First the SideBar, And Now the Comments Too?
March 1, 2007
Time to destress! After days of studying and rushing project deadlines, pls allow me to depict the battle I had with WordPress!
A few days ago, I ranted about the problem I had with my sidebar. After an epic battle withWordpress, I finally solved the problem. Turns out not only did my oversized pics contributed to it, the ‘Brian Threaded Comments’ plugin which I was using was the main contribution factor.
Previously I was using the Regulus theme, which is largely common among bloggers. However, as I wanted a new look, I switched to the current theme I was using. Didn’t face any problems with Regulus. However, apparently the Brian Threaded Comments’ plugin would make the comments section oversized in the new theme and hence cause my sidebar to go to the bottom.
Funny thing is, only IE posed the problem. And as mentioned, as I was using Mozilla all along, I never knew the problem existed.
How did I find out it was the plugin that was the culprit?
Well, I was certainly bewildered when I realized that my sidebar appeared at the bottom only at those pages of individual posts which had comments. Hence, I decided to de-activate that plugin and Voila! My sidebar resumed it’s normal position!
However, determined not to be undone by a small little plugin, I decided to solve the mystery.
Looked through the CSS of the plugin and tried to resize the comments box size. And TADA! I won the battle over the plugin!
Woohoo.. Spent a huge amount of time on it and man, was I satisfied with myself!
Thereafter, I decided to use IE and went around blogs to see if anyone faced the same probs as me..
And man.. indeed there was! First up was Rachit, who was also using the same WordPress theme as me. His sidebar was also at the bottom! And only on IE 6. Nope, not IE 7. Bewildering indeed.. Dropped him an email to inform him and he did a Google Analytics check and found out that a whopping 35% of his visitors was still using IE 6!
And his solution? He switched back to the default WordPress theme! Woah what a drastic measure.. The advice he gave me was to switch back to more tried and tested themes.
Such as Regulus.. While for me, guess I just have to wait and see.. As I fell in love with this theme I’m currently using, so I’m just going to stick with it and pray hard and cross my fingers that no bug crops up again.
But one thing for sure, we should always try to view our websites/blogs on different browsers. For Rachit’s case, as it appears differently on IE 6 and IE 7, I seriously have no advice on how to double check on that.
Next up was Adam Wong, who also faced the same problem. Sidebar was normal with IE 7 and Mozilla but at the bottom at IE 6. Informed him about it as well..
That was two out of a few blogs that I checked!
Man! I wonder how many others faced the same problem too! And why isn’t anyone telling them about it??
Nonetheless, thinking that the whole WordPress bug saga was over, I set my mind at ease.
But today, I received an email from Steven. He said he tried to leave a comment but he couldn’t as there was an error.
WHAT THE??? Isn’t everything supposed to be peaceful already??
And why is it the comments section posing a problem again??
Darn.. It has to be the plugin once again!
Deactivated it! And nope it won’t solve the prob. Now there was an error saying ‘the administrator did not activate the brian’s threaded comments plugin’. So I had to copy and paste Patricia’s ‘comments.php’ file into mine. And only then was I able to post comments.
Why did it happen?? I am equally clueless!! And since I still have to study for my test coming up, I decided to let the plugin win this time and not bother about it until the weekend.
Instead, decided to destress by blogging about it. Ahh.. And man I feel so good now..
Now it’s obvious that bugs do exist and no matter how careful we are, we still have to face them. Nonetheless, be calm when you encounter them!
And thanks alot to Steven. Though I’m not sure if anyone did attempt to post a comment unsuccessfully, I would like to be optimistic and think that was the reason why noone posted a comment for the past 3 days. Call me egoistic. I call it positive thinking!
haha.. enough of this wordpress nonsense.. Well, just wanna call out to all bloggers and readers! If you happen to see any errors surfacing in anyone’s blogs, do let them know! It will make their day and make the blogosphere a better place to blog in!
Alrighty.. To all bloggers frustrated with the bugs & errors, congrats! Cos you’re NOT alone!
God Bless & Have a Error-Free Blogging!
Comments
6 Responses to “First the SideBar, And Now the Comments Too?”
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Haha… dear dear.. you are sooo cute~! Oops.. hee.. yep, WordPress.. it’s not the perfect blogging platform and neither are the plugins available to us add into our blogs. I really am proud of you for picking up all the skills that you have now! Well, jia you ya dear! *muackz*
I’m really tired of people blaming WordPress for the problems with a Plugin or Theme design. It isn’t a problem with WordPress.
The problem was with the width of the comment form. This is a design problem with that form, not with WordPress. Just be clear about where the blame lies.
Many people have such problems all the time because they don’t obey the simple rule of the box. You can’t put something inside a box bigger than the box itself. It breaks the box or just won’t fit. Basic physics.
I recommend you read Andy Skelton’s “Defective Themes: Image Width”, which explains this very well.
Hi Lorelle!
Thx for the comments and advice! Dun be tired of these ppl ya? You have to admit HTML can be quite intriguing and challenging to master for many including myself.
Anyway, I don’t think I’ve blamed WordPress directly for my misery.. haha..
Nonetheless, your blog is really cool and informative!
Thx for the visit and be happy!
Cheers,
Calvin
Calvin,
I agree with Lorelle, it is not wordpress blog system but the themes or plugins design problem. In fact, wordprss blog is much more better compare to blogspot or typepad.
I think there are too many theme out there you can select for your blog. A little tip for you to consider before you choose a new theme for your blog. Make sure theme is:
1) widget enable
2) use by many people (there is nothing wrong here, the more people use the theme, the more stable it is)
3) easy to install
4) of course it is ‘the theme’ you like …
Hi Steven!
Yup I do agree with Lorelle too.. Perhaps you guys have misunderstood my complains..
True, I was extremely frustrated with WordPress.. But I’ve stated in my post that the problem lies with the the plugin and the theme. And WordPress certainly is ranked above the other blogging platforms.
Anyway it’s true that the more established themes certainly will have more bug fixes and theme updates and hence more reliable. But I love my theme so I’m gonna stick with it and hope for bug fixes!
haha.. thanks for reading my ranting and thks even more for ur valuable feedback!
Take care & God Bless!
This is my first post
just saying HI