Dipping into the Blogpond

I’ve been having a big problem with my “Subscribe to comments” plugin, which has frustrated me to no end. I love this plugin, and really appreciate being able to use this facility when commenting on other blogs. Unless it is a blog that gets lots of comments every post (which can get a bit overwhelming), I always tick the “subscribe to comments” option.

If you have a WordPress blog, I think it is a really worthwhile plugin to add, because it really makes it easy for commentors to follow the conversation and, I think, more likely to get re-involved.

The problem first started when some subscribers mentioned getting emails for posts they hadn’t subscribed to. I upgraded to the latest plugin, but then no comments seemed to be getting through.

I thought that an upgrade to the latest version of WordPress might have fixed the problem, as I thought it was a conflict between plugins and/or my theme. But this didn’t help either.

Today I thought I’d have another look at it. I activated it and tried a test comment (from a different computer). When I approved the comment, however, I just got a white screen. Also, I usually get an email when a comment is approved – this did not happen. So it seemed something was wrong with the moderation.php.

This, in itself, was probably something that I could live with. But when I tried to go into “manage” (wp-admin/edit.php) I got the same blank screen. This meant that effectively I couldn’t manage pages, posts or a plethora of other functions while this plugin was activated. This I couldn‘t live with!

I tell you, it’s all great when it’s working – but trying to solve a “glitch” is time consuming.

So back to Google to see if I could find some answers. Fortunately a search for “moderation.php” provided me with a possible clue. A different problem, but a potential solution nonetheless. The advice was from Samboll, a moderator at WordPress.org. He writes:

In my limited experience, 9 times out of 10 this is a php memory issue. Ask your host(s) to bump the php memory from 8M to 16M. Most hosts will do this no problem.

I had never even heard of a “php memory” before! So I rang my host on the off chance that this might work.

“Hi this is Meg from blogpond.com.au – um, you wouldn’t happen to know offhand what my PHP memory is would you?”

After feeling I had to justify why I’d need to know this obscure piece of information, I find out that sure enough it’s only 8MB. Next I justify that a (random) guy, on a (random) forum, suggested that a fix to a (random) similar problem to the one I’m having, might be to increase the php memory to 16MB. Talking about vague and clutching at straws!

Anyway, to wind up what has become a rather long winded, short post, it worked! No more white screens! I’m able to access the “manage” function, and the “moderate” no longer hangs.

But please, if by any chance you start getting notifications for posts you haven’t subscribed to – feel free to burst my bubble 😉

Note: I’m under no illusion that this would be vaguely relevant to 99% of people subscribing here. I’m posting it on the off chance that it just might solve a problem for somebody somewhere

Update: I just wanted to add for the record that this also fixed the problem I was having with my daily database backup not being emailed to me. Now I don’t have to remember to do it manually!