The end of Mauve and Yellow Army.

[the other bob wilson]

This has just come about within the last couple of hours, but, from today, I will not be publishing anything else on Mauve and Yellow Army unless there is someone on here who can sort out the problem I have encountered this morning.

When I tried to log in this morning to do the latest Seven decades quiz the following appeared;-,

"There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.

Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress."

Apparently, this is a fairly common happening which can be fixed, but not by someone with my limited knowledge of things like FTP sites. I look at the complicated instructions on fixing it that I've come across and think even if I knew what they were talking about, is it worth the effort? On balance, I still think it is, but I must admit that the last few years worth of awful football and poor decision making by the club means that I answer that question with a lot less enthusiasm than I once would have.

So, if you are one of those generous people who have been supporting the blog through a monthly standing order, you should cancel it - thank you all very much for your support down the years.

Before Mauve and Yellow Army started in 2009, I used to do reaction pieces on here and my plan is to go back to doing them from now on, so I will still be posting reaction pieces and I'll keep on doing quizzes for the handful(!) who bother with them. In that respect, nothing will change if you were someone who used to access my Mauve and Yellow Army pieces on here. I'll also keep on posing something on the colonel's site, I can post links to the thread on here on Twitter and I think I should be able to keep on putting something on Patreon, so I think everyone who accessed Mauve and Yellow Army should have a way of still accessing what I write if they want to.

Mods, can you make this is a sticky please so that those who have supported the blog financially get a better chance of knowing what is happening please..

[Citizen's Nephew]

Paul, I'll send you an email within the hour with some suggestions. Personally, I think the Blackburn game broke it! I don't want you to abandon it. Will chat later.

[Tuerto]

If you do stop with the blog then that's a shame. I always read it Sunday morning with a brew while the rest of my tribe are still in bed.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, But I have noticed that your enthusiasm has had gone, your reports while still really good and better than anything locally or probably nationally have an air of despondency about them. There is nothing positive though, absolutely zero.

Have a break from it Paul, find something else to do, that's how I feel at the moment. I can't even watch that shit anymore, it's so depressing. And it's been coming for a few years.

[the other bob wilson]

Paul, I'll send you an email within the hour with some suggestions. Personally, I think the Blackburn game broke it! I don't want you to abandon it. Will chat later.

Thanks Simon - the Blackburn game may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, it's had an awful lot to put up with over the past two or three years.

[Citizen's Nephew]

Paul, I'll send you an email within the hour with some suggestions. Personally, I think the Blackburn game broke it! I don't want you to abandon it. Will chat later.

Done! In the immortal words of Douglas Adams....DON"T PANIC!

[the other bob wilson]

If you do stop with the blog then that's a shame. I always read it Sunday morning with a brew while the rest of my tribe are still in bed.

Correct me if I'm wrong though, But I have noticed that your enthusiasm has had gone, your reports while still really good and better than anything locally or probably nationally have an air of despondency about them. There is nothing positive though, absolutely zero.

Have a break from it Paul, find something else to do, that's how I feel at the moment. I can't even watch that shit anymore, it's so depressing. And it's been coming for a few years.

You're right Dan, I don't think this season is worse than last year, but it's been pretty desperate and I agree that my blog has been a gloomy read lately. That said, I'd definitely still be carrying on with it if it were not for the problem that surfaced this morning -writing the blog pieces was never the chore that watching City has become lately.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

You're right Dan, I don't think this season is worse than last year, but it's been pretty desperate and I agree that my blog has been a gloomy read lately. That said, I'd definitely still be carrying on with it if it were not for the problem that surfaced this morning -writing the blog pieces was never the chore that watching City has become lately.

I agree , do all you can to keep the blog going please

[Tuerto]

You're right Dan, I don't think this season is worse than last year, but it's been pretty desperate and I agree that my blog has been a gloomy read lately. That said, I'd definitely still be carrying on with it if it were not for the problem that surfaced this morning -writing the blog pieces was never the chore that watching City has become lately.

Good, I'm glad that you're going to keep writing. For those of us who can't (me) it's always nice to read something that is interesting, thoughtful and that makes sense. Cheers Paul.

