---
title: "Missing Thoughts"
description: "No one is perfect, this is why we have things like checkpoints or gates in the form of pull requests, linting, type checking, and tests. What happens when..."
date: 2025-11-05
published: true
tags:
  - python
template: blog-post
---


No one is perfect, this is why we have things like checkpoints or gates in the
form of pull requests, linting, type checking, and tests.  What happens when
you work on small side projects by yourself that try to be content focused?
What happens when you end up building a lot of the tech under that site and
build it on the bleeding edge of all the tech you make? They are likely missing
these things and occasionally there are some periods of regression.  This is
one reason I really like the term digital garden to describe one's small corner
of the internet where they share their thoughts.


> There will be regressions

## The Signs

There were signs, signs I did not notice

!!! chat

    is your rss feed broken?

    I'm not seeing anything show up in my rss reader

!!! chat-reply me

    Do I not put thoughts in my rss feed, I swore I did.

!!! chat

    my fault, Turns out I must have already clicked it in my reader.

!!! chat-reply me

    great, glat it's working

...But it wasn't

Later this week comes the next sign that I also choose to ignore... Google
search has unindexed a number of pages due to a soft 404.  I don't look at all
of the emails from search console, but I did happen to see this one, and
thought "Huh, that's odd" and went on with my day without another thought on the
issue.

![screenshot-2025-11-04T02-59-44-259Z.png](https://dropper.waylonwalker.com/api/file/5601435b-2c87-4598-b01f-57e5eb737ebe.png)

> Huh, that's odd

## The Discovery

I didn't realize I even had an issue until later that week when I went to my [[
archive ]] myself and noticed the shape of it looks off.  When I opened up my
feed something felt off, it was only the big posts.  Thoughts show up as a
different kind of card

Then it hit me.

> Something just felt off

Thoughts are Gone!

## The Fix

I popped open my config and immediately knew what happened.  I turned off some
plugins locally for faster build iteration and that change found its way into
production.... because I have nothing to check myself on other than me.  The
plugin is now back and thoughts are flowing from thoughts.waylonwalker.com to
waylonwalker.com, no problem.

``` bash
❯ git log -p
commit adeb9812f7ecf4d9a68c6aa5e01e549e4dd91285 (HEAD -> main, origin/main, origin/HEAD)
Author: Waylon S. Walker <waylon@waylonwalker.com>
Date:   Mon Nov 3 19:56:40 2025 -0600

    thoughts were missing

diff --git a/markata.toml b/markata.toml
index 59539bab..a55a494d 100644
--- a/markata.toml
+++ b/markata.toml
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ hooks = [
     'plugins.chartjs',
     'plugins.md_video',
     'plugins.post_model',
-    # 'plugins.thoughts',
+    'plugins.thoughts',
     # "plugins.wikilink_hover",
     # "plugins.wa_wikilink_hover",
     "plugins.tippy_wikilink_hover",
```

## Owning Everything has a cost

You see here I am a one man show.  I own the content, the build, the infra that
does the build.  I love it, but there is so much to do for one persons side
project passion project.  Did I bite off more than I can chew? Did I choose the
wrong abstraction level for my needs?  Should I have better tests in place? Or
is this just a digital garden that has ebs and flows, growing weeds and pruning
them every few months?
