I’ve been using WordPress for quite some time for my personal site and sites that I develop for my clients. I won’t get into the merits/virtues now, suffice it to say I find it extremely flexible and extensible. In my new job – more on this in a future post – I am lucky to work for a firm that feels similarly and we have used the platform to create a number of really great sites that extend well beyond what you may expect WordPress to be capable of. When combined we have 20+ years of experience with the platform and we have literally seen it all – at least so we thought – until last night.

As one of my many responsibilities I train and support our clients and make myself available around the clock to make sure that they are able to do what they need, when they need to do it. As onerous as it sounds, it’s actually a fun and fulfilling aspect of my job and helps me maintain a very customer-focused perspective. Last night I was watching Game 1 of the NLCS (go Phils) when I received two rather panicked email messages from one of our clients who is in the final stages of prepping her site for launch. She basically alluded to the fact that she was adding/editing some posts when she received a menacing message on her screen.

Danger!
Self-comparison detected.
Initiating infinite loop eschewal protocol.
Self destruct in… 3
2
1

Even for someone who has designed, developed and used the platform I had never heard of the problem prior to this. Not knowing exactly what was going on and suspecting the worst – a hack or some other type of breach – I was concerned. However, I was also a bit curious so I decided to try and replicate it myself on my own blog. All that I had to do was to create a post, allow a revision to be saved and then try to compare the older version against itself. Here were my results:

Now, I knew my own install was pretty secure – I keep up with patches and maintenance on a regular basis – and also host my sites on a different server from the affected client so I pretty quickly ruled out hacking. But I still wasn’t sure if it was a problem or something else. I turned to Google for some help. Turns-out that there is a documented, but very unknown “Easter Egg” for WordPress that has been present since version 2.6 (at least per Doncha – a source I really trust when it comes to WordPress).

Here’s what I learned because of this whole situation. First, even if you think you’ve seen it all you probably haven’t. Second, never underestimate the cleverness of a bunch of programmers with a little extra time on their hands. Finally, always, always, always (did I say always?) keep your WordPress installations updated. While it’s not a 100% full-proof way of keeping your site secure, it does go quite a long way toward that goal.

Just this morning I received one of the funniest serious emails that I have seen in a while from a former colleague at PMI. The title of the message was “In Poor Taste”. Her message was short but animated:

The other day I found a new pastry, called ‘Long John,’ in the vending machine at work. My first thought was that the name suggested a colloquialism other than “pastry.” Colleagues in my department thought the same thing because we didn’t know that there was this type of donut.

Apparently she did some internet research and discovered that: “During the NAMA Expo, the company previewed its latest premium pastry, the 4-oz. white iced raspberry jelly-filled Long John, which will be available in January and vend for $1 or more.”

She closed her note emphatically stating: I don’t plan on trying this “premium pastry.”

Attached to the message was a camera phone shot of the questionable delicacy.

Her whole experience started me thinking about how, in a time where access to information and easy to use communication tools empower millions every day, this situation could have been a boon or an absolute disaster for the company involved. Case in point, this could be the most delicious jelly-filled vended treat that one could possibly find to satisfy a mid-day snack attack, but many people will never know simply because the imagery and the product marketing appear to be more suggestive than it has to be. Some may even interpret it to be perverse or offensive. Personally I think it’s one of the funniest things I have seen – at least in a food product – in quite some time. I guess it’s all about interpretation. But all you need are a few people who don’t like it and the buzz-storm begins. They tweet about it and blog about it and tell their friends. Then one of the blog posts gets Dugg or Slashdotted and then it’s drawn into the national spotlight. It’s a vicious cycle all caused by a poor choice of words. Would it ever happen? Probably not in this specific instance, but it could and it has.

The moral of the story: It’s imperative to make sure what you are saying is consistent with how you are saying it. How do you really want to be perceived? I believe the adage from Edward Bulwer-Lytton: the pen is mightier than the sword is perfectly applicable here. If you are responsible for communicating specific messages choose your words very carefully. Let’s make it personal, how many times in your personal or association-related communications did you intend to convey one message only to end up communicating something totally different? I know that it happens all of the time.

So while this is a pretty humorous situation – at least for those of us who don’t have to deal with the impact of it – it’s also a powerful reminder of just how imperative clear communication is.

What you say matters, but how you say it is key.

Your thoughts, opinions and reactions are always welcome.