While browsing through my favourite websites this morning, I happened across a very good (or, very bad) example of a careless editing turning into an embarrassment for a credible organization. Swimming World Magazine is usually very good at posting interesting stories about the aquatic world; however, the introduction to this morning's top story was cut off at a very unfortunate place.
Only the site's Premium Members (i.e. those who have paid thirty U.S. dollars for the privilege) can click through to find out that the girl in question is actually a bright future star in the women's breaststroke events, not breasts. However, because most of the site's articles are viewable without the premium membership, this editorial gaff is the only information available to the majority of readers.
The morals of the story are obvious, but if a website with Swimming World's experience can make a mistake like this, anyone can. Writing special introductions to articles is far safer than just using the first few sentences, cut off after a number of characters or words. Remember that innocent words can be very funny or misleading if taken out of context or cut in an unfortunate way, and always view your content one more time, even when you think you're done with it.
Later in the morning, Swimming World Magazine corrected this error by rewording the offending sentence, but undoubtedly not before thousands of swimming fans (and perhaps an embarrassed Caitlin Leverenz herself) viewed the post. Or before amused parties managed to click Ctrl+Print Screen!
Wednesday's Editorial Lesson: Read, Re-read and Re-read it Again
Moz News
The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
In a perhaps related note, Swimming World Magazine noted a 220% increase in premium memberships.... okay, they haven't actually noted this and it isn't perse a proven fact.... yet.
Hahaha, that's a good one.
Thanks for the laugh! Great point. :)
I wonder how many searches were done on "Caitlin's breasts" this morning before the site was updated ... you don't think this could have been a Swimming World linkbait, do you? ;-)
"widows and orphans" like the clip in questions, URLs and such are all good to keep in mind for "scrubbing" before going live. Also, think about standard acronyms that may be used in your work. They may not translate well. I worked for years in an environment where we used COB (as in Close Of Business) many times a day. A new chap from Canada moved into the cubical next to me and asked, "What is this COB acronym you are all using"? I explained, he wandered back to his desk with an aside to me over his shoulder, "I won't bother to ask about SOB then, eh"?
A worthwhile point. It can be even more hilarious/embarrassing when the error is in your domain name as illustrated in this classic article.
You are now responsible for having me choke on my lunch. Those are very, VERY funny!
powergenitalia & whorepresents are just awesome URLs.
Here's another one: https://www.beontopranking.com/
Is it "Be On Top Ranking" or "Be On To Pranking?" You decide!