WordPress Forums : some helpful things to know before posting

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WordPress, as we all know, is a great blogging platform. It’s easy to use, has a number of great features that you just don’t get on other platforms, it’s free and so on. It’s an ideal way to get started blogging without having to go to the expense of getting your own hosting.

But sometimes, things can go awry or it’s not immediately obvious how to do something and so there is a well-informed and thriving help forum that you can turn to. I know that I’ve found many helpful hints there, from how to put your pages in order to how to assert your copyright for best protection of your work. I’ve even been able to help a couple of people myself, which is a good feeling.

However, there are a number of things that keep cropping up that have been answered many times before and so I thought that I’d present a little guide to using the forums, as well as answering some of the main items that come up repeatedly. So, in no particular order:

• Please remember that the forum is frequented by volunteers; they are helping out through the goodness of their hearts. Most of the time they’ll be able to answer your question, but sometimes it will be beyond their remit and you should contact Support using the “Support” tab. Support do keep an eye on the forum, and will post occasionally, but most of the time you’re dealing with volunteers - so if they can’t answer your question, don’t get all shirty with them.
• Before posting, you should read 7 Things to Know Before Posting in WordPress.com Forums. Trust me, it will help.
• Make sure that you’re in the right place. If your blog has an address that includes wordpress.com, the support forum you need is at http://en.forums.wordpress.com/. If your blog address does not include wordpress.com, then you likely have a WordPress.org blog and the forum you need is at http://wordpress.org/support/. You should read this thread for further information on the differences.
• The FAQ’s are there for a reason, too. Are you sure your question hasn’t been asked before? Do yourself a favour and check out the FAQ’s first.
• Do a search of the forums, too. Think about your question and what the key parts of it are and search for those. Just because something isn’t in the FAQ’s, doesn’t mean it hasn’t already been dealt with on the forums (see later in this post for some examples). If you still can’t find the answer, please feel free to post your question.
• One of the biggest mistakes people make when posting a question is not giving enough detail. At the very least, make sure you include a link to the blog about which you have a question. You should also give as much detail as possible about the issue you are having; that way, you’re more likely to get a quick answer. For instance, if your blog is not displaying the way you expect it to, make sure you give details of the operating system and browser combination you are using.
• Link your user name to your blog. When you post a comment or question to the forums, your username is displayed. Attach your blog to that name by clicking on View Your Profile, then go to Edit and add your blog URL (including the http) in the Website box. That way, even if you forget to include a link to your blog, people can still click on your username to go there.
• Remember, you reap what you sow. Be polite and courteous and people will be polite and courteous back (most of the time). If you decide not to be, be prepared for the consequences. If you are polite and courteous, but the replies you get aren’t, remember that everyone has their off days. Also, text is not a great medium for getting across ‘tone’, so the way you read it may not be the way it was meant.

So, what are some common issues and questions that get raised time and again?

Advertising
Advertising on a wordpress.com hosted blog is against the Terms of Service. This means that you can’t have Adsense, PayPerPost, etc. There has been talk of a paid upgrade to allow users to have advertising, but this is not yet available.

Javascript and other code
There’s lots of widgets out there that you’d probably like to add to your blog but find that you can’t do it. This is because most of the use Javascript or other code that is not allowed on WordPress.com. According to WordPress, this is to keep the platform secure from hackers, spammers and the like. There has been debate that this explanation does not hold water but the reality is that this is the position, so we have to make the best of it. You can add HTML to your sidebar widgets (although not forms, as far as I understand) so if there’s a widget you want, see if you can get an HTML version of it.

Using the Visual Editor to write your posts
In my experience, the Visual Editor can be temperamental with certain browsers and / or operating systems. One of the major culprits is Safari on the Mac, but it can also effect Internet Explorer 6. The issue is that when you click “Save” or “Publish” all your line breaks will get stripped out. The same can also apply even if you’ve used the Code Editor to put them all back in.

