Why do I find web stuff so confusing? [Why is Wordpress such a piece of shit?]

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Every time I try to post to my blog it takes fucking hours because I always get errors, as if it doesn't like some of the text strings... except it's different every time. I tend to write posts in Word so it doesn't eat them if the connection to the server goes down and then paste them in. - usually as a plain text file, though it doesn't seem to make any difference. Neither does it make any difference if I put text into the html editor, or just write straight in to the page - there's just endless errors.

For example, I'm trying to paste the sentence "From the first primal, open-ended, effortlessly funky cut,..." and it won't handle the word "from".

Does this ring a bell with any wordpress gurus out there?

I'm tempted to go back to blogspot I hate using wordpress so much.
 
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nomos

Administrator
No no! Don't go back to Blogger. It sounds like you've got a screwy install or something. I write my posts in TextEdit and paste them in. The only problem I ever run into is if I somehow screw up the < p > tags in the WSYWIG and then I just fix the HTML. I've also got Akimset as my spam killer and it works a treat.

Do you have these problems every single time? I could set up a test blog on my server for you to check if it's WP in general, or just your install.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Your install is fucked because you never got rid of your spam and amassed about a gig of it and we had to delete lots of your files from the server, remember? It's why nobody can comment too.

our hosting company seems a bit rubbish as well - what are the errors you are getting? If it's 500s then have a word with them. (and see my thread about hosting!)
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Yeah I suspect the install may be fucked... and that the hosting may be a problem... my errors are the same as the ones you get sometimes... but yeah I get them EVERY FUCKING TIME.

And the "pressit" thing doesn't work.

ANd...

... blogging is just too much work...
 

eleventhvolume

Active member
I can't claim much expertise, but I do know that pasting in from Word into a database can be a no-no. All sorts of formatting crap gets copied onto the clipboard that you can't see, but it can really screw things up. Going with TextEdit or similar will sort that. I'm no big fan of WordPress, despite using it on all my blogs, but I would suggest backing up your site content and templates (all in the wp-content) and doing a clean reinstall. Good luck with it.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Yeah I suspect the install may be fucked... and that the hosting may be a problem... my errors are the same as the ones you get sometimes... but yeah I get them EVERY FUCKING TIME.

And the "pressit" thing doesn't work.

ANd...

... blogging is just too much work...

drop p4host a line about the errors - it worked ok with my discussion forum.
 

blubeat

blubeat
... blogging is just too much work...
Ya dun-no! I have had mainly good experiences with Wordpress but only because I have a developer who can maintain (and fix) the php and the database. If I was on my own I would be forced to use Blogger or just not blog at all which is my current favourite.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Surely the only real issue for most people is being able to upgrade it, though? I realise that might be a bit daunting for some people, but it's actually quite easy when you know how.

I've had very few errors with mine. I did used to get some 500 errors when I was doing massive posts, but usually got round this by saving as I went and then occasionally rephrasing some sentences. This is a pain but if you only have to do it once every 6 months its not too bad is it?

Wordpress now host blogs at wordpress.com in the same manner as blogger.

"500 internal server error" is nothing to do with wordpress - it's to do with the server innit!

2step - To draw two themes together, I think the best thing for us to do is to back up your database and then move you over to a new server.

In the meantime grab a support ticket from p4host:

http://p4host.com/support/index.php?_m=tickets&_a=submit

and explain the problem, preferably including a cut and paste of the error you are getting.
 

Martin Dust

Techno Zen Master
Yeah I suspect the install may be fucked... and that the hosting may be a problem... my errors are the same as the ones you get sometimes... but yeah I get them EVERY FUCKING TIME.

And the "pressit" thing doesn't work.

ANd...

... blogging is just too much work...

Back it up and we'll port it to our server Paul, we are the Wordpress masters :)
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Excitingly I have, after much faffing, managed to upgrade from 2.something to 2.1.3. And it hasn't made much difference.

Have submitted a trouble ticket, see what they say.

In the meantime my blog database is now backed up so when I change hosts (and I think it is a when, not an if) I am part of the way there.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Excellent! How did you back it up, just out of interest?

Yeah upgrading won't stop the server errors but it might mean better functionality, better auto-saving of posts while you write etc.

Talk to Mr Dust about reparing your database, tho?
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
I used the PHPMyadmin interface which I got to from somewhere in CPanel I think - there are some instructions on the WordPress site.

Plus I used the back up function in CPanel. Go to Back Up, then go to MySQL back up.

Plus I used a link that Dnyl gave me for backing up the db.

So I now have three slightly different backups on my PC!

Have emailed Mr Dust with the SQL db.

In other news the trackpad on my laptop seems to have finally given up the ghost, which though not surprising is a pain cos I am going to New York next week.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
3 back ups is good! Nice one.

Check Jammyland in new york if you get a chance. How long you there for?
 

matt b

Indexing all opinion
3 back ups is good! Nice one.

Check Jammyland in new york if you get a chance. How long you there for?

if you're downtown, go to the wierd hat shop/kiosk that'll be playing music on fulton street (across form the subway entrance)- nuff reggae mix cds
 
I had a lot of problems with Wordpress when I was doing my blog, not least of which was the slowness of posting (could be more than an hour even for a small article), and the strange fonts that appeared from nowhere. Anyone else get mysteriously italic apostrophies half the time?

You lot seem to be using it on your PC hardrive whereas I was using it on the blogsite (blogsome). I suspected that the reason why it was so bad was because it was a gratis product, a labour of love by some bedroom programmer, but this cant be the case.

Only real advice I have is that you should 'clean' your word files by pasting them into Notepad, then when it's pasted into wordpress go to the HTML function of it to see if there are any codewords (like 'font' or something like that) that shouldnt be there. Unfortunately some of the wordpress mistakes are invisible in HTML.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
yeah I always paste into a plain text editor first. Doesn't seem to help.

I'm in NY Wednesday through Friday. Obviously I'd love to go to JammyLand! Dunno if I'll have any time at all. Didn't even get a chance to go into the hotel spa in Budapest this week.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
Have renamed the thread since it was, frankly, completely inaccurate.

Put a support request to p4host over weekend, after much faffing they seem to have fixed it, even the Press It thing seems to work now. Big up Kevin at P4host!

Still going to switch to dreamhost or someone cos there are much better deals out there though...
 

john eden

male pale and stale
I think, for me, all this web stuff is as complicated as you want to make it.

I've been really impressed by the amount of stuff which is relatively easy to do and with how my nerdy brain can just about figure out how to make things work.

In the last couple of weeks I've set up a discussion forum and a web shop. Both had/have teething problems but it's still pretty amazing that you can arse about and get a bit of help via support forums and it all just about works!

Tho I realise I am some way off from being able to get full functionality and make things look pretty.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
I've always found the web stuff a total pain - I think it's cos I come from a print background. I was so used to the total, easy control of Xpress, and the different way of working that comes with the web was always a bit alienating. I mean... code! YUCK!!

Respect for organising a shop and a forum... I'm just happy to be able to post on my blog confidently... and the "press it" thing is just a joy! It's kept me happy today while enduring this (currently intensely painful) bout of chickenpox.
 
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