Categories Keep Duplicating
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I use IFTTT to post to WordPress, and recently I’ve discovered that when IFTTT creates a post that should have a certain category, WordPress makes a new version of that category and adds the post to it, instead of simply adding the post to the existing one.
I understand that categories with ampersand symbols cause some confusion for WordPress, as empty versions of categories with ampersand symbols have been appearing ever since I joined, but it was never a big issue. I could simply go to the categories on occasion, delete all the empty categories, and be done with it. (Since they were empty, they didn’t even show in the ‘Categories’ widget). It wasn’t until sometime around the end of July or the start of August that one specific duplicated category kept being created that actually collected new posts!
New posts were being placed in the correct category before, despite the duplication error existing then too, so I have no idea what changed! I even tried to removing the original category, transferred all the new posts over to the newly created one, and gave that category the parent category I wanted for it. Instead of fixing anything, an even newer category then appeared that then claimed all new posts! It’s like that specific category now refuses to accept new posts whenever it has a parent category.
I don’t understand why this is happening, and I worry other ampersand categories will start having issues too!
WP.com: Yes
Correct account: YesThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there!
I took a look at the categories on
ladysunamireads.wordpress.comand I didn’t see any duplication there. If you can show us an example of this, we’ll be better able to advise.It’s quite possible that whatever workflow that was created on IFTTT is not compatible with modern versions of WordPress and may need to be updated or recreated. We’re not able to support issues with third-party services, so you may want to reach out to IFTTT to see if they can better advise.
I hope that helps!
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Whoops, I probably shouldn’t have fixed the categories again before submitting this.
I’ll let you know the next time the “AO3 Eda & Luz” feed updates and creates a new duplicate.
There is a new empty “AO3 Izuku & Shouto” category again right now, but as with all the rest of the ampersand categories (besides Eda & Luz), the post was correctly added to the older nested category instead of the newly made duplicate.
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I’ll let you know the next time the “AO3 Eda & Luz” feed updates and creates a new duplicate.
Can you let us know what the source is for these posts and the link to the recipe on IFTTT that you’re using?
What I think might be happening is that the IFTTT recipe isn’t sophisticated enough to realize that most of your categories are children of other parent categories.
For example, the new “empty” category has a slug of
ao3-izuku-shouto– and the child category where the post ended up also has the slug ofao3-izuku-shoutowhich should not be possible in WordPress. It would also explain why the posts themselves are assigned to the correct child category.We’ll wait to hear back from you!
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There is now a new “AO3 Eda & Luz” category.
The posts are from AO3’s RSS feed for the “Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda” tag. I have IFTTT convert RSS entries for fandom relationships I’m interested in into posts on both Tumblr and WordPress so my friends and I can keep track of new stories related to my interests.
(On AO3, ampersands indicate platonic or familial relationships, which is why I labeled the categories that way).
The “AO3 Eda & Luz” category used to only create empty duplicates, same as all the other ampersand categories, but at some point (late July or early August – I’m afraid I didn’t note the exact date) it suddenly started filling the new duplicate category with posts instead.
I don’t really understand why nesting the categories would suddenly have that affect now when that particular fandom RSS to post converter has been active since January. None of the other categories have been affected either. It’s all very strange!
I also have plenty of categories without ampersands that have never duplicated, despite also being nested. I don’t really get why having an ampersand messes up the categories, but it clearly does.
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That’s really odd. Is this happening every time you get a new post now, or every time they include ampersands and nests? Or are some posts with that situation still working just fine?
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Also, would you be willing to share how you have your IFTTT set up so we can try duplicating the issue here?
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An empty category seems to be made every time any nested category with an ampersand has a new post.
I’m assuming it’s every time anyway. I don’t exactly check for empty categories daily, but they always appear to correspond to RSS feeds that I know have updated recently. Like just now I spotted a new “AO3 Izuku & Aizawa” story, and sure enough there is an empty category for that now too.
The weird part that is specific to “AO3 Eda & Luz” is posts actually being placed in the new category. I thought it was a fluke at first, but no, every single new story meant to go in that category goes in the wrong one now.
I confirmed that right before submitting this error, as I noted that the original category had no updates in the last week, while the latest duplicate had several. (I realized after submitting the error, I probably shouldn’t have fixed things by manually putting them in the correct category before submitting the error. Oops).
If you want to try and duplicate the issue, go to ifttt.com/create and set up an applet with a RSS feed “new feed item” trigger, and a WordPress “create a post” action. In the categories field, put whatever categories you like (comma separated) with at least one with an ampersand. I can’t imagine it will matter what RSS feed you use, as only the category information IFTTT sends to WordPress should be relevant.
