Testing of the plugin with new WordPress 3.0 (using the Flexibility theme), shows that the plugin is now causing RSS feeds to not validate. Once the plugin is deactivated, the RSS feed validates. Validation was done with FeedValidator.org.

1. Within your cpanel click to add a new subdomain.

2. Call the subdomain * (yes, just an asterisk).

3. For the document root use the root domain (public_html). If the dynamic subdomains are for an add-on domain, then the document root will be public_html/youraddondomain.com.

That’s it.

Now, you can refer to a subdomain and it is automatically created on the fly. Such as using the WordPress WP subdomains plugin to create subdomains out of pages.

Yep. Works like a charm.

Instead of encouraging such spam, or having to moderate comments to delete spammy name links, why not simply delete the option to submit a website?

Our point of reference is the Mandigo theme, which we love, but this procedure should be universal across Wordpress blogs.

What you want to do is from the Theme Editor find the comments.php file.

About 3/4 of the way down there will be a section where you see the input requests if someone is not logged into your blog. The requests ask for the person’s name, email address, and website url.

Here is the code requesting the url:

<p><input type="text" name="url" id="url" value="<? php echo $comment_author_url; ?> "size="22" tabindex="3" /> 
	<label for="url"><small><?php _e('Website', 'mandigo'); ?></small></label></p>

Simply delete this code. Problem solved and it will not affect your blog because this is not a required field (unlike the name and email fields.)

Now, the only way a spammer can leave a link is if they post a link in the comments portion of the field. By moderating the discussion so that any comments are held if their contain one or more links, the spammer is stopped cold.

Posts can be associated with categories. Pages cannot.

If you associate a post with a category, and only have that one post for the category, then it can look like a page for website linking. Normally, each page can be linked in the sidebar, but each post cannot. Instead, the category for the post can be linked, or a plugin can be installed that might, for instance, display the last 5 posts. But if you want a table of contents that is harder with posts than with pages.

Pages can have subpages. That is, like a directory structure there can be subdirectories. Posts cannot.

Consider the Michael Jackson Funeral Website. Along the right-side of the page is a menu. Everything under ‘Memorabilia’ is a page. Everything under ‘Topics’ is a post. Each page displays one page of information. Each link under Topics displays the various posts associated with that category. There could be subpages listed under each page, but a decision was made not to clutter the menu with subpage listings.

Also, not all pages are listed in the menu. You can select certain pages not to be displayed. That cannot be done with posts.

What is going on is that the normal default terms of Pages and Categories have been changed to make the menu more attractive for the website.

Also, by default only posts appear in the Wordpress blog’s rss feed. Pages do not. This means if you only use pages and not posts, then you do not have an rss feed.

If you want pages to appear in Wordpress rss feeds then you need a plugin called RSS Includes Pages. One undocumented issue with the plugin is that it will not work if you only have pages on your blog. What you need to do is create some posts, then this plugin will be able to add your blog pages to the rss feed.

Instead, people trying to access your site receive an ugly 403 Permission Denied error.

Very bad.

What is happening is that your web host is disabling access to the index.php in your blog’s main directory.

To quickly circumvent this problem while working matters out with your web host, you will need a copy of your index.php file. Since you will not be able to access or view the code in the one that has been disabled, copy an index.php file from another blog you have, or create a new blog on a new domain just so you can copy the text of a basic WordPress index.php file.

Then upload that file to your disabled blog, and call it index2.php.

Now, in your .htacess file add this line:

ErrorDocument 403 /index2.php

Problem solved. What will happen is that the index.php file that WordPress needs to function is still disabled and returns a 403 error. However, the .htaccess file now traps that error and instead of displaying an ugly error page, redirects all traffic to index2.php. Since index2.php just happens to have the code from index.php which displays WordPress pages, your WordPress blog will continue to be displayed.

Your web host may not be happy about the circumvention, but you may need to be creative to keep your site up and money-flowing while issues are resolved with your web host.

Here is the trick:

Within the html web page the header information for the blog is incorporated using this code:

<?php
require(’./wp-blog-header.php’);

include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].”/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/header.php”;
?>

Similarly, footer information from the blog is inserted into the html page with this code:

<?php
require(’./wp-blog-header.php’);

include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].”/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/footer.php”;
?>

Finally, even the sidebar from the blog is included, to add that final touch which makes the web page virtually indistinguishable from blog pages:

<?php
require(’./wp-blog-header.php’);

include $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].”/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/sidebar.php”;
?>

There is a downside, though, and that is getting better SEO from a static web page since only a default page title, and maybe a description, will be pulled in from the blog header.

This technique was done at Michael Jackson Funeral but then the static pages were replaced with WordPress pages due to these SEO concerns.

But what about pages?  Does WordPress ping those resources when a new page is created?

The answer is yes.  Whether a post or a page, when you create or edit it, a new ping occurs.

Akismet, Bad Behavior, and Math Comment Spam Protection.

Bad Behavior is your first line of defense.  This plug-in evaluates who is visiting your blog and then kicks them out if they are using known spam tools – such as Java agents.  Spammers are rejected before they have a chance to submit blog comments.

Akismet is your second line of defense.  Once a blog comment is posted it is looked at for spam characteristics.  If it appears to be spam, and Akismet is really good in its evaluation, it is held and not posted.  After 15 days it is automatically deleted.

You need Bad Behavior and not just Akismet because Akismet will show you a list of all the spam comments it is blocking.  The list can be huge, making it difficult to find any real comments.  With Bad Behavior the spam bots are blocked before they can even post their spam, so you never have to review it.

Finally, the third plugin is the Math Comment Spam Protection. This adds a simple math question to your comments. To use the plugin you add it, then get the code at — and copy it into your comments file where you want the math question to appear. While copying the code and editing the file from within WordPress is not ideal, I’ve found this to be better than other similar math-based options, and it gives me complete control over where this appears.

I like the math question instead of the word questions because it is easier for more people, there are no weird letters or background that make it difficult to read, and it is quicker to type. At this point all we’re excluding is the bots – not a human spammer (which will be caught by other methods).

Finally, within the Discussion settings simply choose to moderate any comment with 1 or more links. Voila – any human spam is now caught for review.

Combining these plugins will result in a significant decrease in blog spam.