Cannot Any Post Comment on Blog, but on Other Pages; Even Admin Can't

Try changing the theme to see if that solves the problem. Turn off all your plugins. If it works then, turn plugins back on one by one until you identify the issue.

Hi thank you for your reply, transom.

I cannot change the theme — the site is in use by the public, and it will mean to delete all the banner images, etc. The solution has to be an established way to resolve this issue (can’t try things out) and cannot disturb its users. Alternatively, we will need to disable the ‘Post Comment’ feature from the blog page, and to request its users to provide feedback from other pages.

Any advice on the modification is appreciated.

Thank you.

Do you want to get your site working properly again? If “yes”, then what transom suggested is part of the basic troubleshooting process. If you do not carry out these basic steps and note the effects, we cannot help you with your problem.

Well, then I don’t have any other option than to comment out those lines of the codes that are working to display the “Post Comments” button beneath each blog post. Is there any programmer out there? I’d appreciate a hint as to which file to edit. Thank you.

Well I’m a coder and I’m pretty sure transom is too. Which is why you need to listen to what we’re recommending.

If necessary, install WP locally and work on the troubleshooting locally – assuming you can replicate the issue..

I wonder which is easier (1) to install a new/separate WP site and try to replicate the same issue for troubleshooting, or (2) to comment out a few lines in the appropriate code. I would think (2) might be easier, and would suffice our purpose at this time. Thanks.

What would you loose when you change the theme?

Changing the theme won’t impact anything – other than the presentation. Typically, one changes the theme, verifies if the issue continues to exist, then switch back. Takes two minutes and nothing is modified.

Troubleshooting usually involves removing complexity until you figure out what’s wrong. In WordPress it is fair to assume that a generic configuration works fine (if not, then there is likely a setup or hosting issue). After that, we want to focus in to determine if it is a theme or plugin issue (or a conflict between plugins or a plugin and the theme)

Thanks for your reply.

This site is not complex at all, and does not have any plugins installed. It has several menubar tabs linked to other pages. That’s all, and I believe everything is in the “generic configuration”. I have not started any modification on it.

Q1. What do you mean by “the presentation”, the feel-and-looks? Would the Header image etc. be destroyed? What are the exact elements that are going to be displaced? Is there a list of things somewhere on the support docs tells what constitute “the presentation”?

Q2. Again, the site has not been modified in any way, and does not even have any plugins installed.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

Sincerely

Nothing is destroyed. If the only thing you change is the theme (Appearance -> themes), it uses the current settings to show the site. When you switch the theme back, it will show things just the way you left them.

Alternately, if this is a live site, perhaps sharing the url would let someone look at the page and diagnose likely problems.

I am not sure if the site owner wishes to share the link here — I have to ask him first.

When I started to build the site, I tried out a few different themes. I remember its unpredictable (unintuitive) behaviors, such as the disappearance of the header image upon a theme change, and the inconsistent behaviors of the menu creation tool to the same command.

That is why I prefer not to change the theme or anything (since everything else seems to be working OK), and instead comment out a few lines in the appropriate code files, so that no one would try to press the dysfunctional buttons “Post Comment” below each blog post. (It would be easier to redirect visitors to our forum site to make comments.)

Thank you for understanding.

But everything isn’t working OK, is it? You need to temporarily switch to a known theme (Twenty Ten) to rule out your theme as the cause of the problem. What’s the point of asking for help when you can’t post the site url and you won’t try out some initial troubleshooting steps? We have absolutely nothing to work with!

Mr. transom,

I would appreciate some advice on where to comment out a few lines in the appropriate code files, so that no one would try to press the dysfunctional buttons “Post Comment” below each blog post. That is all what I am asking here now.

esmi,

I’d suggest you not to order around people.

Thank you for trying to help, though.

Best.

Since we don’t know for sure where the problem is and have no idea of the theme your site uses (or any changes you might have made), we cannot provide you with effective instructions of what to comment out or where.

esmi is right. Blindly commenting out lines in php files will have unfortunate results – esp. since this is a live site.

To remove the commenting buttons, you might go to Settings -> Discussions and turn off commenting until you work out the issues.