Eye of Modok

Just a note of caution for any WordPress users out there…

I recently updated my original WordPress 1.5 blog to a WordPress 2.3.1 blog, reproducing the site on another hosting server. For the most part, it went well, and appeared to be a mostly seamless transition. While I appreciate the greater security and additional functionality of the WP 2.3.1, it has not been without some suprises.

For instance, previously, I had no problem at all displaying Japanese and Chinese characters, either in the post itself, or in the title. Now, all I get is a bunch of question marks. The irony is that the characters appear without a problem as I write or edit the content, and it is only when they are published that the dreaded question marks appear. I tried a workaround by installing a multi-language plug-in, but this isn’t exactly what I wanted, and the plug-in itself seemed to cause more problems without enabling the offending characters to show up. Hopefully, I will find a solution soon.

Then there is the matter of a marvelous new function that offered to convert my Categories into Tags. Now I must take the blame for what happened next, as I most certainly did not read the manual before using what appeared to me to be a very cool new function. I applied the converter, and convert it did! All of the categories were indeed converted to tags on each of the posts. What I wasn’t expecting, is that all of the posts were then filed as Uncategorized. Which means that I’ve had to go back through each and every one of over 130 posts and reassign the categories. Actually, I’m still only about half way through…

I guess that teaches me to leap before I look! Hopefully, this will spare someone a similar fate!