Nazgul

Link for 1: https://txfx.net/code/wordpress/wordpress-203-tuneup/

Try replacing it with this:

<div id="sidebar">
<h2>Menu</h2>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_pages('exclude=7,20&title_li=&sort_column=menu_order'); ?>
<li><a href="javascript:Effect.Combo('shelf', {duration: 0.5});" title="Portfolio">Portfolio</a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:Effect.Combo('shelfsearch', {duration: 0.5});" title="search">Search</a></li>
</ul>
<div id="shelfsearch" style="display: none;">
<div id="shelfwrapsearch">
<div id="shelfcontentsearch">

<div>
<form method="get" id="searchform" action="<?php bloginfo('home'); ?>/">
<div><input type="text" value="<?php echo wp_specialchars($s, 1); ?>" name="s" id="s" />
<input type="submit" id="searchsubmit" value="Search" />
</div>
</form>

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

<h2>JOURNAL</h2>
<ul>
<?php mdv_recent_posts(10, '<li>', '</li>', false, 0, true); ?>
</ul>
</div>

The Role Manger plugin allows you to do this.

It does this by not giving users below a certain level Publish rights, so they can only create drafts, which can then be approved by someone with Publish capabilities.

You forgot to but it between backticks. Now the forum is trying to render them.

Backticks = A kind of apostoph like thingy, which on most keyboards can be found next tot the 1 key.

This is what’s in the theme’s sidebar.php, as downloaded from the link you gave:
<div id="sidebar">
<ul>
<li><a href="<?php echo get_settings('home'); ?>/">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:Effect.Combo('shelf', {duration: 0.5});" title="about">About</a></li>
<li><a href="javascript:Effect.Combo('shelfsearch', {duration: 0.5});" title="search">Search</a></li>

This is what your site outputs:
<div id="sidebar">
<ul>
<h2>Menu</h2>
<li class="page_item"><a href="https://jdoman.com/blog" title="Home">Home</a></li>
<li class="page_item"><a href="https://jdoman.com/blog/about/" title="About">About</a></li>

So there’s a discrepancy there (the added <h2> stuff).

Could you please post the contents of your themes sidebar.php here, between backticks?

Weird, because that plugin doesn’t output or change any XHTML as far as I can tell, so it can’t be responsible for the layout issues.

Link to where you got the plugin?

EDIT: The plugin is part of the problem. We’ve got to fix all your validation errors. Once we’ve tackled the one generated by that plugin, we’ll take on the rest.

Also take a look at your webserver error logs for errors.

Did you make any changes to the theme yourself? Because I see some discepancies between the code in that theme and what your site outputs.

Also, if you’ve got plugins running, try disabling them and see if the validation error count goes down. It could be that some plugins don’t interact well with your theme.

And while we’re on the subject of plugins, also take a look at the WordPress 2.0.3 Tuneup plugin.

Where did you get your theme?

Also, as a sidenote, I’d suggest upgrading to WordPress 2.0.3, because the version you’re running (2.0.2), contains a security issue.

You have XHTML validation errors on both pages. Try fixing these and these. I think that will solve your problems.

What’s your setting at Options -> Reading -> Syndication Feeds -> Show the most recent ?? posts?

What if you change your sidebar code to this (so remove the ul and /ul):
<h2>Mets Poll</h2>
<?php jal_democracy(2); ?>

Which version of that plugin are you running?

You open a <ul> tag followed by a <form> tag, but <form> tags aren’t allowed directly within a <ul> tag. So either remove that <ul> (and corresponding </ul>) or put a <li> between them and a </li> between the closing tags.