Hello,
I had trouble on the Twenty Ten theme because the comment box did not work. I upgraded to the latest Atahualpa. Now there is a "Leave a Comment" link under each post, but I tested it and it jumps to the upper right hand corner where there is a "subscribe to comment feed" button. I clicked on that and there is no option to leave a comment--only a list of some very old comments that were submitted to my contact page because the Twenty Ten comment box wasn't working. I used to have a comment box at the bottom of each post. I would like to restore that arrangement and the abundant discussion my blog readers used to enjoy. Thank you for your help.

what is the url for your site?
what do you have coded in the theme options-> Edit POST/PAGE INFO ITEMS->FOOTER: ....
for each of the FOOTER items?
do you understand each of the options you have there?

Hi Juggledad,
My URL is http://www.epicworld.net/blog
The following is the code relevant to comments which I found in the edit post/page info items of the footer, and No, I don't understand any of it. It is all over my head and beyond my very basic html capabilities. I think the only thing that will work for me is for you to give me the exact code that I can copy and paste, and exactly where to paste it. Otherwise, I will continue to pester you. I will try to donate something if I can finally get this fixed, because it has been a problem for many weeks. Thanks.

%comments('No comments', '1 comment', '% comments', 'Comments closed')% - Displays a link to the comment section of the post. The link text depends on the comment count & status (open/closed).

When using this item, provide 4 text strings for the 4 possible comment states:

Replace 'No Comments' with your link text for posts that have no comments yet
Replace '1 comment' with your text for posts with 1 comment
Replace '% comments' with your text for posts with 2 or more comments. The % (percent) character will be replaced with the comment count. Use that character in your own text, too, unless you do not want to display the comment count.
Replace 'Comments closed' with your text for posts where comments are closed. Replace 'Comments closed' with 'dontshow' to display nothing if comments are closed (instead of displaying something like 'Comments closed')


Example: %comments('Leave your comment', 'One comment so far', '% people had their say - chime in!', 'Sorry, but comments are closed')%
Example 2: %comments('Comments', 'Comments (1)', 'Comments (%)', 'dontshow')%

NOTE: On single post pages the %comments('...')% link won't display anything because the comments are on the same page. If you still want to link to the comments, the comment section and the comment form start with named anchors, so you use something like this:
<?php echo '<a href="'.getH().'comments">Skip to comments</a>'; ?> or <?php echo '<a href="'.getH().'commentform">Skip to comments form</a>'; ?> %comments-rss('linktext')% - Displays the comment feed link for a post, with linktext as the link text.

Please go to ATO->export/import settings and export your settings. Then attach them to a reply (use the paper clip icon)
also go to dashboard->settings->permalnks and set them back to the default, save tehm then change them back to what you currently have and then test the comment link again.

hi Juggledad,
Attached is the txt file for my blog settings. (BTW, there is no paper clip icon, just a manage attachments button. )

what version of Atahualpa are you using?
go to dashboard->settings->permalinks and set it to default and do a save and try the comments.
Then put it back to what you are using. WordPress upgrades seem to mess up the permalinks sometimes.

I am using Atahualpa 3.7.3, which I believe is the latest update. I am using WP 3.21. I have tried to update to 3.31, but it continues to fail. I have not tried to update manually. I am rather reluctant to update WP anyway, because it tends to disable important plugins. I tried the permalink thing, and it didn't work.

ok, why is the upgrade to 3.3.1 failing?
what happens if you change the permalinks to the defalt and leave them there. Does the comment link work?

I tried the comment link with the default permalink (after logging out) and I got a 404 error message. (I think it was 404) I think the reason was because the server was looking for the the word title, and couldn't find it.

This is an environmental issue - ie something unique at your site. It prbably has something to do with your htaccess(s). It could be there is another htaccess in a parent folder that is causing issues. Every htaccess from the folder you are in, back up to the root are processed.

That sounds really intimidating. I don't know what htaccess is. My blog is a file in my main site, epicworld.net. When I tried to update Atahualpa, it wouldn't until I went into my file manager at the main site and deleted the old folders. When I did that, it did upgrade. As I was having so much trouble with Twenty Ten, (with the comments, et al) I tried to delete those files, too, but there were so many I didn't attempt it.

