And, on a numeric keypad, the 5 is directly below the 8, supporting the typo hypothesis. Tweets from the author:
> Oh fuck me.
> I just accidentally published a major piece of news one day early because I've got butterfingers and typed the wrong number in the scheduler.
> Is it too early to start drinking?
> Wordpress is fucking stupid. If you schedule something for \in the past\* it should say "er, are you sure?" instead of just immediately publishing the post.*
What I find most interesting about the fiasco is that TheNextWeb.com's editorial process consists of the stock Wordpress "Schedule a post" function [1] which includes this lovely tidbit:
> Tip: Always double check the date at the top of this calendar before clicking publish, and verify that it correctly says AM or PM
Trying it out in a test instance of Wordpress, he's correct: The initial status of a new post is "publish immediately." [2] Clicking "Edit" brings up a date editor. [3] And "OK" doesn't warn you if your date is in the past. [4] Finally, clicking the "Publish" (which could read "Schedule") generates a post with the URL /01/05/ that's visible immediately with no warning. [5]
Note the visibility and status options above the date: Wordpress does support some options for "draft" or "pending review" options with private/password-only visibility, but apparently TNW - a business that draws $15 million in revenue, is among the top 20,000 websites, and has dozens of employees - didn't use them before this oops.
I somehow assumed that there would be a red-tape process involving legal, editorial, and managerial oversight before you could get any content to the front page of a site like this. Not sure after seeing this if TNW is just playing fast and loose, or if everyone is...
[1] https://en.support.wordpress.com/schedule-a-post/
[2] https://i.imgur.com/0CxPYhS.png
[3] https://i.imgur.com/qa7emUd.png
[4] https://i.imgur.com/svyNS6K.png
[5] https://i.imgur.com/dPyURfD.png
