Bad Tool? — Probably not
I’m not so sure Comment Timeout was such a good idea. When I turned it off, it mostly crashed the blog — and it shouldn’t have done that. The place still appears to be reeling from something…
Whoa. This feels strange. Where’s something solid to hold onto.
Update added Jan 28: Just to correct any possible misperceptions. Neither ny WordPress installation nor database was harmed during this incident. It could have been an ISP slowdown, something in the net, or incredibly unfortunate timing. The problem wasn’t necessesarily in the plug-in. (See the comment from the concerned plug-in author below)
You’re right – plugins aren’t supposed to do that when you turn them off. Very odd. You didn’t have to add any php code anywhere on your site, did you?
Just the plug in.
There’s a remote possibility my ISP was experiencing some difficulties, but that’s unlikely.
Note to self: Remember to back up the blog database BEFORE activating new plug-ins (How many times do I have to remind you!)
Well, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t see anything on my end that’s problematic. Everything looks clean and spiffy to me. 🙂
Thanks, Jim. It was just for about an hour last night after I turned the plug-in off.
I gotcha. Well, I’m glad everything cleared up. 🙂
Did it actually corrupt your WordPress installation at all? It could have been that your browser or an upstream server was caching your pages, or, as you say, simply ISP problems — if everything just came right again on its own after an hour or so then this may have been the case — but if it did corrupt your database in any way that’s something I’ll need to look into. If you drop me a line I’ll see what I can do.
James and everyone else reading: NO. My WordPress installation was fine. And you’re absolutely right, it could have been an ISP slowdown and incredibly unfortunate timing. I’ll add a comment in the post body to reflect that.