Outage

Headline: WordPress network bug throws millions of blogs offline

Now normally, you have to wait to the end of the article for the fine print. Normally, you spend the entire article wondering, "Hmmm, I wonder if I should panic the way they say I should?" You'll read an article with the headline: "Silent Killer May Stalk Your Home!" and have to get to the bottom of the page, or at least past the page break, to read that what the article is really about is carbon monoxide and you only have to worry if you're operating a coal coking furnace in your basement.

But the BBC is a haven of journalism, and they give you the straight dope right up front.

"Network problems knocked more than 10 million WordPress blogs offline in a two hour outage on 18 February [emphasis mine]."

Oh dear God! Not... two whole hours! Two hours where I couldn't find out what kind of stew you had for dinner. Two hours where I might not be kept up to date as to your score in some video game. Oh the horror!

Our obsession as a society, indeed as a world culture, with immediacy and trivia has gotten ridiculous, don't you think? If it had been two days, that would be something to remark on. If it had been a vital service, that too would be unacceptable if it were down for two hours. And I suppose it's possible that one or two of the blogs we didn't get to see for two hours (I never noticed myself, but then I'm me) was of vital importance. But they're blogs. Two hours is nothing. Get a damn life, people. I agree that it's a deal, but a big enough deal to make the news? Nope. Sorry. No sale.