I need help with some major problems with my blog, but I can't stand forums!
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I’m trying to do several things and nothing works. I need support help, but I DO NOT do forums! I’ve been around that block far too many times and know better. How do I get help with some major problems on my blog that are not covered in the little instructions pages?
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All support docs are here http:// support.wordpress.com
There is no phone support. For all the support options when you have technical support issues
see https://en.support.wordpress.com/help-support-options/If you have a paid upgrade, please use the “Contact Support” form, http://support.wordpress.com/contact/ where you will receive a choice of having staff answer your question publicly or privately. See here Live Chat Support https://en.support.wordpress.com/live-chat/
re: direct email support
Also note, that you can email Staff at:
support@wordpress.com
or
help@wordpress.com -
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It’s important to include the URL of the blog you need help with, this is the only way to figure out the next best step for you.
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The next step does not need to be determined. The site is linked to the username and the blogger clearly stated:
I need support help, but I DO NOT do forums!
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@anonsmithe the last comment was directed at me, not you, and isn’t helpful to your situation. Hopefully the blog linked to your username is the only blog you need help with, and you find some answers within the links timethief shared with you.
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@lauriejuleen
I used Google search to determine whether or not anonsmithe also had a self-hosted site under the same username account and came up empty. If I had found one then I would have anonsmithe instructions for posting to the wordpress.ORG support forums.It’s my opinion that you are not in a position to state that my response was not helpful to anonsmithe; only he/she can make that judgment. If a reply from anonsmithe indicates more help is needed then I will provide it just as I have done for over 9 years (nearly 10) now.
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How does one reply to others in this mess? This is reason number 1001 why I don’t do forums.
My final answer is: The support pages are useless as they are too vague and some of the instructions are wrong.
I have been emailing support for three days now and have only received one incompetent response directing me to what I already read and had questions on and then telling me to have a nice week! I tried replying with my questions and have been ignored for three days.
I’m sick of it and have just emailed support again having made the rash decision to cancel my account even though I have a lot of content and subscribed readers or whatever it’s called. I wanted my blog to work and have worked extremely hard on it which is what it took to get it up and running, but I now know that having even the crappy blog I have is simply is not going to work out.
I’m done. -
@anonsmithe
Okay, so your reality so far has been a 3 day wait and unsatisfactory help. Both and lauriejuleen who is a web developer and I are aware of your situation, and we are willing to help, so do you want to go for it and post your issues so we can take a run at them or not?There’s rarely ever a question posted to Staff that has not been posted here and answered previously.I can say that with full confidence as I predate all support docs and all but one support staff member. Sheesh … I’m feeling old but I’m still up for it so let’s take a run at making your block rock, okay?
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Just to inspire confidence in you I allowed my sense of humor to rule and typed block instead of blog above. We can handle this, I know we can :) but just in case I tagged this thread for Staff follow-up.
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Ok, I’ll let you take a shot at it since you are willing, but my long experience with forums tells me I’m in for a world of hurt. That’s why I do not do forums anymore and have not for a long time. Forum people exist to hurt others and each other, that’s what forums are for in my vast experience with them.
That said and having to explain the problems for the fourth time, here it goes:Sorry, but I’m not going to post my blog here because I don’t think it’s allowed, plus this is a forum.
I’ll have to describe it best I can and I’m not good at it.Basically, the first thing I want to do is make certain posts stickies under certain parent menus and sub-menus. For example: Under the sub menu of Phono preamps under Fine Audio For The Rest Of Us, I’d put my general article about phono preamps as a sticky so it stays on top and then I post actual preamps under that letting them fall where they may. Another example would be to put a sticky about auditioning audio gear under the parent menu of Fine Audio…… I’d do another sticky under the parent menu of Musical Revolutions….if you get where I’m going with this. I basically want folks to read certain articles first so as to offer explanation of what the other articles are and why.
However, I find that the theme I am using (Twenty Eleven) does not support that. I tried it and all it does is put the sticky in one place and then it disappears after you click and you can’t get it back unless you go off the site and come back on it.Like I said though, I don’t want one sticky in one spot.So now I’m thinking perhaps there is something I can do with a front page. I looked at the instructions for that and they are vague. I’m concerned that I will destroy my blog by attempting it. I tried a category widget once and it did destroy my blog and it took a day and a half of pure panic work to fix it. I do not want to go through that again.
