FreeCashPro

Broken Link Checker PASSED (is good without the issue resurfacing)

Better WP Security PASSED

Ok, I got these back without the problem resurfacing:

Akismet Version 2.5.9 | By Automattic
Google XML Sitemaps Version 3.4 | By Arne Brachhold

Continuing to add them back one by one and checking in-between. I’ll report the offending plugin here when I discover the culprit.

AHHH… Ok, deactivating them all in one fell swoop DID solve the problem YAY! Now, I’m going to activate them each in order of my own importance in having them and check to see if the issue comes back after each. I’ll report back my results here.

Ok, WoW, in looking at my plugins list it DOES look like I have a whole bunch of plugins that I maybe should prune off my list (lol) Here’s the list before I deactivate them:

Akismet Version 2.5.9 | By Automattic
Better WP Security Version 3.6.3 | By iThemes
Broken Link Checker Version 1.9.2 | By Janis Elsts
Custom Facebook Feed Version 1.6.8.2 | By Smash Balloon
Google XML Sitemaps Version 3.4 | By Arne Brachhold
Jetpack by WordPress.com Version 2.7 | By Automattic
Sweet Captcha Version 3.0.6 | By Sweet Captcha
WordPress Importer Version 0.6.1 | By wordpressdotorg
WP Total Hacks Version 1.7.0 | By Takayuki Miyauchi
WP User Avatar Version 1.6.8 | By Bangbay Siboliban

Yes, respectyoda, the theme I had chosen does appear to be very old though as a test I temporarily changed to “lithium by athemes” which was listed on the ‘Newest’ list and I’m still seeing the same issue.

I’m going to try deactivating my plugins to see if that solves it and then I’ll try your particular theme suggestion if that doesn’t solve it – Thanks ??

Yes:

1. I AM using WordPress 3.8 which is the latest I’m aware of (I’m usually very good about this)

2) Where would I find out if I’m using bad code from old themes and plugins? Ok, to test this theory I am going to deactivate all plugins and see if my problem disappears (yes, good logic – I had not thought in this direction) if I find that deactivating all my plugins solved the problem then I will reactivate them one by one and see when the issue re-appears.

Thank you for the additional sound troubleshooting logic ?? I will post my results shortly.

Ok, as a test I switched themes and had the exact same problem so I’m deducing that my problem is NOT my theme. Next I will make a new user profile and try that. I’ll keep this thread posted with my results.

Ok, just to be prudent and as a test I am going to install another theme to see if that theme obeys my ‘display name as’ settings wishes. I will report back here my findings shortly (if the theme definitely IS my problem then I think I can learn to ‘love’ another theme (lol))

Ok, assuming it may be my theme “Theme: Expound by Konstantin Kovshenin” and I love and want to keep the theme, is there a workaround for this issue? Can I make a new user profile a switch posts to that? …or manually change fields in my database (safely?) Thanks for any help in this direction.

Ok, so it is likely my THEME that is doing this and NOT my WP installation?

…also, I recently started using Jetpack maxed out on all of my installs, might that have something to do with this?

Does anyone know any way that I can go in and hard-code or go into my database to manually change the author’s name in all my posts for the time being until I find out what the actual issue is?