I googled around, but it looked like most of the spam-fighting functionality was added after my version (0.11). While in Yosemite, I took a couple hours to upgrade it to the latest version, 0.18, and install captchas. We shall see if this stems the tide of robots. I think it will be a temporary fix, at best.

I wasted no time upgrading this site to WordPress 3.3, but no fun format box. I poked around at options and Googled, to no avail. Most suggestions seemed to revolve around some browser problem, but I could see it on the other site, plain as day, so my browser was obviously capable of displaying it.

For lack of a better idea, I started grepping. I used Firebug to get the id attribute (“formatdiv”), figuring there would be a finite number of instances in the code. Indeed, there was exactly one. It was in wp-admin/edit-form-advanced.php. There were two relevant lines:
if ( current_theme_supports( 'post-formats' ) && post_type_supports( $post_type, 'post-formats' ) )
    add_meta_box( 'formatdiv', _x( 'Format', 'post format' ), 'post_format_meta_box', null, 'side', 'core' );


This alerted me that it was a problem with the theme, which unsurprising considering that I’m still using a customized version of the 2009 default theme. I knew it worked in the latest theme, twentyeleven, so I went to that directory and grepped for ‘format’ and braced myself for the worst. Once I eliminated the CSS files, it was easy to hone in on line 104 of functions.php
add_theme_support( 'post-formats', array( 'aside', 'link', 'gallery', 'status', 'quote', 'image' ) );

This takes place in a function called setup. I went over to my theme and looked for a similar function in the functions.php file. It did not have one. I pasted it in toward the middle of the file and hoped for the best. The format box appeared like magic. I haven’t actually tinkered with it yet, but I wanted to write up my experiences – before I forget them – so that someone else with an old theme can bring some new magic into their WordPress experience.

A day or two later, it was off again. I eventually figured out what it was:

The causes of the outages

Penny likes to sit atop the UPS. The newest member of our family likes to swat at Penny. Apparently, sometimes she hits the UPS power button instead.

I taped some cardboard over the button. I do not anticipate any further outages.

I upgraded this blog to WordPress 2.9, as well as making minor template changes. My plugin appears to be working with the new version – as I expected it would.

On kjcoop.com, I’m threatening to retool my portfolio, but I’m finding it difficult to toe the line between, “Be thorough and honest” and “Don’t tell your life’s story.” Maybe I’ll just go ahead and tell my life’s story. It’s bound to be interesting since I’m such an interesting person.