Oh, no! 340 blog followers left me in just three hours!
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I read that the new standard for tipping at restaurants is 25 to 30 percent. I’m thinking, “Uh, no.” I worked at an IHOP in College Station, Texas, from March to November 1974. That’s when I decided that I would always tip better than the average bear. And I have left a 100% tip for long-time waiter who was graduating from college and going to medical school. That was on his last day serving me happy hour margaritas for four years at On The Border. But other than special circumstances, if a server thinks he’s getting 25 to 30 percent for taking my order — Rarely does the server even bring me the food! They have food bringer outers for that! — it ain’t gonna happen. I’m going to become cheap. -
Did you notice that your number of followers dropped in the last three hours? WordPress deleted the number of Facebook followers from the total number of WordPress followers. I’ll have to check to see if some of the blogs that I visit, those that have ten posts in six months but 26,000 followers, are down 25,590 followers………………… -
Remember, if you fly into San Diego for any reason, sit on the left side of the plane. The views of downtown San Diego as you land are awesome!
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How come barcode stickers stick to non-stick pots and pans?
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
Posted on October 2, 2012, in SNIPPETS and tagged barcode stickers, flying into san diego, ihop college station, on the border, restaurant tipping, wordpress followers. Bookmark the permalink. 69 Comments.
WTF?
Will have to check my own too then. Why would they do that I wonder.
I complained about it a few months ago. Of course, I don’t think I have enough power to be the reason why they changed……..lol……..As I pointed out, though, at the time I had about 25 duplicate followers, i.e., people who were following me on WordPress and with whom I was friends on Facebook. So it was definitely an inflated figure.
I also pointed out that WordPress was not Facebook, so why include Facebook followers? Additionally, if Facebook, why not Twitter, or MySpace, or LinkedIn, or Pinterest, and on and on and on?
Oh dear! Though it hasn’t really hit us! Whee do wonder about the bar code stickers and non-stick pans though!
Nibbles, Nutty, Buddy & Basil
xxxx
I’m with ya on tipping, Russel. Gotta say you’re a generous soul, doing your bit to help the waiter move from graduation to medical school.
Blessings ~ Maxi
just reset it on your dashboard….under “settings”…share…no problem!
Sharing is different from following. My sharing has not changed, just the number of followers.
I checked a few of those blogs I mentioned in my post and their follower numbers are down significantly.
this is exactly the issue that can be addressed by resetting your own share with… technically as you must have originally in setting up….
Nope. I unshared with everyone and then reshared with everyone. Nothing. My Facebook friends are gone from WordPress calculations…………….
hum…maybe wait a day, then again, or offline, on…then again…….WP surely pressed some “buttons” because some “like” gravatars also not appearing….in more sites than one, and mine too…Always Technology to deal with…don’t give up.
Mine dropped as well
Mine is still at 394 with 84 Facebook and 38 twitter. b
I am working on building my audience, I don’t have 340 to lose! Hope WP fixes.
For me it was just the Facebook followers. The change might also involve followers from other sites, like Twitter, Pinterest, etc., but since I’m not at those sites, I don’t know.
Interesting I thought I had less followers today than yesterday but did not really pay much attention to the exact number. You have a huge following of bloggers.
The same thing happened to me. Weird!
To be honest I don’t keep track of how many follower I have as I know some people follow me only to get a follow back and they never visit again!! I think I was always around 340 and I still am after reading this.
I flew into San Diego at night many, many years ago. Scared me to death. It was like a nose-dive to the runway. Is it still like that?
Yes. And it’s something you’ve never forgotten, right? See how exciting that was!…………lol
I don’t remember where I went – it was a famous health spa at the time. But I remember that landing! Yes, it was exciting.
Ha, number 4 cracked me up. Yah the whole tipping thing. We’re very generous when the service warrants it. We recently ate breakfast at a popular spot where the server didn’t smile, greet us or even say anything the whole time…I suggested to my husband that we shouldn’t tip, and he did anyways…urg. When a server justs expects it, I get annoyed. I later went to leave a review at Urbanspoon.ca and there were a ton of comments about the poor service…which I’m sure they’ve read but obviously don’t care. Tipping is Out of Control.
I always tip, 10% if the service is poor (and sometimes a talk with management), 15-20% if the service is nothing special but not poor, and 25% or more if the person has been waiting on me for decades or makes the whole one-hour dining experience the best one hour in the world.
If the service is poor, I leave just 10%. However, since I once worked in a restaurant, I’ll analyze the situation to see if I can determine why the service is poor. I might even inquire of the server.
For example, if the center of the restaurant has a birthday party of 20, I know what happened. If it’s rush hour but there are only five tables out of ten being used, I know someone called in sick and they have not been able to find a replacement to come in and work. If all twenty tables are being used but there are only two servers, again someone called in sick.
