This is a guest post by Udegbunam Chukwudi of StrictlyOnlineBiz
God knows how many times I’ve got the wordpress blank page error after leaving comments on some blogs. Some days back I got an email from one of my readers complaining that he had left two lengthy comments on my blog only to get a blank page after clicking the submit button. Thus I set out to find a solution and finally I’m 99% sure I’ve found one.
My research revealed that in some cases the almighty and over-rated Akismet is to be blamed. One of the features of Akismet that helps it with it’s anti-spam capability is that it tends to monitor the time gap between when a web page or blog post loads and when a comment is subsequently submitted.
If the time gap is small, Akismet tags the comment as spam and either throws up a blank page or tags the comment as spam in your wordpress dashboard. In most cases it does both.
HOW TO FIX THIS ISSUE?
Simple, deactivate and uninstall Akismet.
Please note that I tried this method and the next day, my blog went loco with the permalinks misbehaving badly. Single posts kept throwing up 404 errors. Reactivating Akismet and restoring a backup of my database seems to have saved my blog.
NOTE: I don’t know what Akismet had to do with this but I’m so NEVER going to be deactivating it again because at a point I felt I’d been hacked.
If you intend going this route, make sure comment moderation is enabled for each and every comment. Most especially if you manage a do-follow blog like I do.
Another fix I found making the rounds on the net is changing a little piece of code found in the comments.php file of your wordpress theme.
It is said that wordpress uses post ID to track which comments go with certain posts and if this post id is missing in a comment, the comment is lost or the commentator is redirected to a blank page.
The Trick:
Using CTRL + F, find:
<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $id; ?>" />
in your comments.php file and change it to
<input type="hidden" name="comment_post_ID" value="<?php echo $post->ID; ?>" />
Save the file and you’re good to go…
NOTE: So far so good, by changing this tiny piece of code in the comments.php file, I’ve been able to save my commentators a whole lot of headache. Deactivating Akismet was certainly not an option for me.
I hope you will find this guide helpful whenever your blog will face such kind of problem.
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Article Written By Udegbunam Chukwudi
Udegbunam Chukwudi in his pastime writes about free blogging and make money online tips at his blog Strictly Online Biz. Topics already covered at his blog includes Upgrading & Speeding up wordpress blogs, Making Money through Paid Online Surveys, Google Adsense, Web Hosting Reselling and CPA Marketing amongst others. You can follow him on twitter >@sonlinebiz.
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Great find! I always like knowing how to fix small annoying errors on my blog – will file this for future reference. Thanks!
.-= Barbara Ling, Virtual Coach´s last blog ..Today’s Humor of the Day – Funny Microsoft Windows Errors =-.
Thank you for the tips. Even though I don’t have a wordpress blog, the information I learn will always in my mind for my future references.
.-= Earn Money At Home´s last blog ..How To Earn More Money from Google Adsense =-.
Nice post & tips. I will do that on my next project website…
.-= Brillie´s last blog ..Sidang TA =-.
I didn’t know this problem existed, but thanks for the solution to solve this errors problem! I’ll use it if I ever have that error on my blog. Thanks for sharing!
Well I have seen that error few times when leaving comment on blogs like tylercruz etc. I think Akismet or some other spam protection plugin could be the reason for it.
Great post! It really doesnt happen to me but Im just curious still to find something for it.. I thought there arent many guides on internet about fixing it..
.-= Melvin´s last blog ..Do You Appreciate Your Readers? =-.
The wordpress error page for comments… I sure do hate seeing that. Nice tip.
.-= Liane YoungBlogger´s last blog ..Launching a New Service Soon – Your Content Perfect Ebook Coming Right Up =-.
Ahh this is a great post idea, for a while I seeing these issues everywhere and it was driving me crazy.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..Extreme John $250 Fan Sign Contest =-.
Thanks for the support guys. I’m still new to guest posting and so far my efforts have been appreciated.
Another useful tip is when writing long comments always do on Notepad or MS Word so that afterwards you can just copy and paste in the comment.
This way you still have your comment should you get the blank page error.
Take care guys.
