I Can’t Believe I Said That

Posted by Barbara Swafford on Tuesday, February 5th 2008

Filed in: Archives, Blogging Lessons, Comments, New Blog Of The Week Tags: Blogging

Blogging (writing) is pretty easy. Just type out your thoughts, hit publish, and your opinions/ideas are out in that vast empty hole, called cyberspace. If you make an error in a post, you can always correct it.

Today’s Lesson

But, commenting, that’s another story.

If you leave a comment on another person’s blog, short of sending them an email, and pleading with them to remove your comment, your words are out there for anyone to see.

Many times after I have submitted a comment, I will reread my comment, only to realize I made a typo, or two.

Now, I realize typos happen to all of us, so I don’t spend time beating my self up. Maybe the author will edit my comment, and correct it, but if they don’t, that’s o.k.

Not too long ago, I was visiting Ian’s informative IT company blog. He had written a post on ‘Our Forfeit for November. I decided to leave a comment.

Quickly, I typed it out, hit submit, and off I went.

Later, I was back on Ian’s blog, and noticed that Dave (a partner of Ian’s) had replied to my comment. I was a little confused.

Then I realized what I had done.

Here’s what I had written:

Ian,

These forfeits are a great way to stay on top of your customer service. It’s too bad others don’t “‘punish themselves” pubically, when their performance doesn’t meet the client’s expectations.

By using a rating system and monthly forfeits, I would imagine your level of service is superb.

Kudos to Multi-Solutions for walking their talk.

Dave wrote this:

Barbara, I think everyone else SHOULD punish themselves in the manner you suggest :-). Thats far too painful for me though! (I imagine its a spelling error though).

I meant to say…………………publically, however, I typed …………..pubically. One missing letter, totally changed my comment.

I laughed out loud, said, “I can’t believe I said that”, and laughed some more.

I later mentioned to Ian that he could edit the comment, and correct my error, however, he found humor in it, and chose to leave it as is.

Today’s Assignment

Have you ever left a comment on a blog, only to later say, ” I can’t believe I said that”?

Do you correct typos in your comment section?

Do you think you should?

Care to share?

Photo credit paparutzi

DRUM ROLL
It’s Tuesday.
My “New Blog Of The Week” is: DavidLano.com
I am linking to a post he wrote on 1/28/08.
WELCOME DAVID!

Tags: Blogging

14 Comments

CatherineL

said on February 5th, 2008

Hi Barbara - I am crying with laughter reading this. Sometimes I edit typos in coments but I would have left that one in too.

I often make typos in comments but I don’t think I’ve made one that bad.

Mind you when I first got Dragon Viavoice - I accidentally sent all staff a memo asking them to leave me a progress report “on their deaths” instead of “on their desks.”

CatherineL’s last blog post..Business - Sometimes You Should Give Up

[Reply]

Barbara

said on February 5th, 2008

Hi Catherine,

I knew you would like this one. I still laugh about it.

That’s funny about “on their deaths”

Life is too short not to be able to laugh about some of our mistakes.

Barbara’s last blog post..I Can’t Believe I Said That

[Reply]

Ian Denny

said on February 5th, 2008

I’m happy to take it off if you prefer?

I think it’s okay to leave stuff like that alone. We should celebrate mistakes and laugh about them. Not ridicule and punish them.

Without the odd mistake, life would be boring. And mistakes that make us laugh are even better!

Ian Denny’s last blog post..Small Business Failure Averted By Re-Mortgaging Your Neighbours House

[Reply]

Hunter Nuttall

said on February 5th, 2008

I sometimes correct typos in comments. But I don’t think an occasional typo is a big deal, and in some cases they can be quite funny. However, I’ve seen cases where a typo completely changed the meaning, and it wasn’t clear what they meant (someone said “you are not on the right path” vs. “you are now on the right path”).

Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Anger Management 101

[Reply]

Nez

said on February 5th, 2008

Hi Barbara,

Your post reminded me of another blog that HAS editable comments (for a specified time — forget which blog), BUT, I did some research and can present to you:

http://www.raproject.com/wordpress/wp-ajax-edit-comments/

a plug-in that allows editable comments.

I’ve just installed it on my blog, so I invite people to come on by to test it out.
Nez’s last blog post..Alternate Time-lines

[Reply]

CatherineL

said on February 5th, 2008

Ian - you can’t take it off. I need to mention it in a post I’m writing. In fact, it’s so funny that I’m writing a post just so I can mention it!

CatherineL’s last blog post..Tell Me What You Want

[Reply]

Barbara

said on February 5th, 2008

Hi Ian,

No, leave it there. It still makes me laugh and also gave me a topic for a post. I want to teach other bloggers the importance of not being hard on themselves if they make mistakes in their comments. We are all human, no one is perfect, and besides, if you took it off, my link would not make sense.

Like you post on Phoenix From the Ashes, you all had a break through when you started laughing about re-mortgaging your neighbors homes. That was a funny story, that taught a great lesson.

Hunter,

Isn’t that odd how that works. Even if our spell checker shows we have no typos, what we wanted to say, is still incorrect.

Nez,

That’s a good idea. Thank you for sharing the link. I will definitely take a look at that.

Catherine,

Now what are you up to?

But my biggest question is, what picture are you going to show?

Barbara’s last blog post..I Can’t Believe I Said That

[Reply]

Nez

said on February 5th, 2008

Okay, Barbara, did you misspell Catherine’s name on purpose?

Nez’s last blog post..Alternate Time-lines

[Reply]

Barbara

said on February 5th, 2008

Oops

Good call, Nez, I’m surprised Catherine didn’t catch that.

Barbara’s last blog post..I Can’t Believe I Said That

[Reply]

CatherineL

said on February 5th, 2008

She must have changed it before I noticed! Barbara - I’m hoping you won’t mind the picture too much. I’ve set it to publish just after 6pm in your time. I will be asleep then!

CatherineL’s last blog post..Tell Me What You Want

[Reply]

Barbara

said on February 5th, 2008

Yes Catherine, I misspelled you name…

I’m assuming the photo won’t have to be censored.

Barbara’s last blog post..I Can’t Believe I Said That

[Reply]

Natural Woman

said on February 6th, 2008

I have it on my blog too. I don’t leave comments just to get a plug though just because they have that…it’s nice to read the post titles thought. 100% of the time I do click on the ones left on my blog.

Natural Woman’s last blog post..Meet the Bloggers

[Reply]

Natural Woman

said on February 6th, 2008

Oh shucks, that comment should be under the luv comment post.

Natural Woman’s last blog post..Meet the Bloggers

[Reply]

Barbara

said on February 6th, 2008

Hi Natural Woman,

See, now you can be saying, “I can’t believe I did that”

Don’t worry about commenting under the wrong post. If there’s a way to move a comment, I haven’t found/researched that yet.