A recent page from the WordPress forums:
Why has my sidebar moved to my footer area?
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I’ve had the Sundance theme for a few weeks. After I posted today, my entire sidebar moved to my footer area. I emptied my browser’s cache, but that didn’t work. I looked at my blog with Firefox and the sidebar was still displaying in its entirety at the BOTTOM of the page. I checked each sidebar item on my Widgets page and hit save. That didn’t help either. What do I do?
Blog url: https://sparksinshadow.wordpress.com/ -
See here:
http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/sidebar-at-the-bottom-and-related-issues/And please search the forums before asking questions: your question has been answered a million times.
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I searched the help pages and the links suggested there first. Then I seached my question in the forums and only one came up that was clearly about my problem, but the person who found her answer didn’t make clear what that answer was or where she found it.
If this problem has been queried a million times, it may be due to problems with the way the search feature operates. Perhaps you can help WordPress address that, since the page your link led to should have been one of the first to come up for me, but wasn’t.
As a computer non-expert, who doesn’t know what a div tag is, I’m amazed that I figured out how to solve my problem from the info in the link you provided. I thank you for including it here, and am grateful you did so despite your obvious aggravation.
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(Why doesn’t WordPress tell us not to bother anyone when we have a problem?)
* 8/07/12 – Addition: Panos (justpi) sent me a comment at 8:02 pm explaining that whatever insult I read in his/her statement was all in my own mind and that he/she is just a fellow WordPress blogger offering an answer in the peer-to-peer support forum (they added the italics, I suppose, to emphasize this for those who didn’t know.) Their comment went on to express a knee-jerk reaction to my taking offense at the statement after the answer they were not “obliged” to give me in the first place, which was obviously not given “… as pamperingly as you might have preferred.”
This person took my statements very personally (gosh I wonder why?) in their long comment, and also insulted Amelie and Deborah before they were done. I won’t support that by clicking “approve.” They also included further insults to me, leading me to question their understanding of what an insult to another person is. I believe there may be a reason for this person’s inablity to understand what’s truly going on here.
One helpful thing they did acknowledge is that the WordPress search is flawed somehow (so their snark was doubly uncalled for, but still not apparent to him/her) so they suggested that it’s better to do a Google search for a WordPress problem. I thank them for that bit of information, though they may not notice that I did.
Sparks In Shadow 
You are more gracious than I would have been. Like, about five million times more gracious.
Gracious? Me? I guess I do try. One day I’m gonna get pushed way too far and the poor idiot who riled me really won’t know what hit ’em.
Ooh, I got a rush just thinking about it.
There are some things on WordPress that do irritate me but I put it down to my ignorance and the need to restrict my time in front a pc – one must lead a life, right – so I’m right with you,Ré. We shouldn’t all need to be experts and up with the techy jargon…. and “Help” should be help, shouldn’t it. ( Bet you don’t make the front page with this ! ) 🙂
Hee, hee! I’m sure I won’t. 🙂
Tsk. How very rude of WordPress. I’m just glad to have a techie like Huz around to troubleshoot for me so I don’t need to ask anyone else 😛
Oh, you are lucky!
Whoever this person is who insulted me, they definitely don’t know how to talk to people. They’ve obviously never studied that. Unless their aim is to make enemies. 🙂
FOUND YOU! Please, I do not know what a div tag is, either. Also, it may not help me because sometimes my sidebar does great and other times it’s gone and posts overlap, etc. Where did you find help? Thanks!
I’m so glad you did, especially if it helps. I found help at the link the rude person provided. I had to read the first few paragraphs very slowly to get an inkling of what to do, then I used context clues to get to my solution.
I re-did one of the links I’d included in the offending post (the post that started the trouble) and that time it worked properly and allowed my sidebar to go back to where it was supposed to be. I hope you find your solution, too.
Sighs. I got an answer from timethief, pretty quickly:
“When it comes to sidebars falling below the posts the causes are usually two in number (1) copying and pasting content and (2) importing content.
If you have been copying and pasting text from elsewhere without using either icon 5 or icon 6 in Row 2 of the visual editor, please do this
Go to Settings > Writing and select “ ___ WordPress should correct invalidly nested XHTML automatically” and then scroll down and click “Save Changes.”
then see here http://en.support.wordpress.com/visual-editor/#pasting-text ”
I did all she said and found no changes. I reported that.
