Sometimes Change Must Come Slowly

While working with the high school newspaper and with other publications, I learned that format changes and styles need to happen gradually.

Abrupt change in a publication can cause a discomfort level with readers, much like what we encounter as customers when our favorite grocery store decides to rearrange  the products in aisles. 

We push our cart to the dogfood aisle only to find no dogfood but a whole lot of cookies, crackers or candy.  

What to do!  What to do!  

If we're lucky, a store employee will be nearby to direct us to the new location for Fido's food. 

I know from my experimentation two days ago with my blog layout that readers were uncomfortable with the new format for Slight Detour.  

I had noticed the new options that morning and decided to try one out for size.  It was an attactive, clean and fun graphic change,  to my eye anyway. 

Once into this change, however, I learned that the transformation of how people view my postings had turned into a "river of no return," of sorts.  

During the day, I studied the mechanisms of the new format and I also learned that some of the features I have enjoyed about my former format had been wiped out. 

My experimentation with Wednesday posting had turned into much more of a SNAFU for me and my audience than an improvement.

I decided, however, to wait out the day, take note of reader comments and then revert to the original yesterday.

Well, yesterday came along, but the Internet did not.  

Our outage, I learned from my provider, had occurred because of glitch with one of the two satellites the company uses to supply its service.

My service representative told me he had received no assurance of when service would be restored.  When most of the day had passed and we still had no Internet, I settled in for the long haul. 

Well, our Internet service returned overnight, and this morning I made a feeble attempt to get the blog layout back to normal.  It's part way there, but it's still missing a few vital aspects.  

Within the next day or so, everything should be back in order.

And, as time goes on, I'll remember this incident and if I decide to make changes, they shall come gradually.  

My friend Helen called yesterday afternoon and asked how I was surviving the day with no Internet.  Generally, when the newest blog posting does not show up by a certain time in the morning, she worries.  

Knowing her potential concerns, I called her at the usual blog publishing time and explained the situation to her, figuring our service would return on soon.  

Well, I survived the day and did not go through too much withdrawal.  

There was even an added benefit.  Helen and I enjoyed a nice telephone visit.  My dear friend Mow also called in the afternoon after attempting to read yesterday's post, which did not show up until this morning.

So, as I said in that post, I'm learning slowly that when one door shuts, another opens.  Yesterday turned out to be very productive for me in spite of not getting my daily Internet fix.

Still, I'm glad to be back in Cyberspace, and thanks for your comments and your loyalty to Slight Detour in spite of the occasional operator errors.  

Happy Friday. 

Note:   I'm quickly discovering that some of the options from the old design (like border and font colors, etc.) have been removed from blogger access. Could have been a devious method in the cybergods of  luring bloggers into trying the new design.  Stay tuned.