(I have a legacy pro account on IFTTT that gives me unlimited applets, so I made one for each feed I wished to follow. They aren’t published applets or anything, just custom ones I made for myself).
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Huh, turns out “AO3 Saiki & Kaidou” also fills the duplicate category now. That one doesn’t update very often, so I had no idea.
It’s possible others that update rarely will do the same.
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Hi there,
Thank you for providing the steps for us to replicate.
So, to make sure I am grasping what is going on, as it stands right now, a duplicate category is created whenever a new post with an “&” in its title is added to an existing nested category.
Particularly with “AO3 Eda & Luz”, any successive posts after the initial have been going to the duplicate category and not the initial nested one. Have you checked with any other categories that have been updated with multiple posts? Are those posts going into the original nested category?
You’ve also recently noticed that the duplicated posts are now being “backfilled” with posts. It doesn’t appear we’re understanding the timing of when or even how these posts are arriving in the duplicate category, but they are eventually ending up there. You believe that this may continue to happen with other categories as well.
In short, am I understanding the issue at hand?
If so, we’ll see if we can replicate what is going on on our end and see if we can pinpoint what is going on.
Thank you!
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Yes, a duplicate category is created whenever a new post has a category with an “&”.
The duplicate categories used to remain empty, with new posts always being categorized in the nested version of their categories. Starting sometime in the later half of June, or early August, new posts that had the “AO3 Eda & Luz” category began to fill the new unnested duplicate instead of the nested version, for reasons unknown. (Posts in the “AO3 Saiki & Kaidou” category possibly do this too, though since that one updates fairly rarely I didn’t realize that).
I haven’t observed any other commonly updating feeds filling the newly created unnested categories instead of the nested one. The feeds that fill “AO3 Izuku & Aizawa” and “AO3 Izuku & Shouto” both update quite frequently, and they fill the nested category as usual.
I’ve had nested ampersands categories ever since I made a WordPress version of blog (I actually made a WordPress version specifically to take advantage of the nesting, since depending on what I’m looking to read, the nesting can be super useful!) While empty duplicate categories have been a thing since the start, they have always stayed empty until now.
I’m not sure “backfilled” is the right word, as posts aren’t moving between categories on their own or anything. The posts that end up in the unnested duplicate categories are brand new posts. It’s just that the IFTTT applet itself hasn’t changed at all (as far as I’m aware anyway) so I don’t know why new posts for “AO3 Eda & Luz” specifically suddenly stopped filling the correct, nested category and started filling the unnested duplicate.
I actually have thought of one change I made to my blog in the rough time period, though it doesn’t relate directly to any of the affected categories. I added a new feed for a new fandom I came to enjoy, and created new categories for it. (See the “Miscellaneous” category and all the nested categories). Perhaps I have too many categories now and that’s the source of the trouble?
I might try deleting some of the old FanFiction net categories, since all the RSS feeds for that site stopped working back in 2020 any. A category with only 5 or so posts that will never get more isn’t the most useful, so it’s worth a shot.
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Hi there,
I actually have thought of one change I made to my blog in the rough time period, though it doesn’t relate directly to any of the affected categories. I added a new feed for a new fandom I came to enjoy, and created new categories for it. (See the “Miscellaneous” category and all the nested categories). Perhaps I have too many categories now and that’s the source of the trouble?
We don’t suspect that the number of categories is the issue (WordPress can handle plenty more than you have now) but the fact that you are using ampersands could lead to some issues for sure.
To clarify the ampersand (&) is used in HTML coding and it can be the case that somewhere along the way the ampersands you are using in your category titles is causing the code to fail. What is not clear to us is if this is a WordPress issue or a IFTT issue since we can’t see and troubleshoot the code that they are using.
Is this an issue only when you use IFTT? If you create new categories and sub-categories with ampersands, do you have the same issues you see with IFTT?
I might try deleting some of the old FanFiction net categories, since all the RSS feeds for that site stopped working back in 2020 any. A category with only 5 or so posts that will never get more isn’t the most useful, so it’s worth a shot.
It’s interesting that you mention this, I was curious if you were adding all these categories for site visitors (so they can find the content they are looking for) or if you do this for your own organizational purposes/search engine optimization. It’s been my experience that most site visitors don’t actually take the time to click down into sub-categories, but tend to focus their time more on the top level so I agree you could save some effort by simplifying things.
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I don’t have any issues assigning posts to certain categories manually, if that’s what you’re asking. Of course, when I’m making a new post manually, I select the category I want via a checkbox, not by typing them out separated by commas.
Actually, this gave me an idea. I’m going to go switch on post by email, test, and see if that also fills the wrong category. If it does, then it can’t be an IFTTT issue.
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It seems the email didn’t create any duplicate categories. I guess I’ll have to go pester IFTTT then.
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