It says in the front page instructions that I need to create another page for posts (I call them articles), but I don’t want all my articles on a page. I built the menu system for my blog for good reason and I don’t want it destroyed. I’d rather have a menu item or something to go to my blog. I do not understand what will happen if I attempt to have a front page, so I’m scared to try it.Third, I want to split my long articles into pages for easier reading. I had to figure out on my own the definition of “text” to mean HTML code. I work in the other screen, the plain English writing screen like normal, not code.
I managed to figure out how to do the “page breaks”, but they don’t work right. I see “page 1,2” etc. but I have to scroll past 3 or 4 places of crap to see them and then they don’t stand out at all. My readers will never find them. The program puts the pages under the like button, share button and related articles. That is NOT where it should go! Like I said, reading it makes it seem like the articled ends at one page, you can’t find or see the pages unless you absolutely know it is there, virtually invisible.
I would want to keep the like button and such in the article, but at the very end on the last page, not every page and hiding the page links also being near invisible.I think that’s the list, I can’t recall more.
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Okay, I can tell from what you posted that you are not aware of the way things are designed to function, and the fact that we cannot change functionality.
I would like you to begin by reading an excellent guide on your theme and how to set it up found here https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/workings-of-duster/
You also have misconceptions about how custom menus are designed and what one can and cannot do. I recommend reading:
https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/custom-menus/ -
It says in the front page instructions that I need to create another page for posts (I call them articles), but I don’t want all my articles on a page.
There is only on page in every blog one can post to. It’s either the front page of the blog by default or a static page we create and designate as a front page. We can only create the appearance of creating more than one page for posts by assigning categories to posts and including dynamic category pages in a custom menu.
re: creating a static front page
By default the front page of your blog displays all published posts (not pages) in reverse chronological order, with the most recently published post on top.In the case of sticky posts they will be at the top of the column (1) on the page for posts and (2) on every dynamic category page and category sub-page in a custom menu. This cannot be changed.
There must be a page for all posts published in the blog to display on. However, if you do not want all the posts to show on the front page, then you can create a static front page called for example “Welcome” for your site and a “Blog” page for posts.
To do that create two pages first http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/
After you do that you go to > Settings > Reading and make the designation change there
A static page (select below)
Front page:
Posts page:
Then click “save changes”.The guide is here http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/
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So by now you will understand that this is a one or the other situation. You have two choices on any blog
(1) All posts on the front page.
(2) Or a static front page http://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/front-page/ and all posts on a different page you create and designate as a front page.By default the front page of a blog displays all published posts in reverse chronological order with the most recently published post on top.
When we publish a post on WordPress software the software automatically creates the same entry in the Archives, and on the dynamic (automatically updating) Categories and Tags pages in accord with the Categories and Tags we assign to that post.
So when we create custom menu and add the dynamic (automatically updating) category pages to that custom menu we create the appearance (not the reality) of posting to more than one page.
You need to be aware that:
1. There are differences between posts and pages described here
https://en.support.wordpress.com/post-vs-page/2. There are differences between static pages we bloggers create https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/ that will not automatically update, and dynamic category pages created by the software when you publish a post which will automatically update https://en.support.wordpress.com/category-pages/.
3. We organize posts by category assignment prior to publication. http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories/ and when we publish posts the dynamic category pages they automatically display on are determined by the categories we assign to them.
So the process you need to use is:
a. Assign Categories to your Posts. https://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/categories
b. Create a custom menu https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/#1-create-a-custom-menu
c. Add only the dynamic category page links and category sub-pages into the custom menu that you want to appear in that menu https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-category-pages, and arrange them in the order that you wish them to appear in https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#changing-the-order-creating-sub-menus
d. Create pages and sub-pages for static content that rarely changes like About, Copyright, Contact Info, etc. , not for posts https://en.support.wordpress.com/pages/
e. Add any custom links and other items like static pages and sub-pages for static content that rarely changes into your custom menu
https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-custom-links https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#adding-pages
and arrange them in the order that you wish them that you wish them to appear in https://en.support.wordpress.com/menus/view-all/#changing-the-order-creating-sub-menusPlease see https://en.support.wordpress.com/customizer/
P.S. I have a series of appointments today but I will come back in between them and keep helping you here.
