work and word has spread that my recipes are rubbish…).
After reading your post and getting these little insights, I’ll definitely be the person to speak up next time!
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I once gave a professional presentation to colleagues about teaching, in which I mispronounced “bowline” as in “bowline knot” dozens of times. During a break, a colleague kindly informed me of my error. I winced. Then I used it as an example of what to do when you make a big fat mistake in front of your students. Good lesson.
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I wouldn’t mind if people corrected my errors either so long as it’s meant to be helpful and done in a kind way. By having errors pointed out to me not only can I obviously then fix them but it helps me remember that mistake so I don’t make it again. I wish people weren’t so shy about this. Great post on the topic especially because I will let people know “Hey, this didn’t let me leave a comment” or “These pictures aren’t showing up” but I hesitate to point out incorrect information or spelling errors for fear of seeming like a nitpicky jerk or something but there’s a decent way to do it and if it’s done for me I’ll be thankful. Have a nice day!
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Would you give a heads up to someone in a comment? I’ve sometimes wanted to alert a writer to a glitch or error in a blog post and not done anything for fear of embarrassing them in a comment (assuming I had no other way to make contact).
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That’s an excellent distinction. I think I’d probably comment about a technical issue, like “your images aren’t showing,” but personally, I think I’d prefer a quieter (i.e. private) note about misspelled words or grammatical errors. If the blogger does not have a Contact page or offer a private way of contacting them, I’d likely let it slide and hope that someone close to them would be kind enough to tell them privately.
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Mmm. That’s exactly what I’ve done, and thanks for your thoughts!
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I really like this! You’re right – it is hard sometimes to let someone know of mistakes that they’ve made on something that you know they’ve worked hard on, but it’s important to do. Thanks for explaining it better than I could 🙂
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For me it was a lunch/network meeting with someone who failed to tell me I had a big chunk of black pepper wedged between two teeth. I wrote a post on it afterwards and felt much better…also asking the public at-large to please tell me when they see such an error in the future…in person or otherwise.
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I am writing again after a long hiatus and I practically beg for feedback. I would much rather receive criticism especially when accompanied by correction than get the usual “Sure, it looks to me.”
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I gave myself a good laugh when I re-read my comment and saw my own error. Of course, I meant to say, “Sure, it looks good to me.” When we learn to laugh at ourselves, we are never unamused. I am still learning WordPress and didn’t know how to edit my comment, if that is even possible. Anyway, it was more fun to leave it as is and give someone else a chuckle. 🙂
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