So I was just trying to update some WordPress plugins and the new automatic update system went all fubar on me. It claimed my ftp info was incorrect and sent the site into permanent “maintenence mode” which might be frightening for someone updating their site obviously as you simply get that nice message above on a blank page…no way to access the admin again. Here are the solutions. First to get the site back, look in whatever directory is your root install for a hidden file .maintenance (note you’ll need to be able to view hidden files in your ftp program). Once you find it just delete that bugger and the site should be back. I found I had to go into the wp-settings.php file and comment out line 50 which runs the function “wp_maintenance();” in order to be able to update the plugins…for some reason it kept not accepting my ftp info and adding that file…wonky.

So it’s fairly common knowledge that it’s a bad idea to put your email address in a mailto: tag unprotected on your website right? The wicked spammers have nasty little web bots that will scan the code of a page looking for that tag, or even your unlinked email address (they can tell from the formatting of it). One way to protect yourself is to use javascript to encode your address and hide it. There are a few plugins for WordPress that will automatically do this for you. One we have used for a few clients is CryptX (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cryptx/). All you need to do is install it and activate it, then it will filter through all your pages and cloak your addresses for you. Excellent work, hats off to plugin developer and spam warrior Ralf Weber.