Tag Archives: WordPress

All is well… I think

Several readers have informed me that my site has been infected with some sort of malware. I think (and hope!) that I’ve finally found and eradicated the problem.

I opened up a support ticket with my hosting company, but they told me they couldn’t do anything and suggested I download my subfolder and run a virus scan on it. I did that (and let me tell you, it takes a long time to download everything!) using the latest virus scanning software/definitions from McAfee; it found no viruses. Then I got a plug-in that helps you search your files for malicious code, and it did find one post that had malicious code inserted into it (without my knowledge, of course); that code has been deleted. Furthermore, there was an extra directory on my site that I didn’t create; I’ve deleted that. And I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress and changed my password.

I believe the security issue has been resolved as a result of these actions. I’ll continue to monitor the site. Thanks to everyone who notified me; if you get any more security warnings about my site, please let me know and I’ll take further action to root it out.

Site news: Comment toolbar added

Anyone who leaves comments on blogs knows that, if you want anything other than plain text, you have to know a little HTML coding. But not everyone knows that, or wants to learn it. And so, I’ve had some requests for a toolbar on the comment box that will allow commenters to bold, italicize, and add hyperlinks to their comments.

Well, you’ve got it. I had a hard time finding a WordPress plugin that would give the comments box this functionality. But the “blogfather” Billy Dennis found one for me. My thanks to him. Also, thanks to the person who wrote the plugin. I hope WordPress will build this into a future update, as it seems like an obvious upgrade to make.

The only thing missing from the toolbar is a “blockquote” button, which would have been helpful. But I think the tools that are provided will meet most commenters’ needs. Let me know if you have any trouble using it. If your comments don’t show up, it’s possible that it got caught in the Akismet spam filter (especially if you used hyperlinks). Just send me an e-mail and I’ll rescue it. If, for some reason, this toolbar “breaks” the site, I’ll deactivate it.

Hope you find this upgrade helpful. Happy commenting!