If the service is abysmal, I’ll ask to speak to the manager. There’s nothing wrong with telling the manager that if someone calls in sick and no one else is available, it’s probably best to let people wait in line instead of waiting while seated at a table. Once people get seated and don’t get service, they get upset. If the wait is 30 minutes or more, then people can determine on their own if they want to wait. The thing about the long waits before being seated is that it implies a great restaurant, even though the wait might be because of sickness or someone quitting.
That is a bit steep for a tip? What if you are a tourist and not money bags – you have to eat
I guess the grocery stores will start seeing lots of tourists stopping in to buy bread, cold cuts and cheese slices, peanut butter & jam, etc………..lol
If you didn’t manage to sort your followers out, try this:
Dashboard – settings – share – disconnect [In my case it was Facebook and Twitter]
Go into Facebook – account settings – apps – WordPress – delete.
Then go back into WordPress – dashboard – settings – share – connect.
It worked for me. I now have all my followers back.
Hope it works for you.
That worked! Facebook totals don’t show up on my Dashboard stats page but the total on my blog that is viewable by the public went back up!
Thanks!
Great. I’m glad it worked for you. Blessings, my friend.
It took a little while, but the Facebook followers are now listed again on my Dashboard stats page, too.
Tipping is not required, but a good tip should be well-earned and well-deserved. I like that you make the effort to talk to management, a good restaurant manager will do something to resolve the issue. Having worked in a restaurant I understand that I was not “entitled” to a “standard” tip, though some may have felt differently. Also, having visited other countries where restaurant servers are paid decently, tipping is not expected, you get awesome service and I LOVED that! I do hate that tips are dependent on the amount of money spent, though. A $200 bottle of wine takes as much skill to open as a $10 bottle. How about increasing menu prices and increasing wages for all food service workers, including the kitchen?
I would love to see the practice of tipping down away with and menu prices increased appropriately, mainly because of things like your $200 wine bottle example.
The vet that I follow had over 130,000 followers. She’s down to 295 followers now, so it’s obvious that all the others were Facebook and Twitter, and maybe others.
I doubt many are following me
As to the tipping I get so ticked when the restaurant is empty and the staff are all huddled in a corner chit-chatting while we patiently wait, and wait, and wait. Aren’t they the ones supposed to be waiting? I give 15% if the service is reasonable and 20-35% if great.
Hopefully the staff is talking about how to improve things. Don’t blame everything on the wait staff. Sometimes it’s the cooks or the dishwashers, sometimes even those mandatory breaks. If staff doesn’t get the mandatory break at the exact time required by law, they tend to sue the restaurant. Thus the owner makes them take those breaks, even if it’s in the middle of waiting on a table.
Anyone who eats out regularly has probably wondered why they asked for water and it took 15 minutes for it to get there. As the server was going to get the water, the owner said, “Madam Server, time for your break.” That’s it. Nothing else gets down for that Server’s tables until after the 15-minute break.
Some restaurant owners have gone to the team approach whereby if one Server has to go on break, the other team members cover. This, of course, means that tips go into a pool and are split evenly, usually based on hours worked. I like the team approach, and I find that those restaurants usually get the highest tips from me.
Yes, I noticed! I emailed them and they were tweaking things. It’s all good now but it sure looked strange! 25,000 followers? That’s insane! I’m comfy with my small community. But of course I won’t turn anyone down.
Lucky you: my PC has been down for 10 days so I haven’t been able to get in your face. My stats have not changed. The nose dive into San Diego has me closing my eyes waiting for the crash! Now, we are all caught up. LOL
We’re coming to your town a week from Tuesday. I hope our seats are on the left side of the plane.
Have your camera ready!
For a minute there I worried… You are funny Russelray!
From Hawaii, we always fly into San Diego at night. Perhaps that’s why it’s never seemed scary to me. Can’t see much but lights. On the way, we did catch a brilliant above-the-clouds sunset, though—sitting on the left side of the plane.
Once again, thanks for ‘camping’ at Colltales, Ray. I feel I should have some cookies or something to offer you the next time. What I do see is that it increases the blog’s readership, and for that, I’ll be always grateful to you. All the best. Wesley
Hey Russ–
Mine follower number is the same. Did you try linking your Fan page (from FB) instead of your profile page? Maybe that’s what…? I hear you about the tipping, as well. I bartended my way through college (ten years!!haha, but true) and so appreciate both ends of the counter, but come on. I cite bringer-outter’s, too. Off for a Santa Barbarian foothill run inna twilight. (absolutely no Cullens involved) Have a great Insane Diego evening! (I can say this, as a PLHS alum,hehe)
PLHS, huh. I was just over there a few days ago for a home inspection.
did you notice it was a school, though? (lol) Is that your old school, too? (go Pointers!!) I also went to SDSU for a creative writing class before I wendt my way northward.
