Ah, this may go some way towards explaining the problem. The template that I'm using (Suffusion 3.3.8) doesn't have that first line included in the index.php file at all. I've tried adding that whole line as well as the the_meta tag, but it's not got me any further.
For info, the index.php of this template is:
<?php
/**
* Core file required with every WP theme. We have files for everything else.
* So this is essentially the landing page if nothing else is set.
* This is also the file used for archives.
*
* @package Suffusion
* @subpackage Templates
*/
global $options;
foreach ($options as $value) {
if (get_option($value['id']) === FALSE) {
$$value['id'] = $value['std'];
}
else {
$$value['id'] = get_option($value['id']);
}
}
get_header();
?>
<div id="main-col">
<?php suffusion_before_begin_content(); ?>
<div id="content">
<?php
if ($suf_index_excerpt == 'list') {
include_once(TEMPLATEPATH . '/layouts/layout-list.php');
}
else if ($suf_index_excerpt == 'tiles') {
suffusion_after_begin_content();
include_once(TEMPLATEPATH . '/layouts/layout-tiles.php');
}
else {
suffusion_after_begin_content();
include_once(TEMPLATEPATH . '/layouts/layout-blog.php');
}
?>
</div><!-- content -->
</div><!-- main col -->
<?php
get_footer();
?>
<p class="postmetadata"><?php the_tags('Tags: ', ', ', '<br />'); ?> Posted in <?php the_category(', ') ?> | <?php edit_post_link('Edit', '', ' | '); ?> <?php comments_popup_link('No Comments »', '1 Comment »', '% Comments »'); ?></p>
<?php the_meta(); ?>
... where the last bit is, of course, the bit I added (and have now removed).
Any other suggestions please?
(Editing the default template as per your instructions works just fine!)