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi@Make Money Online Tips´s last blog ..How To Get A Visa or MasterCard In Nigeria =-.
Thx for the tip
Thanks for this nice tutorial. This habit of Wordpress really bugged me for my other bugs, until I found the solution.
.-= Albert Fang´s last blog ..Article Marketing: A Strategy for Affiliate Marketing =-.
I have had this problem many times, but I did not realize that it was app problem with WP blogs.
Well, I will keep this page for future reference. Thanks
I wonder what’s the connection of Akismet plugin with that issue? though I never experience this thing. If ever, I will get back here and follow your tutorial, I’m sure it’ll work.
.-= Jenn´s last blog ..TRIPLE MEDICAL CELEBRATION: A BlogThing Game =-.
Blacklisting seems to be another possible cause for the “blank page after commenting” problem:
http://searchengineoptimizationplus.com/2008/09/15/submit-blog-comments-and-getting-a-blank-page
.-= Marketing Digital´s last blog ..20 Objetivos Para Uso De Mídias Sociais Dentro Da Sua Empresa =-.
I rarely get this (maybe because I read posts before commenting – lol). But I’m going to implement it on my blog.
Being thesis based, it’s going to be a little trickier to do – but a challenge is nice!
Ian
.-= Ian Brodie from Get Clients´s last blog ..Is it better to be Truthful, or Interesting? =-.
Well thats why i always thought why i am getting blank pages while commenting. I always thought it had to something with my comment. But even if i post a 1 line comment or 10 line , i got the same error in some blogs.
Akismet can really piss off your visitors.
.-= Ketin@tweetomatic Profiteer Review´s last blog ..Tweetomatic Profiteer Review – It is Live now =-.
great post thankyou for made this nice post my problem is solved coz i was have same prob in comments.php thanks alot.
now.. if only I could fix this on EVERYONE ELSES sites.. I’d be good.. I’m getting white screen here
.-= Peter Armenti´s last blog ..Can’t ignore Elgg anymore =-.
Great post – Askimet saves me hundreds of spam posts a day, so disabling it wasn’t an option for me either. I gave this a shot on a blog I manage for a client and it seems to have worked, so I appreciate you posting about it!
Perfect! I had this exact problem. Akismet is a no brainer with all the spammers around. Thank you for the “how-to”. – Rob.
Wow I have been trying to figure out this blank page for a while now, thanks for this fix, just what I have been looking for!
Blog commenting has been a major part of my SEO and I’ve had the blank comments page so many times. It never occurred to me it was Askimet related. Thanks for the info.
Hi Udegbunam,
You are very clever in detecting the problems regarding Akismet white page blacklisting method. So it means If we do comment on let’ say 5 to 10 blogs in a very short interval we will be see this white page? I hope I get your idea right.
Vinson
I had the same problem just recently and I had to reinstall my theme. That solved my problem:-)
Exactly what I was looking for – I’ve had this blank page so many times and thought it was just me. Many thanks, Rob.
Thanks. I have been very active lately in commenting on blogs and this has been a problem. There is nothing more frustrating than writing a lengthy comment relevant to the article and discussion and end up on a blank page.
I initially thought it was my computer but after several tries I realized it was askimet. I hope they clean up their act, they are damaging web 2.0
John
Now I know why sometime when I make a comment (to some other blogs), after submitting a long paragraph comment… blank page? Urrrggghhhh…(-_-*)… so thanks for this very useful post. Hopefully, those kind of blog site (which I submitted with long paragraph comment and redirected to a blank page) will read this so they can fix the problem.
It really doesn’t happen to me but I’m just curious still to find something for it.
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Very helful info, it fixed my wordpress issues.
That’s why I sometimes get the blank page after commenting. I thought it was my browser’s problem. Turns out it is Akismet.
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I don’t understand as well when the comments take me to a blank page, so you mean the comment was never even read by the blog owner? That sucks very bad, why would Akismet place a tag on people like that? This is like branding people as spammers! Even when they are not, so we are not allowed to comment on blog posts anymore? I don’t understand Akismet at all, but I know many people don’t like it.