Foolish me. Wordpress has no phone support. Let me say that again because it is so astounding: Wordpress has no phone support. Their "tips" page covers problems that are very common but not problems complicated. For that you have to fill in a form (if you can find the page with the form) and they will read that and reply someday. Given the way that sort of thing works, you could go back and forth for a week to solve something a ten-minute phone call would fix.

But that assumes the fill-in-the-form thing actually works. When I tried it, I discovered a notice to the effect that the staff was away until September 19 (ten days from the date of my problem) and in the meantime, no tech support other than that they would "check in" at some forum once in a while. Let me say that again because it is so astounding: Wordpress' entire tech support team was missing in action for ten days. (At least ten days; I don't know how long that notice had been up there.)

What kind of company refuses to talk to customers and then sends its entire support staff away for (at least) ten days?

I picked up the phone, called GoDaddy, and lined up blogs with their Quick Blogcast system. Yes, I have to pay. But I'm a professional with several businesses here and I need business-quality support, not whatever is OK for teenagers and their online diaries. And GoDaddy tech support is a phone call away, doesn't live in India, and sits staring at their phones 24/7. Bob Parsons (GoDaddy Maximum Leader) knows that phone-based tech support is expensive, but he hires people anyway. Americans. And whenever I talk to other webbies and the topic of GoDaddy comes up, the one thing they always mention is the excellent 24/7 telephone support.

I'm still shaking my head. I have spent 25 years writing about business and I can vouch for the fact that some business people could not walk and chew gum at the same time. But just when I think I've seen it all....