So are you saying I need to go into my file manager of my main site, or is this still referring to WordPress? Either way, this is over my head. How am I to know what the problem is? I don't know enough html to detect such a thing. You seem to be quite savvy. I'd even be willing to arrange some way to have you go into those files for me and fix them.

please advise.

Thank you.

One other thing to check, how much space do you have free on your host?

It looks like you are hosted on Register.com and I have heard of "issues" with sites on their servers. Their service leaves a bit to be desired from what I hear as well.

Do you know what version of MySQL you are running? An earlier version can prevent updates as well.

You are at a point where you either have to dive in an learn the "innards" of WordPress and hosting or hire someone. The other option is to move the blog to wordpress.com. That isn't as flexible but it certainly gets you away from the maintenance.

Imilesw,
I have been with Register.com for many years, and have never had any problems with their servers/ hosting. I have had my wordpress blog for about 2 years now, and it has been quite popular. I guess I sub filed it with Register because they have such superb tech support. I didn't know that Atahualpa had this good email support. Register also has awesome web stats, which I haven't seen anywhere else. Google's web stats do not appear to compare as favorably. What quality of web stats does WordPress provide? Is it through Google, also, or do they have their own? And of course, I got tremendous traffic the way I presently have it set up. I don't know if transferring would mean I have to build up the traffic from 0? I just checked with Register and I have plenty of space, so apparently that isn't the problem.

I don't know what version of MySQL I have, and no idea how to figure that out. Is that on the blog itself, or on my main site? How do I check that?

Since I lack the time, money, and the know-how to dive into the "innards", what would it involve to move to WordPress.com? Would I transfer the entire file with past posts, or do I just start from here?

You might be able to check MySQL version via your control panel at register.com. To move the site to wordpress.com would require

• Export content from current site via Tools>Export
• Create a wordpress.com account and create a site such as epicworld.wordpress.com
• Import the content from the current site

The next step is to have your blog link go to this wordpress.com site instead of your current site.


Remember you will lose some functionality. For instance you can't install plugins and only have the themes that are created for wordpress.com.


The other option is to work with register.com to get this sorted out as to why you can't upgrade.

I don't think you need to move your site, just figure out what is happening with it. The .htaccess files can control what web page you see and can change it.

You seem to have wordpress installed in a subfolder of your site called 'blog'. So WordPress puts an .htaccess file there when you change the permalinks. But there could be an .htaccess in the parent folder that could be causing the issue. Withoug getting in to the backend of the server, there is no way to know.

And since you had problems with twenty-ten, it doesn't seem to be theme related.

Hi Juggledad,
To add to my frustration I just tried to submit a reply, and it logged me out and lost my message. Again, I don't want to move my site, as I like my plugins and don't want to give up my web stats.I don't understand why I wouldn't be able to install WordPress plugins on a WordPress site.

Anyway, if I go into my "blog" sub folder, would I find a file named ".htaccess"? How do I locate the "parent folder"? How am I to identify a problem in the parent folder? What do the permalinks have to do with my comment box? My comment box was working long after I changed the format of my permalinks. And what do you mean by "getting into the backend of the server"? And do I need to do that before I address the .htaccess issue? Could you give me step by step details so I know what to do? Sorry, as you can see, I need it spelled out quite clearly.

Perhaps if I know what to look for, my Register tech guy can help me find and fix the problem.

Thank you for your help.

I just responded to another thread of yours about this issue forgetting I had responded to this one as well. It looks like you are in a position where you may need to hire someone that understands the server side of things.

Could you give me step by step details so I know what to do?

because I don't have access to your environment, there is no way i could tell you step by step what you need to do. Debugging is partly a skill/science and partly an art.

Could I tell you step by step what I would do to try and figure it out? Probably, but it would take hours of my time to think about and write up a debuging guide for you and that is beyond what I'm willing to do for free on the forums...sorry but I have paying customers that get most of my time

thanks for the fix in 3.7.7! The addition of the "allow comments in page" really solved a dilemma.. anyone having trouble with preious version should just upgrade plain and simple.. works fine with custom perma links.. using latest WP.. 3.4.1