skeezicks

Rashiki,

Have you tried browsing to the install file? That is, use IE or whatever and go to:

https://yoursite/folderyouputwordpressin/wp-admin/wp-install.php

I think I’ll go with BlueHost. Thanks for the ideas.

I’d make this thread “resolved” but can’t find the link to do so.

Ah, the “Post Timestamp”!

Gotcha!!

Thanks for the info. I’m still a bit new to the lingo here. When you wrote “admin” what exactly did you mean? If you mean control panel, I couldn’t find any sidebar on the right when I clicked the Manage Posts tab.

Or maybe you were referring to phpMyAdmin?

I wholeheartedly agree with all of you guys’ points and I hope that someday I’ll know enough about WP to give something useful back to the forum.

Kardworx is frustrated. A lot of folks trying to get WordPress and/or their blog running/upgraded are probably just as frustrated. I am frustrated. Those who try to help people like Kardworx and me are also frustrated. But why!?

I think it’s due to several things:

1. Not only are the frustrated folks brand new to WP, a lot of them are also new to blogs in general. They do have the codex and others on this forum to help them, but the codex, while a good start and while containing a lot of info, appears to be often outdated by the flow of new versions of WP, of mySQL, and of phpMyAdmin.

2. A lot of information exists to help new bloggers. Truth be told, so much information exists that new bloggers can easily be overwhelmed. I am not aware of any books on WordPress that can be bought and studied, and if any did exist, they would be outdated by the time they came off the presses.

3. Many hosts offer free installation and setup of WP and other applets but no support for WP and the other applets. I can’t blame them. But host customer support should be well-versed on how those applets integrate with their other software, and should be able to offer more than “did you try reinstalling WP?” or “is your wp-config correctly set up?”

I became so frustrated with Yahoo that I signed up with Bluehost. BH customer support is, IMO, much better than that from Yahoo, but still, not every customer support tech there can be a software systems integration engineer.

4. Often those who offer their time, experience, and knowledge on forums such as this one become so tired of seeing the same old questions over and over and over again that their replies are sometimes a bit short. OTOH, sometimes responders also become so frustrated that the frustration can be read between the lines of their replies. Sometimes those who ask beginner’s-type questions are outright chastised for starting such posts.

Sorta like going to a store and upon asking a clerk if he has Brand-X somewhere, and being told to “go look for it yourself”.

5. I realize that many forums have search capabilities, but when newbies start threads, they often do not know the correct terminology to use to describe their problems. The terms “page” and “Page” confusion comes to mind. If somebody doesn’t know the right search term, it is a crapshoot whether he will find a helpful post.

6. Hosts make it easy for people to believe that starting and maintaining a blog is a matter of 1-2-3. “Just sign up, load our free site-manager/ftp-application/c-panel/blog-manager etc. and begin enjoying your blog,” they claim. Right. Just like that. Like the salesmen tell prospective customers. “With these tools and this book of plans and how-to, you too can build a great house/airplane/boat/whatever!” So the poor boob buys a truckload of professional tools, dumps them on the garage floor, looks at the plans, reads the how-to, and then wonders where the heck to start. ??

Anyway, I can see valid reasons for the frustration on both sides. Guess it’s just something we need to work on. I too am a beginner with blogs and WordPress and have spent days trying to get my blog into a stable state upon which I can build, upgrade as new stuff becomes available, etc.

It’s like waterskiing. Once you’re up, its great! Never before during the last 25 years of learning and using PC and Mac software for technical writing, illustration, layout, and commercial publishing have I shed so many tears as I have trying to come up to speed with my blog.

It’s nobody’s fault. Not the software developer’s, the host customer support people’s, not Joe Blogstarter, and not Joe Expert. It’s just the way it is. A never-ending roller-coaster ride. And it will continue to be that way until computer and software evolution ceases.

Thanks for the info. The reason I asked is because my host keeps putting the <noscript /> element into my blog posts, thereby rendering all following content invisible.

Still couldn’t find anything about that element. Found lots about the <noscript> and </noscript> elements though.

Sorry, I didn’t notice the first link to Pages. Be that as it may, I am at that point where I don’t know if the source of problems I’m having is at Yahoo and the way WP works on that host, or with WP, or with the themes others have provided, or with me.

