Feb 10, 2008
Spam Attack and Problems with Ecto
Posting this in case it can be of help to anyone who experiences the same thing. Last weekend I noticed I was no longer able to post on my blog using Ecto, a program I’ve used for years now. I could go in the admin of my WordPress interface and post from there, but when I would try with Ecto, no go, always getting error messages like this: “parse error. not well formed.” At the same time, I was starting to get a very large amount of moderation notices — I’ve been using Spam Karma for years now, with pretty much no worries. Looking on my server, I noticed that all my WP files had been updated on the Friday night, which didn’t make sense, because I hadn’t done anything in months (like upgrading or installing plugins). I assumed it was something to do with my server, and after I opened a ticket, support (from host TextDrive, now part of Joyent) was able to resolve the problem, finally pointing me here, which is where you’ll find your answers. I simply upgraded my WP to the latest version and everything was fixed. For the spam, after I upgraded, I notice that the Spam Karma plugin was disabled. Since enabling it again, everything has been fine.
Also, for at least a month I also couldn’t use Ecto to post to the Cafe Pause or PauseTalk blogs, but never thought much of it. After upgrading the WP version for each, I was able to post again.
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
