Oh no! I messed up my permalinks in wordpress - AGAIN!

self destruct button ‘Customise your permalinks’: a self-destruct button for the unwary?

Oops, I did it again.

In your settings, Wordpress gives you simple click-box options to change your default numeric post URLs to more search-engine friendly ‘wordy’ URLs.

Naturally, you’ll be tempted to go ahead and do that.  DON’T! Stop! Look! Listen - and call the person whose servers your domain sits on first.

It may be that you need something set on your servers before clicking those options in Wordpress. Why?  Because if it isn’t set, your attempt to redefine your permalink structure could - at the check of a little radio box - instantly render your site gone.   As in invisible; non-existent.

If you’re a serious techie and you run your own server, no problem.  Otherwise this is equivalent to a throbbing red ’self destruct’ button on the Wordpress dashboard. I should know.  I’ve already pressed it twice.

If you’ve pressed the button and your site has disappeared, don’t panic.

Just stop, go to bed (DON’T mess about with your FTP and DON’T consult the Codex as it will only confuse and depress you more) and get ready to make friends with your web host first thing in the morning.

Luckily, I’m already friends with the now-almost-saintly Gordon Henderson of Drogon Systems and he fixed the problem before I even got out of bed this morning.

July 1, 2008 | Filed Under blogging technique, how to 

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