So last week I was minding my business, brainstorming a couple of ideas about the blog, and trying to put the finishing touches on the YML newsletter (an update about that is coming soon, I promise).
I logged onto the site and all I saw was this ugly black screen with creepy music playing. I checked the address bar; maybe I’d typed in another address by mistake. Nope, it said www.theyoungmommylife.com. This was my site. Oh dear.
I took a couple deep breaths because I didn’t want to think that someone had come in and wiped everything clean. I couldn’t deal if all my posts and photos and comments were erased, with no way for me to recover them. For as much as I love what I’m doing here, I had woefully neglected to back-up my content. The last time I downloaded all my posts was back in early 2010.
I took a screenshot of my site and sent it to my web team with only one sentence: “HELP ME—my site got hacked.”
They got back to me within the hour. “We’ll take care of it.”
I sat around and twiddled my thumbs and checked my site every 34 seconds to see if it was back up yet. No, nothing yet. Nope, no progress.
After what seemed like hours, I refreshed the page and the familiar brown, pink, and white of the Young Mommy Life appeared on my screen. I breathed a sigh of relief. I posted an update to Facebook. “The site’s back up! Yay!”
But then the next day I faced the black screen again. How in the world had they managed to hack me twice? We restored everything, upgraded some security fixes, changed passwords, everything. But still they were able to wipe my site clean.
My web team went to work and they had my site back up much more quickly this time. This time there was no sigh of relief. I was still on edge.
It was scary to think that I might have to start over. I thought about how many nights I’ve sat on the couch, letting the words flow out of my head and into my fingers and onto the screen. I thought about how I’ve nurtured this blog from the days when I could literally go weeks without hitting 10 visitors. I thought about the countless emails I’ve gotten from moms and the precious friendships that have developed all because I hit “Publish” and they hit “Leave a comment.”
In a way, I’m glad that this happened because it has revived me. I’ve been slacking on the posting here because my “real life” has taken over. YML is my heart, but it doesn’t pay all the bills yet. So I’ve had to take on a new job to make sure the roof stays above our head. Exhaustion from the new job has left me zapped at the end of the day and I can’t manage to be witty or insightful. I just want to sleep.
But this has let me know that the burning desire to make YML the best place for young moms on the web has not died. Not one bit. No matter how busy I may get, this community will still flourish. You have my word on that.
Three cheers for YML! *crowdapplauds*
I am glad you were able to get that fixed, it can be nerve wrecking. I have had it happen to me before, and I cried because I was so scared everything was lost.
This community has flourished, it IS flourishing, and it WILL continue to flourish. Other commitments will come and go. In waves. Life works that way. But you we know you are still committed to YML and we are here, ready to let the world see us, young mothers. I said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m so happy to be apart of the YML movement! It’s a movement, ya know?
@Alicia – Thank you! I am just glad that I have surrounded myself with moms like you, who feed me that encouragement whenever I’m feeling a bit low or unable to see the forest for the trees…
That’s happened to me too and it’s awful! It actually happened to a couple of my inactive sites and it was just ridiculous; I started from scratch. But I’m glad you’re back up and running.
Sorry to hear about you getting hacked. Not sure who wanted to hack such a wonderful site by such a wonderful person. Hopefully, that will be the last time. And I totally understand what you mean about ‘real life’ getting in the way.