No answer.And I’m still sitting on no changes.
The thing that slays me is that I’ve been perking along with wp for 2 years with no troubles. Now this.
I only use my own camera sdcard or zemanta for photos. Couldn’t be that, right?
I noticed they have been advertising for new workers. Maybe they are overwhelmed with new bloggers?
Still, they advertise ease of use and great support. They should stop advertising that.
And I hope someone stumbles along and can help me.
Do you think if I delete a post and then repost it the way they say, that would fix it? That’s not so very time-consuming, and I think I can find which ones to redo by checking them individually, as Jester Queen related. Hmm.
Well, back to the salt mines. Thanks for your kindness. I do think the snarkist was speaking for himself . . .
I agree that WordPress should stop advertising ease of use and great support to those of us who haven’t the foggiest notion of how to read code.
I hope Jester Queen’s simplification of the info helps you. I wish you the best.
WordPress is a pain in the ass, but it’s the only platform with threaded comments so I’m sticking it out. I do wish they wouldn’t ‘fix’ things that are working fine, and I REALLY wish the person who felt the need to snark at you would take a long step off a short pier.
I so agree. There are things I like about WordPress. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see a Blogger theme that I’d like for myself, or cleanly navigated one of those blogs, and have never seen a comment on a Tumblr blog. (I’m a fan of our commenting system, too.) But WordPress does seem to loathe folks who can’t read or write code and would rather not learn.
I’m also in full agreement about that long step off a short pier. 🙂
I fixed it! I fixed it! http://katharinetrauger.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/note/
I removed two photos (from Zemanta!) and all is well. Except I’m addicted to Zemanta. Sighs.
You know, I noticed that in the wp forums, we are not allowed to comment on the rudeness of the “helper”:
“We love positive and productive discussions, so please keep comments on the topics at hand and not on other members of the community. Thanks!”
So, WHO KNOWS WHERE TO COMMENT ON THAT? Maybe I should go query that?
I still do not think the forum “helpers” really speak for wp. I think too much trust is placed on them, though and they are making a bad name for some of the others.
I’m so glad you found a fix. 🙂
About that sentence you found about discussions in the forums: I think it’s actually more about everybody being careful not to make personal remarks — like the “a million times” remark that was made to me. There was nothing positive about that personal remark.
You are right. I got a note from him, there, saying I probably did not read the link he sent. I just denied THAT and thanked him. He actually did say what was wrong with timethief’s info–you have to adjust the post afterwards, even if a tiny bit, and then you have to save changes. It auto-corrects THEN. Hmm. Also I think he adjusted/softened his original rebuke in his blog. Hmph.
Who is that “justpi” dolt? I mean, anyone could have copied and pasted a link. Why do they think they’re so special? Methinks someone has nothing better to do with their time except troll around the forums.
WP staff have been kind but every time I have an issue, they tell me to switch to Firefox. What? Um, I don’t want to switch browers, thank you. How about fixing your platform?
Yes! That Firefox suggestion is getting so old — they use it for almost everything — that’s why I was sure to try it and say so. That justpi person is the one who wrote the post at the end of their link. You can click on it up there and see.
I don’t know anything about platforms, but I felt lucky to get my sidebar back where interested people could find it. It only took me an hour and a half of frustration and head scratching to do it.
Is justpi an employee or a fellow blogger? Either way, WRONG answer. Then again, many people are more interested in proving how immense their knowledge base than actually communicating with fellow human beings. Ugh!
I think justpi is a fellow blogger with sad communication skills. I’ve gotten smarmy and smug answers from WordPress representatives before, but never an outwardly rude one like this. Somehow, though, they let rude ones in the forums stand, like justpi’s. They should think about what that means.
Yeah, you were extremely gracious, but your 2nd paragraph of your “answer” to “justpi” (“justrude”?, “justsmug”?, “justbetteratcomputerstuffthanyouandselfrighteousaboutit”?) kind of educated them about the inadequacies of the help system. Search engines baffle me. Sometimes I can type in the exact thing and it doesn’t come up at all, and sometimes I can type in a couple words and get exactly what I want. It’s like throwing darts blindfolded.