I think I’ve explored all the high schools in the 19 years I’ve been in San Diego. After all, having been born and raised in Texas, Friday night high school football is vitally important to the religious experience………lol
I know that is true, because I watch: Big Bang–else, der-de-der. I am NFC NFL from way long ago. But a live game–well! That’s something else again. The only one I ever saw was at Jack Murphy–the Chargers and the Dolphins–back when Fouts was da man. I sat in the wrong cheering section on purpose…I was a bit of a wild child, and liked to stir up the pot.
So that’s what happened! Mine went down by about 100 and had me wondering why. Thanks for enlightening post. I didn’t think arts and crafts projects could possibly offend that many people.
Ha! You’ve been offending so many people, it’s unbelievable. I’ve stuck with you, though…………lol
Great post!
Hmm, not sure it has made any difference to me. But then I don’t use Publicize. I did at first connect with my FB account but found the number of views and comments there plummeted. So now I do separate content for FB.
Thanks for this post! I don’t have a significant amount of followers being new to the blogging community. But a couple of weeks ago I jumped about 200 followers in one day to go down about 300 followers the next day. I just figured WordPress was having a bad day but I have to admit it was quite deflating to have such a swing in such a short amount of time. Oh well.
Thanks for your visit Ray,
wish you a very nice tuesday with many warm greetings,
all the best for you,
Greetje from the Netherlands
I noticed that drop as well. And I had felt so popular too. Sigh, easy come, easy go.
15% tip is almost always included on the bill in France, so no need for customers to do the math (although leaving a little something is still appreciated, of course). Thanks for visiting my blog too.
Hi Russel, Thank you for following my blog. In the Uk I do tip if the service is good. It’s not compulsory here. Though more places are adding service charges to the bill. Best Wishes, The Foureyed Poet.
I’ll be back in a day or two to do some more extensive reading. See my featured blog post about “camping out.”
I see you have been camping again! Thanks for all the likes on my blog today. Hope you will check out the new post for the weekly challenge
http://rutheh.com/2012/10/19/weekly-photo-challenge-silhouette/
This is curious, what WordPress suddenly did re FB followers. I was really intrigued by your headline & wondered what kind of offence you must have committed!
I wonder who in WP decided that, and more – why. It’s all so very curious, what those behind the scenes do from time to time…
Re tipping, I reckon it’s gorgeous how you left that student 100% on his last day. Thing is, I am not used to tipping unless I get EXCEPTIONAL service. There’s this place near where I work called The Spud Bar & though it’s not Aussie tradition to tip, I easily chuck in a dollar or two (don’t require I give 30% before you even make eye contact, thanks!) BECAUSE the guys who serve are so energetic, gorgesously courteous, & clearly working hard. They just work & work & it’s great to see – I am one all for hard work (not for fun – but when it’s got to be done, you know).
If you read BuckWheatAtRisk’s blog, she had an experience at Walmart recently which just has me furious. The service tender was ATROCIOUS in the matter of both service AND human consideration. I wish your Walmart workers only got 2/3rds of a normal pay, & had to make the rest up in tips…
WordPress gave them back…mine, anyway. My Facebook followers are now back
I thought I was being generous tipping 20%. Hmmm…
Wait, are all your posts a random smorgasbord of ideas? I’m still whirling and giggling from it all!
A little of this, a little of that. All from Southern California, but mostly San Diego County where I live.
Was it something you said?
I think it was my onion breath………lol
Good Blog
Tipping is something I often wonder about 25 – 30! NO WAY I shall not be dining in at all! Call me cheap but that’s sounds like buying two meals!
I hadn’t noticed about Facebook until I just read this. My Facebook numbers have dropped as well. I’m still small, so every number does count (not that I am really bothered either way). Still, will investigate. Thanks for flagging it
Same here – I had not noticed that they counted FaceBook followers. Anyway I am still here and thank Ray for still liking my posts!
I’m ignoring Face Book so no loss for me. I actually signed up for an account with FB, its automatic system wanted a mobile phone number for verification. Since I don’t have a mobile phone this was a problem. So FB’s automatic system said that I could send ID with picture and birthdate on it (mask out the other information). The form to do this doesn’t actually send the document anywhere. So even though I have FB I’m not able to log on to it. Hopefully, Word Press doesn’t slide down the slippery slope of poor customer service and automatic systems.
I have the same problem with Twitter followers – now I don’t see them in my Dashboard. Word Press support was trying to help, but couldn’t. Twitter support answers on my letters like idiots – ask to define the problem, three times
That stinks! Any expectation that perhaps they will do a “person refund”? Such a crummy thing to pull!I’m giving wordpress the old stink eye on your behalf