Wordpress arg

[gwyn]

Is anyone on my flist a WordPress expert? I decided to move my non-fannish writing blog, which I abandoned years ago, from Blogspot and start a WP based blog on my own domain -- I figured, you know, why not, since I am paying for the space for vids and whatnot. But this thing has me stumped in so many ways. I got it set up, but nothing I do will allow me to install a new style theme. The page as it is is butt-ugly, and I found a theme that's at least accessible for the nonce until I find something I like better when I have more time.

But it just won't install -- it keeps telling me that my password and username don't work. Since I set the password up on my domain when I installed WP, and it works to log me into the blog page, I can't understand why this won't work with the password and username. I even signed up for a themes username and password, and that won't let me install a new theme, either! I can't find anything about it on the forums. I'm just bewildered, angry, and my arm hurts.

I've never seen a less intuitive program. Man, I thought MS Office programs were bad. They make it sound like it's such an easy program to work with. Not. Not at all. Why do I do these things to myself, I wonder?

Comments

[sara]

This sounds like a permissions issue. You need to make sure that you have the ability to write to your WP directory. What I usually do (and it's probably bad security, but I don't ever do it for very long) is set writing access to public, install themes, edit as necessary, and then reset the access to read-only.

[mecurtin]

I know a *lot* about WP. You may want to contact me by email at curtin dot me at gmail dot com.

Basically what I do is FTP the theme into wp-content/themes. Then I can select it via the admin interface.

What part of this isn't working for you? What kind of server are you on?

[gwyn]

A friend said the same thing to me. Hm. I'm definitely unsure of how to deal with things like this, but I might see what happens if I try your method. I'm kind of wishing I hadn't started this!

[sara]

There is probably a "right" way to do this, but I've been running WP installs for about five years now for various projects, and this is the way I can get it to work, which is the key thing for me! (But don't be surprised if someone gasps and gives you a "You did what?!?")

[ninasis.livejournal.com]

We use WordPress for our blog at my job, and let me tell you I have sweated, cried, begged, screamed, cursed, and given up on life over that fucking program.

Did you do a completely fresh install with a new database and then import your entries/comments from Blogspot? I had the hardest time trying to do anything for a while and just said, "Fuck this!" and started from scratch after they finally released 3.0. I can't express how much I loathe WordPress.

I feel your pain. Not sure if I could actually be of any help or not. I will tell you that I love the theme I chose - Atahualpa. Very versatile...maybe even too versatile because you can spend hours and hours playing around with the back end and it sucks your life away. But it's a great theme.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for this. I really was afraid it was just my basic stupidity, but I mean, I've set up three different web sites, I'm not quite that dumb -- I'm not smart at it, mind you, and right now, I can't figure out how to even add a mood theme to my DW account even though it's sitting there on my web space. But I'm not *that* helpless, yet it made me feel utterly helpless and I wasted HOURS on it yesterday. The help is just... not helpful at all -- it presupposes you know everything already, and they don't define words for new users AT ALL.

I think I may just go back to the blogspot site -- I can't see even importing the comments and posts at this point, and it sounds like you had an awful time of it, so that's a deterrent!

All I've ever heard is how great WP is and how anyone can start a blog and blah blah. But in practice, this is the unfriendliest thing ever, and I'm saying this as someone who taught herself Pagemaker 2.0 when it was first out, and html, including -gah! -tables.

[ninasis.livejournal.com]

I could take a crack at it for you if you wanted? I would want to do a fresh install with a new database though, with 3.0 (or 3.1 if that's what they're on now...) Once it's set up it's really the easiest program to use, it's just getting it set up that's a huge pain in the ass.