Same problem here, had it for 9 months, no one seems to know the answer.
I have the exact same problem still, only now I have upgraded to WP 2.8.4. – I am calling wp_footer, and have done all the time, but I still get the same error:
Error from last API Key attempt:
parse error. not well formed
I’m gonna go ahead and bump this, since I’ve had the same problem for a really long time, and no one seems to have the answer?
I have a similar problem. When I reactivate the WordPress.com-Stats after upgrading to WordPress 2.7, I’m instructed to enter the API-key again. When I do this (the same API-key as Akismet uses) I get a big fat, red error:
Error from last API Key attempt:
parse error. not well formed
I love this stats-plugin, and I’m almost addicted to it. It also worked like a charm before the WP-upgrade. Can someone help me? Thanks!