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Thanks for the links to more info, but it has made me more confused because there is a ton of double-speak, the definitions of posts, pages, menus, links, etc. keep changing in every paragraph and some of the writing is not in English that I recognize. It’s also too big a chunk to absorb.
You are talking to someone who has never had a blog or anything before and who is not left-brained enough to design his way out of a wet paper sack. The vagueness of WordPress documentation doesn’t help either.I’m on the Free part of WordPress, so some of the features of my theme do not apply. I also do not need the majority that do apply. For instance, I think I need to stay away from Widgets as much as possible.
I don’t understand the relation of static vs dynamic in regards to pages. Why can’t a page be a page and a post be a post etc.?
I understand the order in which posts display, it’s fine.
“In the case of sticky posts they will be at the top of the column (1) on the page for posts and (2) on every dynamic category page and category sub-page in a custom menu. This cannot be changed.”
Isn’t the above what I wanted to do? I don’t have columns and do not want any. I work with columns in Excel, they do not work when I am trying to write and one would have to scroll for 5 years to read anything.
I do like the idea of a front page, but the more I read about it, the more frightened to do it I become.
I hardly understood anything you wrote because you are talking a lot of professional web designer tech stuff I’ve never heard of.
The process you pointed out that I should use is what I thought I was doing on my blog:
I write a “post” to use the term and I create and assign it a category if one for it does not exist already. I then assign any tags I want (which I usually keep to no more than 2 or 3). I only do tags because I was told to do so in Blogging University (in which I did not learn much due to tech difficulties and WordPress penchant for making unannounced changes to the core functions one needs for doing a blog). I understand that tags help with searching.
Then if I do not have the appropriate what I call Sub-menu, but is really a child menu under the parent, I create it and then assign the category to it.I don’t understand your definition of “links”. To me a link is something I add to a post that turns blue and when you click your taken to wherever it points to.
Look, the bottom line is that I thought what I wanted to do was simple, apparently it’s impossible. My idea for a front page seems to be possible in my reading of the info on the theme you sent, but in reality, not possible. I was thinking some pictures for background and having an “about” thing and then maybe having a menu bar that is a duplicate of the one on my blog with “Home” added for some reason and then a sticky or whatever for each like I described before, just to have that particular article always first. I’d also add a News menu.
The thing is I worked very hard just to have the menu I have on my blog and I even forgot how the hell I did it. I really do not want it destroyed as it is the most important thing. Without it, I would have a jumbled mess of crap that nobody could read. Everything would be all over the place and nobody could find anything.
I think the take away I’m getting with this is:
I never should have done a blog in the first place, it was a very bad idea it seems or I need to hire a web designer to set me up. -
Okay then, I can tell from your response that my explanations will not assist you. Staff will have to take over from here, and I already tagged this thread with modlook the sidebar for them to follow-up. Please subscribe to this thread so you are notified when they respond and be patient while waiting. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
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Thank you. It may be that I have to live with it the way it is or shut the thing down and walk away….we’ll see.
I’d sure like an explanation on why the page break thing doesn’t work right as I was thinking I could at least address some of my “too long” articles while waiting. -
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Hi! Let’s take things one at a time. I believe that your first question was how to display a sticky post on top of each category page, is that correct?
This isn’t currently possible, however as it has already mentioned you may only get stickies to appear on top of your main stream of blog posts on your front page. As an alternative, you may add a description per category instead, so you will have a chunk of text show up on top of the category page. If you think this accomplishes what you wanted, you may go ahead and edit your categories here:
https://itsaboutthemusicblog.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category
Thank you!
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Hi Druesome,
That’s an interesting idea , but doesn’t fit the bill because the description would be a mile long and probably unreadable.What I have done so far is closed my eyes and held my breath and made a front page. Turns out by doing so my menus and categories and everything stayed intact.
However, even though I followed instruction, there is no double or even a single “Home” menu item, nor is there a “Blog” menu item. Am I correct that this has something to do with my theme?Here’s what I am thinking regarding this issue: Is there a way of putting the articles….sorry, “Posts” I’m talking about as pages under each parent menu item and then certain Child menu items? (It would not be the same post for each).
If not, is there another way to accomplish having certain posts always on top of said menu sections or is there something I can do with the front Static page for this?
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