Flying Blind

I’m flying blind here. And I’m being about as literal as you can get. Due to technical reasons far beyond my comprehension, when I write a blog post the text is invisible. You can read this because it somehow rights itself once posted to the web. But as I type? White text on white background. It’s the WordPress equivalent of a polar bear in a snowstorm. And it has me huddling in the tent sobbing and praying for the rescue team.

I don’t think they’re coming.

Despite a long talk with tech support and hours of quality time spent with Google, all I’ve learned is some code went rogue in something called the htaccess file, and if I ever want to see my text I’m going to have to find the issue and fix the code. Sounds easy enough.

Wait. Have you seen code? Well, I have, and it isn’t pretty. Or comprehensible. Again. I’m flying blind. How does one tell good code from bad? Indulge me. Here’s a snippet that works on something called permalinks. Honestly, it sounds like a new no-iron fabric for golfers.

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# END WordPress

Oh that “! -f” looks familiar only I write it “f—!”

I’ll be back when this code thing gets worked out.

UPDATE: It only took me a week to locate the fix. One long, stress-filled, angst-ridden, cuss-speckled week. In case you have the same issue, the fix was simple. Upload and activate a plugin called “Use Google Libraries”. No idea what it does or why it works or why I suddenly needed it. But there’s your answer. Heaving a sigh of relief and getting back to work.