21 May 2009

I have a love hate relationship with the road crew in our area. On the one hand they keep the roads clean and accessible. On the other hand they destroy my lawn every year - even when I put up the idiot sticks!

This year was probably the worst. The idiot sticks were all but gone when a plow took out the first 15 feet of my grass in an apparent attempt to "widen" the cul-de-sac.

So when winter left and the grass started to grow I had the enjoyable task of repairing my lawn. Here's the standard process:

1. Clean out the mess.
2. Prep the affected areas.
3. Reseed the affected areas.
4. Water like crazy.

Bring It On Back
Our websites (unfortunately) meet the angry snow plow guy on a regular basis. We wake up one morning to find that entire pages are broken, bad or simply irrelevant.

Things like this typically happen when something falls through the cracks of your regular maintenance and quality control procedures. But they do happen so my advice is to follow the standard process:

1. Clean out the mess: Get rid of the page(s) that is causing the problem. Having a bad page out there is worse than no page.
2. Prep the affected areas: Figure out what damage was done by removing the page(s). Example: were people familiar with that page? Will they miss it? Come up with a plan for correcting the problem.
3. Reseed the affected areas: Implement your plan. This might be reviving the same page just with correct information or layout. Or it may be that you redirect people using the same link to completely new functionality.
4. Water like crazy: Take care of the page(s) this time! Check it regularly to see that it is fresh and relevant.

This year I think I'm going to install reinforced concrete posts along my property so the plow will be the one damaged this winter.

Who me? Bitter?

No way! Okay maybe a little...