I’m probably going to go to another host anyway and that will eliminate the one variable I cannot control. Then I can fiddle around with the blog all I want and when I’m satisfied, I can put it up “live” and dump Yahoo.

Rather than spend any more time with this problem, I changed themes to one that works a bit better.

No other ideas? I’m sure I saw a reference to an application that would let one zip files that live at a host when using ftp to access that host…

whooami,

Thank you for your help.

Being retired, I don’t have a lot of money to spend on hobbies such as blogs, websites, etc.

Being retired, I do have a lot of time to try working things out myself, asking for help when help is offered and when I’m stumped.

I appreciate your ideas and try to follow through with your suggestions. I do value your input. I have only about a month’s worth of experience with blogs.

However, your delivery method to me is smug and condescending, to wit:

“Or you can continue to start threads like this.”
“The choice is yours.”

If you wish to continue helping me by replying to my questions, that’s great. However, if you have to pepper your replies with digs and barbs, it would probably be better if you simply pass.

“The choice is yours.”

After reading your first reply, I deleted the post in question and wrote a new post while online. When I checked it, everything appeared normal. The footer appeared along with the Add Comment block, so I considered the issue closed.

Now 3 hours later I see that the new post has not only the original problem, but even more js script has been added to line 125! Here is the entire division:

<div class="post">
<h2>What’s on YOUR Mind?</h2>

<div class="contenttext">
<p>If you would like to bring something to the attention of the SVHOA Board of Directors, or to other SVHOA homeowners about the Boarda€?s activities (or inactivities), simply add your comment below<strong>.<script language="JavaScript" src="https://us.js2.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/smb/js/hosting/cp/js_source/geov2_001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script> <img <strong>style="display: none"</strong> src="https://visit.geocities.com/visit.gif?&r=http%3A//springvalleyhoa.org/blog/%3Fcat%3D5&b=Microsoft%20Internet%20Explorer%204.0%20%28compatible%3B%20MSIE%206.0%3B%20Windows%20NT%205.1%3B%20SV1%3B%20.NET%20CLR%201.1.4322%29&s=1280x1024&o=Win32&c=32&j=true&v=1.2" border="0" /></p>
<p><script language="JavaScript" src="https://us.js2.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/smb/js/hosting/cp/js_source/geov2_001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript /><script language="javascript">postamble();</script></strong>
</p>
</div>

I can see what appears to be a link to Geocities.com with a preceding element of “style=display: none” so it appears that although I took great pains to limit permissions to yroot and to myself, somebody managed to hack into the blog.

Note too in the preceding paragraph the phrase, “or to other SVHOA homeowners about the Boarda€?s activities”.

I didn’t place the garbage at the end of the word “Board”. It should read “Board’s”.

Also, the code used to hide the geocities.com link is a “style=display: none” rather than from the insertion of a <noscript />.

Furthermore, another post (Category = Over the Back Fence”) that was good several hours ago now has the same problem. Here is the pertinent code for that. Notice the js script is minimal, but I sure didn’t put it there:

<div class="post">
<h2><a href="https://springvalleyhoa.org/blog/?p=5" rel="bookmark" title="Over the Back Fence">Over the Back Fence</a></h2>
<div class="contenttext">
<p>Have something that doesn’t quite fit in the other categories? Something that has absolutely nothing to do with Spring Valley? Place it here!<<strong>script language="JavaScript" src="https://us.js2.yimg.com/us.js.yimg.com/lib/smb/js/hosting/cp/js_source/geov2_001.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script> <noscript /></strong>
</p>

The inserted script in the above code is the same as that originally inserted in the first post that presented the problem, right down to the <noscript /> element.

What do you think – has the blog been hacked??

Good catch! But one thing –

Isn’t that a rendered page that is generated on-the-fly? I don’t think it exists on the server.

And, if I’m correct, whatever file(s) rendered that page also rendered the other posts. Those other posts display correctly, and not only do they not contain that <noscript /> element, they also do not contain the Javascript that precedes that element.

Where do I find the code I must correct?

Will it work on WP 2.0.2 or does it require something specific that 2.0.2 does not have?

Thanks for your help and interest; however, since I managed to get a different template working and since that template has what I need (and more, actually), I think I’ll just close this thread rather than chance it by making another change.