Problems with footer and comments

I have a post over in the templates section, but I’m not actually sur eif that’s the best place for it (here). I haven’t had any responses to it, so I guess it may not be the best place.

There are multiple problems with the footer code (template is Rio from here). There are problems across six lines – with fopen(besucher.txt), flock(), fputs():, flock() again, fclose() and file(besucher.txt).

There is no besucher.txt file. I would just try to create it, but I have no idea what the content could be. The only other references to besucher.txt on this forum have been that it appears when your site has been hacked.

Also, the comments just plain don’t work. Clicking to comment gives an syntax error of an unexpected } (deleting the } doesn’t help).

Does anyone have any advice? Has anyone successfully overcome these footer issues?