Last night I tried to find my old post that mentioned -30- being used by journalists as an end mark for their stories. Eventually I came across this 2008 post …
… and I remembered. Ugh.
There were several posts I couldn’t find in the Google cache, but the greatest loss was a lengthy entry about printing and typesetting in the early days, including some of my own experiences. In it I explained that early telegraphers entered -30- to signal the end of a message. To this day, many journalists end their stories with -30-. It’s particularly useful when a story is broken into segments with illustrations, ads, or other devices, and the actual end of the story is not readily apparent to readers.
That incident, that loss of work on a topic that meant a lot to me, was a painful but important lesson. I now have an account that backs up everything I do on WordPress, and it has saved me a couple of times.
-30-
Anyone who reads my blog knows that I back things up from one drive to another on my PC, then back up to a separate drive that is stored in my safe, and that I additionally back up my phone photos both on Google and SmugMug.
For a while, I also backed up my DSLR photos and all the processed photos online (Amazon Cloud Storage), but I’ve not kept up with that (although I still could). But, I go beyond that . . . every 3-5 years (I’m about due), I replace the hard drives on my PC with new and larger capacity drives . . . and I save the old drives, which means I have multiple copies of my older stuff.
. . . all this from one terrible time when one of my hard drives crashed. While I had backups, I lost a little over a month worth of images and writing, including a good portion of my SV-1 story which, sadly, I couldn’t quite recreate.
So, yeah, I understand . . . and, short of a nuclear holocaust, I’m minimizing the possibility of losing anything ever again.
Sounds like you’re covered, several times over. At the time of my loss, the only backups I knew about were saving the text on my own computer … without all the formatting and design work. At the time many people were composing on their computers and then uploading to their blogs, but again, it wouldn’t have saved the WP formatting. And if you read the old post, the deletion occurred while I was working on my test blog. I thought I was safe doing that, until I wasn’t. But even now I lack the tech expertise to do all you are doing.
These days, WP saves drafts automatically (multiple versions as you edit). Most editors have the option to save work in progress (although it won’t save you if you delete it.
There are free programs that will also recover deleted files, usually in their entirety, although that works best when done not too long after the deletion (before the storage areas can be overwritten by new data).
As for backing up, these days you can buy a portable (external) drive for about $30/TB.
So, if you don’t want to mess with adding a drive to your PC or Laptop, you can just plug one to your computer via USB. Most come with backup software that will either automatically back up anything new or schedule backups based on the timetable you set up. I think Windows might have a backup option as well, and possibly iOS.
Or, if you don’t want to deal with setting up the software, at the end of the day, you can manually copy anything new to the external drive.
Oh yeah, you wouldn’t believe the number of revisions I pile up with one post, or how often I go digging in them for something. And I have an external hard drive for backing up the entire computer, etc. etc. But I wasn’t nearly as smart back in 2008. Sadly, these days it seems I’m forgetting a good deal of what I learned between then and now …
Like, WOW ! [gasp !]
Way back in journalism school, 49 years ago (!), we learned to put -30- at the end of our typewritten (on newsprint copy paper with manual typewriters) stories and I am sure we were told the reason for that sequence of characters, though now I can’t remember. What I do remember, was that since it was a kind of universal signal among typesetters that there was no more copy (typewritten pages) to come after that, it was a signal to stop setting type for that article.
But it was meant to be a non-printable signal. Typesetters might put it at the end of a galley of type they had set, to let paste-up artists know that’s all the type for that article. But it has never been intended to be seen or read in final printed materials in books, newspapers, magazines, etc. Just a note to typesetters, printers and associated such folk.
I had to look it up! It came from telegraph operators in the mid-1800s. It was among nearly 50 one- and two-digit numerical shortcut codes telegraphers used for commonly used phrases to save time sending messages, mostly communications just between operators. One of them was 30, without dashes, meaning “finished,” or “no more – the end.” So, I’m sure the practice carried over when newspaper articles started being transmitted by telegraph (wire stories!) and articles came through to the teletype machine and printed out one after another and people on the receiving end had to be sure an entire article had been transmitted and a new article was beginning.
Other common numbers were: 2 for “very important,” 14 for “what’s the weather,” 29 for “private, deliver in sealed envelope,” and 88 for “love and kisses.”
Interesting. I graduated from J-school 60 years ago but don’t recall anything about those other numbers — 2, 14, 29, etc. Actually, I probably learned more on the job than in class. I did read somewhere that -30- was being used by telegraphers during the Civil War. It’s still nice to see that bit of history showing up on a 21st century computer screen.
To clarify, -30- originated as a signal or note between telegraphers, and later was used as an internal markup note from editor to printer, not something meant to be printed. In addition, as a design element, a publisher may adopt a specific symbol — any of a variety of end marks, tombstones, dingbats, or mini logos — to mark the end of each story. Similarly, in books you sometimes see decorative flourishes marking the ends of sections or chapters.
so interesting
I was as interested in the behind-the-scene mechanics of print production as I was in the writing of the printed matter itself. The production methods certainly have changed.
can I use that when talking to certain political nut cases?
😃 Certainly worth a try. I’d try almost anything at this point.
Well, me auld darlint, you are certainly worthy of your typesetting background.
Now, if only you were equally practised in WordPress … [ROTFL]
Well, if WP would just stop changing all the time … !!! In my best years I couldn’t keep up with them, and I sure as hell can’t now.
I have a paid subscription and I’m completely unable to do a fucking thing with this damned software, now. Used to have a wonderful time with it.
Can’t work out why they like making us furious …
Don’t forget, WordPress.com is just a laboratory for WordPress.org. They introduce and test their “improvements” here before moving them to WordPress.org where the businesses and serious bloggers live. At least that’s what I’ve always heard.
Makes sense, Colorado. And I never knew it before your telling me – thanks !!! 🙂
So interesting 💯
Thank you!