Well, I have another WordPress gripe.
The other day, Thomas from
commented on one of my posts and mentioned, “Hey Kev, it looks like your post is duplicated.”
You should check out the blog from Thomas, I included the link.
I thought that was odd, but sure enough, when I looked, there was my post, complete with comments and likes, followed immediately by the same post again. Apparently, a plugin I installed to make copying posts easier had decided that copying a post meant duplicating it inside the same post. Because, naturally, why make life easier when you can make it twice as confusing?
Now, onto my gripe.
I wasn’t sure what had caused the problem, so I contacted support. I suspected it might have something to do with my theme or a recent upgrade. They had me checking all sorts of things, sending screenshots, compiling lists, and going through the usual troubleshooting routine. From what I could tell, they were guessing.
Folks, I should not be able to find, diagnose, and solve a problem faster than the experts I contacted for help. Especially when solving that problem is the entire reason I contacted them in the first place.
At one point, they were suggesting I delete things that, in my opinion, would have made the situation worse. Eventually, I figured out what was happening, disabled the offending plugin, and everything worked just fine.
Naturally, I then had to tell them what the problem was and which plugin was causing it. You’re welcome, WordPress. Where do I send my consulting invoice?
But wait, there’s more!
While I was investigating that problem, I discovered that my related posts section was sitting at the bottom of every post, practically invisible to anyone who hadn’t scrolled all the way down to the end.
You know how this goes. You start out trying to fix one little problem, and before you know it, you’re three hours into a full-scale reorganization of your website. It’s the digital equivalent of going into the garage to find a screwdriver and emerging six hours later with the entire place rearranged.
I wanted to move the related posts higher up, but the MailPoet function I had installed months ago to send my posts by email wouldn’t allow it. The support team didn’t seem to know that either, so I helped them out with that little discovery, too.
At this point, I was beginning to wonder whether I should be charging by the hour.
Anyway, as much as I liked MailPoet, I was getting close to the limit of its free plan. I wasn’t particularly interested in paying for an email service when I already had another option. I can schedule my posts and let Jetpack handle the newsletter delivery. It’s simpler, costs me nothing extra, and saves me from adding yet another subscription to the ever-growing list of things that want a piece of my retirement income.
So, what does all this mean?
First, WordPress owes me some technical support fees. I seem to have spent enough time providing support to justify a paycheck.
Second, it feels good to vent. Sometimes you just need to get these things off your chest, preferably before you start throwing the computer out the window.
And finally, you’ll notice that my posts will now arrive in your inbox as a more traditional, standard WordPress email rather than the format I was using before.
One problem solved, one plugin retired, and one more reminder that sometimes the best technical support is the person sitting in front of the computer, muttering to himself.
Unfortunately, that person is me.
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