Changing Categories in WordPressMU
One of the things I’m enjoying about adjusting to a new platform is finding out what does and does not work. I kinda chuckle when I manage to find something that doesn’t work, especially if it also didn’t work in Manila, the platform on which I used to work.
Take changing categories as an example. Since the department/category URLs are now all different, I figure it doesn’t really matter if I change category names right now while people are still in the process of updating their links to this weblog. I was thinking WordPress Multiuser might be smart enough to handle changing category names since its features seem to suggest that it would be. I admit being surprised that it didn’t work. I changed the category formerly known as Finches to Birds, since I have posts about hawks somewhere on this weblog and it makes sense to me to group the posts about hawks and finches together. Immediately after changing the category name, I noticed WordPress automatically changed the name in the sidebar and it tells me six posts are in the category. When I click on that category name, however, I get a 404. By experimenting, I learn that WordPress produces a 404 when there’s a category with nothing in it. It would be more useful if WordPress said something more intelligent, like “No posts are in this category.”
I’m going to tinker with the software to find out whether there’s really something wrong with the category that’s making it not appear or if it’s just that WordPress has not yet categorized those posts about finches under birds–even though the posts appear to be categorized under birds already. Changing them manually doesn’t seem to work. Hhhmmm … puzzling.
Addendum 2/16: I finally got a chance to check the birds category and noticed it is in the sidebar and actually shows content now instead of a 404. Perhaps it just needed some time to reload or reorganize or something like that.
I am able to replicate this issue right now, though. There’s nothing in the uncategorized category, yet it appears on the sidebar with a 2 behind it. Perhaps by the time you look, it won’t be problematic anymore.
February 12th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
I’m confused for you. If there is nothing in a WordPress category, it will not appear on your category list. That is the default action. Thus, you should never see a 404 error on a category link with no posts. And you have bigger problems to solve.
Somewhere in your header you have a link open but not closed. It makes your text feature a “hover” effect with no corresponding link. I believe it is in the font size feature you added. You need to fix this.
This is just one of the many errors popping up on your blog that need fixing. Start with the unclosed link, though. That’s ugly.
I’m also very confused about your use of “Pages” in your sidebar. They look like posts but I believe you have added them via the Pages feature in WordPress. Am I right or is this just a list of favorite posts or something with a wrong title of “Pages”?
Just to help you a little, a post is what 98% of everything you write on your blog should be. A “Page” is a pseudo-static web page used for creating permanent information like Contact, About, Schedule, Location, Driving Directions, Hours, and things like that. I don’t see an article about Dean and Lieberman from 2003 as vitally important enough to merit a Page. That’s a post, along with Dr. Seuss’s birthday and others listed in your sidebar.
If you want to feature your most popular posts, recently viewed posts, or other ways of offering historical post information on your blog, that’s possible, but putting them in Pages doesn’t work. Makes a mess of things in WordPress.
I hope I’m wrong in this, and I’m just trying to help. I know you want your blog to be the best it can be and you offer top notch information.
By the way, if you would like a more entertaining 404 message on any of your blog’s broken links, see Creating an Error 404 Page.
February 17th, 2007 at 2:24 am
I left you a long message on this post on how to fix the problem you’ve been having, and some others you might be missing. Hopefully you got it and it didn’t get picked up by Akismet or a comment spam fighting Plugin.