Ok, I just did something stupid. Something really stupid, the enormity of which is only slowly beginning to sink in.

It all started off so innocently as well. Some typical office banter about the frustrations of organising hundreds of bookmarks, sometimes on different computers. How we become so reliant on our personal favourites, sometimes built up over years and now completely irreplaceable. Some gushing praise for del.icio.us and a new way to consolidate your bookmarks in a central resource accessible from anywhere. We were working hard round here you understand.

Now, I’ve never used del.icio.us. I don’t really see the point. All my Bookmarks are simply stored on my work and home machines separately. And it’s worked just fine and dandy thanks very much. But good Gods, this is 2005 man, and we’re supposed to be at the bleeding edge of technology. I really should be trying harder to keep up.

So wouldn’t it be great if there was a way you could sync your Firefox bookmarks with del.icio.us I casually quipped. Quick as a flash we were Googling for a Firefox extension. Somebody must have done it we thought. Bingo! Seconds later and I’ve found Foxylicious

“Foxylicious is a Mozilla Firefox extension that syncs your del.icio.us bookmarks into your browser bookmarks.” apparently. Sounds just the ticket my good man. Where do I sign up.

I remember vividly thinking “man, Firefox is just such a way cool browser. You get to have all these amazing extensions that make your life so much easier”. The irony now burns like sulphur enema.

Installation is a breeze, I load up foxylicious and see a big shiny “Update Bookmarks” button. A few reckless shakes of the mouse later and a horrendous dawn of realisation creeps over me.

I was after a system where I could upload all my Firefox bookmarks to del.icio.us. What I didn’t realise is Foxylicious downloads your del.icio.us bookmarks to Firefox and IN THE PROCESS DELETES ALL YOUR EXISTING BOOKMARKS.

That’s right. Years of carefully unearthed, loving selected, obsessively organised bookmarks eradicated in the blink of an eye. What have I done? I didn’t even fucking use delicious for the love of god.

I think I wept.

After a blind panic trying to undo what I did (unsuccessfully) I discovered Foxylicious does in fact warn you of this. Not nearly clearly enough, but it does warn you. Yeah that’s fucking great, I’m a big fat idiot, but it shouldn’t even do it in the first place! It’s just asking for trouble.

I’m currently looking to come to terms with my grief, but I’m struggling to find an appropriate 12 step program.

If anyone knows of a way to retrieve my lost bookmarks tell me before it’s too late.