Jo Hyun Jae

On Saturday morning (a few days ago) I turned on my computer to check my e-mails and to check on our blog before I left for the airport.  First e-mail was from my blog partner M, screaming bloody murder: “I can’t log in!  Our account is LOCKED!  Someone tried to hack into our account at 3 a.m.!”  No time to do anything, but at least I could see our blog.

On Sunday morning I tried to access http:jo-hyun-jae.com at the hotel and couldn’t see our blog!  Instead I saw this: “You must login to view this site.”  What the heck!

What’s happening?

After this Sherlock Holmes finished her investigation, here is her report:

For some time now, we have felt the need of a backup system for our blog.  My recurring nightmare is: What if we wake up one morning and find our blog gone?!

Another thing is: For the last two months our web host has been prompting us to upgrade to a newer version.  To upgrade or not to upgrade — that is the question.

We decided to seek the advice of our computer consultant Peter, the one who helped us move from google.blogspot in May.

Just as computers seem to have a mind of their own, computer experts do not operate like normal people.  My e-mails went unanswered.

Just before I left, I wrote again and threatened to look him up.

I think that’s enough to goad him into action.  He must still remember the 3-hour tutorial he gave me on how to use our new blog in May and how slow I was in the uptake.

In any case, I guess he tried to work on our blog the night (actually the wee hours of the morning) before I got to Hong Kong.  BUT he forgot his username; he must have thought it was the usual ADMINISTRATOR.  So he must have tried using various passwords until too many failed attempts resulted in our account being LOCKED!  We had to request a new password so we could log in our blog again.

Then Peter sent me this e-mail: “I forgot my username and password.”  I wrote back: “Your username is XXXXXX, but I don’t know your password.”  His username must have triggered memory of his password, because next thing he UPGRADED our blog to the latest version which included a new feature called ABSOLUTE PRIVACY.

ABSOLUTE PRIVACY means you have to LOG IN to see our blog.  Before it was open to all, and you only need to LOG IN if you want to leave a comment.

Once we understood what ABSOLUTE PRIVACY meant, we DEACTIVATED this feature.  Once again our blog is open to all and any who like Jo Hyun-Jae.

Next thing we suddenly saw a lot of UNAPPROVED USERS.  What are these?

Now before the upgrade, if you REGISTER, you become a SUBSCRIBER and you can leave comments.

So my nasty, suspicious mind thought: “Does this mean these people use fake e-mail addresses?  That’s why they are UNAPPROVED USERS and not SUBSCRIBERS.  How can so many JHJ fans be so devious?”

It took a day for M and me to catch on (from opposite sides of the world.)  The upgraded system requires the ADMINISTRATOR of the blog to APPROVE the new users before they can become SUBSCRIBERS.

As soon as we realized this, we immediately changed all their status to SUBSCRIBERS.

We apologize to our readers if you’re unable to access our blog for a day or two.  Both M and I are travelling (separately – in different time zones!), and we don’t quite know how to cope with these unexpected happenings, not being terribly computer savvy.  We’re not trying to be exclusive.  We have no intention to keep anybody out.  We want as many people as possible to know about JHJ.

Now I understand why old people don’t like change.  Change is upsetting; change is unsettling; change takes time to get used to.  Just when we were getting used to google.blogspot, we had to change web host because google.blogspot is blocked in the country where I am based.  And just when we were feeling comfortable with the new blog, we had to upgrade which resulted in temporary disorientation.

Now things are back to normal.  Feel free to leave comments here or write us at jhjfans@gmail.com.