wtf?

Some of you may have noticed that comments on recent posts have gone missing. If you haven’t noticed, I sure as hell have. Posts since November 2009 that had comments still say that they do in the meta-link at the top of the post (e.g. “2 comments,” etc.), but those comments just don’t appear at the end of the post.

I don’t know what the hell is wrong. At the moment, I cannot summon the fortitude to spend more time slogging through the WordPress support forums and troubleshooting possible fixes. I’ve just recently done many hours of that after upgrading to PHP 5, and the resultant day and a half when all my blog content was AWOL.

If it’s at all reassuring, I can tell recent commenters this:

1. I am quite sure that your comments are not irretrievably gone. Like the rest of a WordPress site’s content, they are stored in a MySQL database that underpins the site framework. Comparing the current wp_comments table in the database with a version that was backed up before this snafu, I see no appreciable difference. So it has to be a matter of mending some connective piece of code.
2. I’ve submitted test comments in the meantime to see if they stay posted, and they do. So don’t let the search and rescue operation for the previous comments discourage you from commenting now, if you’re inclined to do so.

Perhaps none of you give a shit about any of this, and this is the driest post I’ve ever written. Indeed, I may actually be trying to reassure myself: I’m always pleading and cajoling people to comment on my posts, and now those comments that have been submitted recently have disappeared with an audible “pop!” Not the kind of thing that encourages more comments.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Words of encouragement? Leave a comment!

[*rim shot*]