[Taffy Blue in Berkshire]

hope you get the technical issue sorted as your blog is much appreciated, cheers TBIB

[poc]

I agree , do all you can to keep the blog going please

yes please keep it going

[Citizen's Nephew]

Just to concur with all the others re. keeping it going. As I said in my email reply just now, this should be solvable and it sounds like a technical problem caused by the hosting company or an update (plugin on PHP). All the site info and data should be on the server. This blog is going nowhere! It's too important. There'll be riots if you abandon it. We got this!

[Enoch Mort]

The show must go on Paul. I’ve sent you an email

[Cyclops]

I know how frustrating it can be when one's IT work over decades can come to a shuddering halt because of an IT failure.
This has come at a bad time because everyone's enthusiasm (including yours) for things Cardiff City is on the wane.
I would only suggest that you don't make any final decisions until things have settled down.
It sounds that CN has some suggestions to help.
In my own case, while it took many months to revamp my huge website, I see the continued interest in its content every day from the viewing stats and am pleased I kept it going.
Maybe the comments you are getting about how valued your reports are will rekindle your enthusiasm.
I'm a bit older than you, and have reached the stage that I'd like to be remembered for something I've achieved. Perhaps you feel the same way, which may also help you to keep going. And just because there are a limited number of comments about your reports each week doesn't mean that they are not appreciated by many supporters. They are just the tip of the iceberg.

[Tuerto]

I know how frustrating it can be when one's IT work over decades can come to a shuddering halt because of an IT failure.
This has come at a bad time because everyone's enthusiasm (including yours) for things Cardiff City is on the wane.
I would only suggest that you don't make any final decisions until things have settled down.
It sounds that CN has some suggestions to help.
In my own case, while it took many months to revamp my huge website, I see the continued interest in its content every day from the viewing stats and am pleased I kept it going.
Maybe the comments you are getting about how valued your reports are will rekindle your enthusiasm.
I'm a bit older than you, and have reached the stage that I'd like to be remembered for something I've achieved. Perhaps you feel the same way, which may also help you to keep going. And just because there are a limited number of comments about your reports each week doesn't mean that they are not appreciated by many supporters. They are just the tip of the iceberg.

Great post. The other thing we must be mindful of is that Paul may have just had enough for a bit as well. We can all recognise that in any relationship, and having a strong affinity with a football club is like having a relationship on times, an abusive one as well.

I'm not saying that's the case with Paul, I don't know, But what I would say is that at the moment there are no words to describe the utter shit that we are witnessing, and it's been a few years in the making.

[jon1959]

I hope you're able to keep going Paul - both technically and emotionally.

[the other bob wilson]

I hope you're able to keep going Paul - both technically and emotionally.

Emotionally, I’m fine for writing the match pieces because I’m going to carry on one way or another, but I’m a wreck when it comes to the football.

As for technically, Simon’s promptings persuaded me to have an online chat with the hosting company, but I got nowhere because I was told that they had technical issues that their engineers were working on, so, you never know, that may be the cause of it.

[the other bob wilson]

I know how frustrating it can be when one's IT work over decades can come to a shuddering halt because of an IT failure.
This has come at a bad time because everyone's enthusiasm (including yours) for things Cardiff City is on the wane.
I would only suggest that you don't make any final decisions until things have settled down.
It sounds that CN has some suggestions to help.
In my own case, while it took many months to revamp my huge website, I see the continued interest in its content every day from the viewing stats and am pleased I kept it going.
Maybe the comments you are getting about how valued your reports are will rekindle your enthusiasm.
I'm a bit older than you, and have reached the stage that I'd like to be remembered for something I've achieved. Perhaps you feel the same way, which may also help you to keep going. And just because there are a limited number of comments about your reports each week doesn't mean that they are not appreciated by many supporters. They are just the tip of the iceberg.

Thanks, I appreciate your comments, but, honestly, my intention was to do the normal quiz today - packing it all in was the last thing on my mind, but I suppose I was more prepared to accept it closing down than I might have been at other times.

