Edit : 14 July - these plug-ins have been removed. I just did a new install on Hostgator and they aren't there.
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I thought I'd post this in case anyone else is experiencing the same problem. I have experienced this twice this week when working on clients' sites.

If you do a fresh install of Wordpress via Fantastico on Hostgator you will find a plug-in called WP Super Cache is automatically activated.

This plug-in seems to prevent your theme changes from displaying correctly on any browser.

You can see your changes saved in the admin area, but they will not be displayed by refreshing your browser (and I have tried this on 5 browsers)

Disabling this plug-in has cured this problem on two different sites on two different accounts, but both with Hostgator.

You are probably seeing the cached images of the pages, this is what the caching plugins do, they save teh page ans serve it up untill something in the data changes then they go out and read it again. I would never use it during development, but for a high traffice site, it may make sense to use.

The sneaky thing is that this plug-in is turned on by default - and if you don't know it's there, it's impossible to work out why your changes are not being displayed.

Did you ask Hostgator about this? I've installed many sites with them, using Fantastico, and I've never seen the plugin auto-installed.

Apparently it's a new feature - along with a plug-in which auto adds a link back to hostgator at the foot of the site.

Not sure those are features!

ahhh, just another reason I don't like the sites that will 'do it for you'...

In their defense, they make Fantastico available, but you don't have to use it. I often do a manual installation via FTP. Their support guys are usually very helpful.

Originally Posted by paulae

Not sure those are features!

lol

(and some extra rhubarb and custard because I couldn't just post lol because it's too short!)

Originally Posted by rosetrees

Apparently it's a new feature - along with a plug-in which auto adds a link back to hostgator at the foot of the site.

I use HostGator and (often) Fantastico and I've never seen this either I'm afraid... Speak to their support, they are very helpful.

I did speak to their support - that's how I know it's a new feature!

Try setting up a brand new sub-domain and install Wordpress. Then you'll see what I mean.

I wonder what will happen if I use Fantastico to upgrade my site NOW, that's how I normally do it (I haven't used the WP auto-upgrade yet)

I wonder if it would try to add in those plugins? hmmm? just thinking out loud.

Though since fantastico is always a couple WP versions back, I'm thinking I need to start using the Auto-upgrade feature, if only so I can try out the new-fangled Wordpress 3!

I'm a firm beleiver of doing the upgrades MANUALLY so I know it works. I've seen a couple auto upgrades time out and leave things in a mess (probably a server load issue)

Originally Posted by rosetrees

I did speak to their support - that's how I know it's a new feature!

Try setting up a brand new sub-domain and install Wordpress. Then you'll see what I mean.

Oh okay, sorry! Funny though, I did install wordpress on a new domain only a week or so ago and it set up like it always does...

If they're plug-ins can't you just deactivate and delete before you go about making your site?

I wonder if it's something to do with which plan you're on with them?

JaneD, if I were you, I'd avoid Fantastico for this. It's not even showing WP 3.0 yet anyway.

Jane D - you should be able to upgrade from within your site's admin area, rather than using Fantastico. That way you should be able to upgrade to WP3 automatically without finding extra, unwanted plug-ins

Danny - I did say that disabling the plug-ins cures the problem! It's only a problem if you don't know about the plug-ins, which is why I posted the warning. I see it's becoming an issue on other forums now, too.

I don't think it matters which plan you are on - I think they have (helpfully) added it to all. Maybe the developer works for Hostgator? (my cynical side)

One thing to watch out for with the Fantastico installed scripts is they are not the stock scripts that you can download from the developers. I have used Fantastico to test run some scripts only to find that plug ins or modifications that normally work with out any problem break the entire install.

If you just want to use a script stock out of the box it is fine but if you want to do any customization at all be sure to install the script yourself.

Apologies for bumping an old thread - I've edited my original post too.

The WP super cache plug-in has been removed. I just did a new install of Wordpress via HG and no plug-in. I actually did two fresh installs just to be sure I wasn't imagining it!