Yes!! Isn’t that aggravating! Especially when dipshits act like it’s our fault for asking a question clearly! I’ve even tested subjects in my own posts on my site’s search box (to test it) and not had the right post come up. That must be fun for a reader who doesn’t remember its title.
Here is how I fixed it when it happened to me. It is easy, but time consuming. Look your most recent post alone not from the home page. If the sidebar is ok , go back to the post before it until you come to a post where the sidebar is wrong. Delete any pictures. Check the post again. If it is now ok, the n reformat and reinseert the pic. If not, remove any html formatting (italicized text etc.) And check again. One of those two things should fix it. Hopefully. Then check your homepage and see if the problem is fixed. If not, keep going through and fixing individual posts until the homepage is ok. Most themes can tolerate one wacky post but start messing up the homepage if more than that have issues. And sometimes the post itself will look ok, but then it is still messing up the homepage, so you justIn my case, pictures from my phone seem to have this effect. I hope that helps!
Thank you, Jessie! That’s a simpler version of what justpi’s post said. I was lucky to get that from his/her post, but I managed to fix the problem last night.
You know that now you’ll be getting an email first when something goes wonky on my blog. Right? 🙂
Sorry. Working from my phone. That cutoff sentence in the middle says sometimes you just have to methodically remobe pucs and check the homepage until you find the culprit (s). It is always something within the last two weeks in my experience.
More thanks to you, Jessie. Maybe other people will find this post and we can all spread the word. This must be happening a lot. A million people have asked about it. 🙂
And I’ll do what I can to help! And NOT act like your an idiot because the platform couldn’t handle something!
Panos (justpi) sent me a comment. There was nothing profane in it, but still no understanding of polite communication, so I added an addition to the above post to address it instead of having my readers insulted here in my internet home.
If you can bear it, go to his site. Has he changed it? I think so. Or did I imagine I saw you there?. It is all civilized, now, and many obnoxious words changed to neutral connotations.
I never left a comment at this person’s site. I only addressed them at the forum, but I did add on to this post after they left an inappropriate comment here that I didn’t feel comfortable approving.
Too funny. I guess he can dish it out but he can’t take it. I guess it’s only fair as I sorta slammed him, but if he doesn’t want that kind of discourse he shouldn’t be rude to people who obviously just want information. Thanks by the way for protecting your readers, Sparks. I do the same thing – I don’t have a comment policy like some bloggers do, but I require that all complaints are directed at me, never my readers.
I feel that way, too. I can deal with complaints about myself, and block someone later if they become obnoxious. But his refusal to understand how polite communication works, and his intractability, put a knot in my stomach. I wouldn’t want the posibility of that for my readers.
This is also why comment moderation is such a great thing. I had one reader complain that it interfered with free discussion. Well, too bad. My blog, my rules.
Sparks – I thought you’d be interested in this since we were on the topic of switching browsers. Seriously, isn’t this a bit aggressive to insist that I switch? (Last 2 comments)
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/are-the-stats-ever-going-to-be-fixed?replies=10#post-970304
I hear you. I have Firefox but rarely use it. I downloaded it from the Firefox site about a year ago because WordPress and just about everybody else “in the know” said it was time I did. I can’t get things on many sites to work the way I want them to in Firefox without having to go through a lot of extra steps for the simplest things. And then there are the times Firefox just won’t let me do things I’ve always done easily in Safari — even after trying to set up preferences.
Trying to navigate WordPress while in Firefox aggravated me so much that I don’t even try anymore unless I’m having a problem, just so I can rule it out as a way to fix it. I’m wondering if love of Firefox is a PC thing. (I’m afraid to ask.) I have a Mac.
You have much more class than I, Ré. And serious kudos to you for that. While I feel it’s silly to argue over the internet, I’d probably have given the rude person a sweet little message back. But, for their insults via internet to someone who simply had a question, someone they don’t even know…I just feel bad for them. What a sad life they must lead to feel the need for such things.
That person sent me a comment, actually taking offense at my carefully worded response at the forum. It’s unfortunate that so many people who are insensitive to others are very sensitive themselves. That makes communication almost impossible at times.