For Safari users, the problem seems to be solved if you turn off the Visual Editor. You can do this by going to your Dashboard, then go to Users > Your profile and uncheck the box that says “Use the visual rich editor when writing”. This may also work for non-Safari users that are having this same issue.

Generally, Firefox and other browsers that are based on Mozilla seem not to have this issue (although I’m not going to guarantee it) so you may want to try Firefox, Bon Echo or Camino. Personally, I now use Flock which does not have this problem and also has a built-in blog editor that works well with WordPress.com blogs.

You can also use an offline blog editor to post your blog. This has the added bonus of saving a local copy of each entry, so you automatically get a back-up of your blog. Timetheif has a review of some of the most popular ones here.

Something doesn’t look right when I look at my blog
Again, this can be a problem caused by your browser. Try a different one and see if you still have the same problem. If you don’t, it could be that the first browser is not interpreting something on the blog correctly.

If you’ve only recently had the problem, try reversing any updates that you’ve done and see if that fixes the problem. Remember to clear your cache, cookies, shut down your browser (hey, even re-start your machine just to be sure) after you change something to see if it’s fixed. This is becoming known in WordPress circles as The Cookie Dance!

My blog has been hacked
Unlikely, according to WordPress. What has probably happened is that your password has become compromised, because someone has guessed it or seen what it was when you typed it in. Also, if you ever update your blog from a public terminal (ie an Internet cafe) always remember to log-out before you leave the machine. If you have access, clear the cache and cookies before leaving the machine, too.

Site X is stealing my content
This is common and is part of the whole blogging experience. Ideally, what we as bloggers would like is that anyone that uses our material just uses an excerpt that links back to the original post. However, there are blog-scraping sites (sploggers) out there who just take the whole post, slap loads of ads all round it and stick it up on their site. Most of the time they will also include any links that were included in the original.

Some bloggers are not upset to see their material used in this way, figuring that they’ll get a bigger audience. But why should someone else be earning money off your work?

You can’t always get these sites to take down your work, but it’s worth asking. Check the site for a contact email address, or leave a comment on the site. If that doesn’t work, do a whois search and find out who the hosting company is. Send an email to them at “abuse”, explaining your grievance. If the site contains Google Adsense blocks, you can also email them.

This link and this one will give extra information on what you can and how you can do it, in this situation.

Themes
Some problems can be caused by the theme you choose to use. If your blog is not behaving in the way that you would expect, try changing your theme and see if that solves the problem. As WordPress.com users we don’t have the option (unless we buy the CSS upgrade) to make any changes to the way our themes look, so if there’s something that you want to do or if something doesn’t do what you want it to, consider changing your theme. (The CSS upgrade will not allow you to change how your theme works, though.)

I’d also recommend having a test blog to try out changes before you commit to them on your main blog. This could save you lots of headaches in the long run.

If you want to choose a new theme, you can find the ones that are available to WordPress.com users from your Dashboard, by going to Presentation. You can preview themes to see what they’d look like with your content in them, and then apply the one you’ve chosen.

Resolved topics
The final thing is that, if you do post a question and one of the volunteers is able to help you out then please, please, please, please, PLEASE mark the topic as resolved. It’s big help to everyone and really easy to do - there’s a link at the top of the thread!

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So, there you go. A brief introduction to some of the common issues experienced by WordPress.com users, to give you a “heads-up” before you post to the forums, as well as to help you post your question in a meaningful way that will get your question answered quickly.

I’m indebted to the many users of the WordPress forums who give their time so freely and are actually willing to answer the same questions over and over again. There are too many to name them all, but some of the ones who’s answers I have incorporated into this entry include TimeThief, TheSacredPath, Sulz, Judy, RainCoaster and DrMike (who’s site seems to be down, so I can’t link to it at the moment).

If anyone spots any inaccuracies or omissions - or feel that I haven’t explained something well enough - please let me know in the comments and I’ll change it.

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All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they’re made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they’re probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don’t take the world so seriously.

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Tags: WordPress, Help, Support