Posts in categories not showing up on the site

Are you using any plugins like “Remove Category Base”? When I hover over “Books” the url is https://www.theworld.org/books, but if I go to https://www.theworld.org/category/topics/books/ I’m able to access the actual category page.

If you are, try disabling the plugin.

Thanks Billerickson.

I will check that right away.

All plugins can have an effect on the proper working of wordpress after an upgrade. Not only the ones that do something with categories.

try:
– deactivating all plugins to see if this resolves the problem? If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).
– switching to the default theme to rule out any theme-specific problems?
– Try re-saving your permalink structure or setting it to the default structure at Settings > Permalinks in your admin panel. If WordPress cannot automatically edit the .htaccess file, it will provide manual instructions after saving.

Also:
Simple Tags plugin has been reported braking wordpress 3.1 categories. If you are you using it:
uncheck “Active tags for page” and everything will be ok

Also:
Simple Tags plugin has been reported braking wordpress 3.1 categories. If you are you using it:
uncheck “Active tags for page” and everything will be ok

This worked for me, thank you ??

I went in and checked, but we are not using any such plugin. For now I have made the links as /category/topics/books etc., and I will continue to investigate why and how the links got changed.

Any ideas, pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

It seems to work now when I go to: https://www.theworld.org/category/topics/books/
Maybe clear your browsers cache If you are still not able to see the category page

Thanks keesiemeijer. Yes, that is working because I changed the category links to work like that. Ideally that link is supposed to be https://www.theworld.org/books.

I am wondering if I can do that using the Top Level Categories plugin that allows me to do so. I deactivated that plugin after the site was hacked and haven’t enabled since. I will try that now.

So the problem was with the Top Level Categories plugin which is broken for WO 3.1. The alternative is FV top level categories that does almost the same thing. Now, the same link looks like this: https://www.theworld.org/topics/books

I am still seeing if I can get /topics/ removed from the link.

Thanks.

Just so you know, it’s highly recommended that you not use plugins that remove the category base. It can cause large performance issues with your site. If you’re removing it for SEO reasons, you’re probably better off leaving it as is because load time is an important component of your ranking (and I don’t think having the word “category” or “topic” in there will hurt it much).

Here’s some more information on it: https://ottopress.com/2010/category-in-permalinks-considered-harmful/

I had a client who wanted to speed up the load time of his large site. Turning off this plugin increased the speed 100x (went from 2 seconds to .02 seconds).

the /topics is there because you have a category called Topics and a subcategory called Books. To remove it, simply make Books a top level category.

Thanks for that tip billerickson. I will definitely consider that because load time is very important.

I have inherited this site from a previous developer 3 months ago and am going through the usual motions.

Thanks a lot for your help.

I really appreciate the prompt responses I got from the community.

Also:
Simple Tags plugin has been reported braking wordpress 3.1 categories. If you are you using it:
uncheck “Active tags for page” and everything will be ok

This worked at my Blog! Thanks a lot!