Anise

Yes, unfortunately (checking spam folders, I mean.) I couldn’t really get this figured out over on Simplepress either. I really appreciate everyone’s help… I seriously do… but I wish I’d known earlier how easy it is to run into incredible trouble and get in over your head so fast. I’ve put in so so so so so so so much time and effort. It hasn’t solved anything. I mean it– I really think I have to learn a whole lot more past the user’s side.

Before anything else… I went to the Codeacademy site, registered, and signed up for the PHP class. I’ll try it tomorrow.

I don’t mean just finding plugins; I wish I did!! I don’t mean basic information or really any kind of information on the user’s end. I was specifically told by my hosting provider that I needed to be able to change code in “the scripts” if I wanted to really fix a serious problem. Here’s exactly what happened:

I spent dozens and dozens of miserable hours over a problem with my site suddenly not sending confirmations of user registrations to anyone. The final word from Dreamhost was:

I’m sorry to hear about this issue and for the loooong delay in getting
back to you on this. The problem is that your scripts that are set up to
send the passwords is using the email address of the person signing up as
the From: address. Because those addresses are likely not hosted by
Dreamhost the system will no allow them to go out as that is technically
spoofing the sending address.

What you’ll need to do is edit the scripts (emphasis added) so that the From address is
something@allfics.com and something@dracoandginnyblog.com. That will
insure the messages go out properly.

You’ll find additional information this issue here –
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Sender_Domain_Policy_and_Spoofing (ETA: I went over this page many many times and still could not figure out exactly what to do.)

I asked where the scripts were and what they were. They said:

I’m afraid that we aren’t able to change the form fields in the script
for you as that’s more of a job for a developer. (ETA: I didn’t ask for that; I just wanted to know where the scripts were.)

Sorry for the bad news as it will be best to consult with a developer or
maybe check our members forum for assistance with locating the form
scripts.
(emphasis added)
Here’s a link to our forum if you haven’ seen it before.

https://discussion.dreamhost.com/

Sorry for the bad news, but let us know if there’s another question.

Posting on the Dreamhost forum didn’t help with finding out how to access the scripts, although I was told that they were indeed PHP scripts. I don’t know… maybe you need to know the secret handshake simply in order to find out WHERE these PHP scripts are/how to get to them. You need to know where the clubhouse is… you need to have the right tattoo… you need to be one of the Illuminati… I don’t know. I could never find out a way to learn exactly where they were.

I was also told by a local developer that he didn’t know exactly what the problem was and that it could take up to 10 hours to fix (at $75/hour.)

Through the sheer number of hours spent, I *kind of* found a workaround, and now people can register unless the email is hotmail/outlook, but I know it wasn’t really a solution. I do need to know more, and I think that everyone else does too. Everything seems fine if all you know is the users’ end… until you hit that wall.

/rant

I really appreciate the advice, but I just have to figure out the best way in general to get past all the “user end” knowledge. I have that. It’s not enough. This is the big drawback to self-hosting. The person who should be the expert admin isn’t here, and they’re not going to be here, because these are nonprofit sites and nobody is going to admin them if I don’t. I’ve searched on the WP site itself and places like it for hours, and I just can’t find the “here’s where you go and here are the next steps you take once you realize that you need to know how to be an admin, not just a user” section. That’s what I really need.

Actually, the story of trying to even GET to the settings on WPSC and never being able to do it… that’s a whole saga. 😉 But I tried a small caching plugin (Hyper Cache) and that seems to work. I just wish I knew so much more… I think that users really do need to know MUCH! more info than they’re led to believe when they’re first talked into being the only admin for sites. O.o.

Here’s what they said:

Reason for listing – Sorry 69.163.253.136 is blacklisted at http://www.backscatterer.org/?ip=69.163.253.136

I don’t know why this could be happening. I have definitely never sent spam or had anything to with any activity remotely related to it. Allfics.com is a small nonprofit writing site. I’ve put so much time into it and so much energy trying to get it going, and it just seems there is no end to the problems that need serious expertise to fix… which I don’t have.

/whine…

ETA: Spamhaus says my IP address for this site is NOT in any blacklists. For whatever that’s worth!
Anyway! Thanks. 🙂 And what do people usually do now in this situation?

There wasn’t anything sent in any email by WordPress. (That wasn’t a bad idea, though… thanks…) I had to go on an extended expedition in order to find API clues on the blog page. Through some miracle, the hunt eventually bore fruit. What I figured out was that it’s necessary to actually go to the Akiskal page… (that can’t be right. Hagop Akiskal is a research physician known for his groundbreaking work on bipolar depression. Oh, y’all know the one I mean!) Anyway, I somehow ended up there; DON’T ask me how. Then I had to request a key after having been sent on a guilt trip about not paying for it (I’m on unemployment!!) The route to success was incredibly circuitous. All in all,I think I need geekier friends.