[Undercoverinwurzelland]

Always enjoy reading your post match thoughts, even when the match was appalling!

If you get no joy with Wordpress you could consider switching to another platform, like Blogger for example. I've used it in the past and although the finished product probably isn't as nice to look at it's pretty simple to use (and free).

[Hot Shot Hamish.]

It’s been a tough enough season to endure for us all, but if you were to stop writing your such well thought out pieces, then that would be the final kick in the nadgers. I hope you can resolve the technical issues and that you find the will to continue, as the week wouldn’t be complete without your commentary to read.

[pipster]

That site is in wordpress - the critical error you get usually points to a wordpress plugin causing a conflict somewhere.
So FTP to the server - go to the wp-content folder and then go into the plugins folder.
In there you will see all the plugins, rename each one by just adding an 'x' to it. This will effectively mean no plugins will load.

Now go back to your site and login - it should now work - of sorts.
Now start to rename the plugins back to their original name one by one. After each rename go back to your wordpress dashboard and hit F5 to refresh.

One of those plugins will be the issue. When you have post here which one it is and I'll tell what to do next.

[Maurice Swan]

Bob - just to add my appreciation of your blog...which I look forward to as a mouthpiece of what most fans think.
As for the problem itself....I don't use Wordpress but I do still run a website design company - and often it can be a simple issue with them...or maybe they have introduced something that is no longer compatible with your site (eg..as someone mentioned....a new version of PHP).

Any chance of publishing exactly what the message was? I know that if I get in touch with the hosting company I use and tell them it was ok yesterday but today I get an error.....they would be extremely helpful to find (and resolve) the issue.

run

[the other bob wilson]

That site is in wordpress - the critical error you get usually points to a wordpress plugin causing a conflict somewhere.
So FTP to the server - go to the wp-content folder and then go into the plugins folder.
In there you will see all the plugins, rename each one by just adding an 'x' to it. This will effectively mean no plugins will load.

Now go back to your site and login - it should now work - of sorts.
Now start to rename the plugins back to their original name one by one. After each rename go back to your wordpress dashboard and hit F5 to refresh.

One of those plugins will be the issue. When you have post here which one it is and I'll tell what to do next.

Thanks, I think you might be right because that’s something I have done in the past when there was something wrong with the blog, but I was able to access the dashboard then. This time it’s not even allowing me to log in. I don’t know if you read earlier in the thread when I said I contacted the Web hosting company only to be told they had a technical issue which meant that they were unable to help me at that time, so I’m hoping that might have something to do with it.

[Maurice Swan]

That site is in wordpress - the critical error you get usually points to a wordpress plugin causing a conflict somewhere.
So FTP to the server - go to the wp-content folder and then go into the plugins folder.
In there you will see all the plugins, rename each one by just adding an 'x' to it. This will effectively mean no plugins will load.

Now go back to your site and login - it should now work - of sorts.
Now start to rename the plugins back to their original name one by one. After each rename go back to your wordpress dashboard and hit F5 to refresh.

One of those plugins will be the issue. When you have post here which one it is and I'll tell what to do next.

I too think that is likely.....and a sound way forward...but if I understand correctly, Bob would be a bit wary of doing that. If they worked 'yesterday' and he has not changed anything, then it must be something that the hosting company has changed that makes something (maybe a plugin...) incompatible. The hosting company would no doubt have had similar issues reported by other users.

[the other bob wilson]

Bob - just to add my appreciation of your blog...which I look forward to as a mouthpiece of what most fans think.
As for the problem itself....I don't use Wordpress but I do still run a website design company - and often it can be a simple issue with them...or maybe they have introduced something that is no longer compatible with your site (eg..as someone mentioned....a new version of PHP).

Any chance of publishing exactly what the message was? I know that if I get in touch with the hosting company I use and tell them it was ok yesterday but today I get an error.....they would be extremely helpful to find (and resolve) the issue.

run

I put the message I’m getting in the first message in the thread Maurice.

[Maurice Swan]

I put the message I’m getting in the first message in the thread Maurice.

yes I saw.....but what were the instructions in the inbox?