Well, I don’t know why, but suddenly my blog template is malfunctioning in a very weird, and very specific way. I’m not sure what the cause is, or whether it has to do with my recently upgrading to the most recent version of WordPress, but for some reason, the templates that are working perfectly on every other page are not working at all on my main “blog” page. (I have to add an extra div, and if I don’t, my footer appears at the top of the page and obliterates the top post.
I suppose it was time for a new template anyway, but I’m not really feeling like organizing that now, so for the next few days at least, the sidebar is going to be missing on my main blog page. Which is a crappy solution, but it’s all I’ve got for you right now.
UPDATE (the next afternoon): Okay, so it totally wasn’t the fault of the plugin: it was some stray div tags that got into the post because I copied and pasted HTML into the Visual Editor. Now I know better. It’s a dreadfully newbie error, I suppose, but it’s never happened before, so I didn’t even think of the possibility.
And I should add that the plugin I thought was at fault is a very cool one for WordPress, by the way: Simple Exclude lets you quietly, simply exclude posts from specific categories from the front page, archives, searches, and RSS feed of your website. And since it also won’t screw up your website unless you screw up and stupidly include someone else’s div tags in your content, I can highly recommend it. The plugin is here.
Kudos to Paul Menard, the plugin author, who was very nice as I freaked out and blamed his code for things it couldn’t possibly have been doing.
As an update, I’ve confirmed there’s something gone wrong with the WordPress Simply Exclude plugin. I’ve left a comment (actually two) for help. So I do have a sidebar again, but I’ve no idea how I’m going to fix it. Hopefully the plugin author has some ideas on this bug…
(And this comment is so I know where to go tomorrow, as I’ll likely login in Linux instead of Windows.)
Oddly, althought the post after this gives me a “page not found” error, I can see the sidebars just fine. Does that have to do with the template problem?
I think so, except I’m pretty sure now it’s a plugin causing it.
Gord,
First and foremost I’m glad you finally figured out the issue(s). I really was starting to worry that something in WP 2.7 had changed and was causing issues.
And thanks for contacting me with the issue. First at least I’m aware of any potential issue with the plugin. And second it gives me a chance to respond and possibly help you the user in case there is something I could have suggested. I wish more people would contact me instead of just dissing the plugin on their own blog and moving on.
Paul,
Hey, thanks for understanding. Given the last ten comments on the page for this plugin are me freaking out… :)
By the way, the title bar thing is still in effect, when one is using “include only.” I’ve left that set that way so you could see it. I assume that this is indeed related to the plugin, unlike my previous issue, but it could be some kind of conflict between that plugin and another, I don’t know.