Every so often, a company changes its API or Application Programming Interface. That’s what allows one application to play nice with another. When a company changes it, it essentially breaks a lot of functionality for another program.

Well, Facebook has changed it again… sometime back when I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve used their API-off and on for years-to cross-post my Facebook posts onto this blog. Ideally, this would keep people coming to McClellandfamily.com a bit more (especially if they’re old not on Facebook much.) But when Bookface (as the olds call it) Facebook changed their API (again…AGAIN,) it broke my blog. Posts that once had creative titles that duplicated my FB presence were now generic titles like, “Another Facebook Post,” and “More from Steve’s Facebook.” And the links and photos that were there were replaced by broken image links. These posts still exist and they are a blight on what has been voted “The #1 Family Blog of All Time.”*

*All votes were cast by my dad.

But don’t worry. I’ve brought out the dust bin and have begun filling it with tear-covered broken links and generic posts. I’ve deleted more than 100 so far, and have many more to go. And then I saw something shiny and got distracted.

Another aspect of this blog that was broken…okay, maybe not broken but let’s say a bit disheveled, was the “Video” category. YouTube has changed their API’s a bit over the years, and while most of the videos continued to play, they were not very pretty. I’ve been cleaning them up and making them run like a well-oiled thing that runs well. Really. Try it. Click on the “Video” category in the left column and watch a few. I’ve even added a few new ones.

So for now, please accept my apology, all you who frequent this space. No seriously, Dad and that one guy from Russia, I mean it. I apologize to both of you. Ignore the broken posts (I’m working on them) and click on a category on the left or a tag on the right, and check back in a bit to see if McClellandFamily.com has the luster that you’re accustomed to.