The message "Please, do not access this page directly" can come from upgrading to 1.6 (or beyond) but not fully updating all the skins in your skins/skinname folder. Then again you're getting partial page delivery so that's probably not the key. Maybe it is, but maybe not. The funny thing here is that you're getting through _main.php enough to put up a post title, but going into the post content (<div class="bText">) is where you're getting killed.

I can't imagine it's coming from deleting spam!

So how long have you been running 1.6 and are you absolutely certain the blog worked before nailing spammers and failed to work immediately after that?

I've been running 1.6 for LONG LONG time now and I've not done anything else to it. Deleting was just the last time I checked it and knew it was fine.
That skin has been working fine for quite awhile now.

Would it help to reinstall do you think?

Oops. Forgot to get back to you on this.

So re-installing bits and pieces is a good idea. Can you get into your admin area? If so that tells us the problem is not in some places. I'd start with your skins/skinname folder, then move up to the files in the skins folder. In fact uploading a fresh copy of 'custom' then changing your skin to 'custom' in the back office is a really good idea. In other words lets get a plain jane skin working first. If you can't get to your admin area then I'd be thinking about the admin and evocore folders as the best first shot.

Either way, don't do it from your local copies as they might be broken in some way. Grab a brand new zip of your version and unzip it on your PC, then delete the files you want to replace from your server, then upload the brand new copies you just unzipped.

Okay I've tried reinstalling the admin and evocore files. No go. I notice that I have a b2evocore folder on my server but not in the fresh download. That may be from when I attempted awhile back to roll back my version and it wouldn't work. Should I delete that? I can't access my admin area either.

The b2evocore folder doesn't exist in the 1.6 version, so I'm guessing that when you upgraded you didn't delete everything from your server and install the new version. Dunno if that's related, but since you're on 1.6 now you don't need the b2evolution folder.

Yeah: going backwards doesn't work - as you figured out eh?

In any event I would suggest deleting everything from your server except your media and conf folders, and your skins/yourskin folder. Backup your conf and skins/yourskin folders, then delete them from your server. Now open conf/_config.php from your new files and old so you can copy the database connection info from the old to the new. Also your $baseurl and $admin_email, then change $config_is_done to a 1. Now upload all the files for version 1.6 to your server and run the installer. yourdomain.com/install/ or yourdomain.com/install/install.php - I forget which will work. Tell it you are upgrading an existing blog. It should be done instantly - do this just to make sure.

Now see if you can access your blog in the 'custom' skin.

Now upload your skins/yourskin folder and hope for the best.

We would still have the problem of your blog working up until you deleted spams, even though I can't imagine any reason why deleting spams would cause the blog to not work.

EdB wrote:

Now upload all the files for version 1.6 to your server and run the installer. yourdomain.com/install/ or yourdomain.com/install/install.php - I forget which will work. Tell it you are upgrading an existing blog. It should be done instantly - do this just to make sure.

When I try this it keeps reloading the page and resetting to NEW INSTALL.

I'm only working on 3 hours of sleep so maybe I'm missing something.

Get some sleep if the world allows it, then double-check that your conf/_config.php file config is done set to 1:

/**
 * Once you have edited this file to your settings, set the following to 1 (one):
 */
$config_is_done = 0;

I'm guessing at this though. I see where you get stuck in the silly loop. Like it doesn't want to do the upgrade from 1.6 to 1.6. I've never tried that so I can't be much more help right now, but I'll try to dig into the code a bit and see what I can figure out.

Anybody else got a clue here?

I got a little more sleep ;)

It is set to 1, just checked it.

In that install it says if I want to start new to let it delete the tables. Will that delete my posts as well???

Yes, which is why you want to tell it that you are upgrading.

Still looking into why it keeps looping on you....

Okay I give up. I barely understand how the installer does it's thing and can't figure out why it would decide to loop around on you like that.

Do you have a backup of your database? If not I would suggest making one. Two really. Using cpanel, if your host has that for you, you can use the 'backup' feature. With my host it's the only way to restore the entire database in one shot. ALSO use phpmyadmin and then 'export' (checking 'select all' and 'save as file') the database so that you can restore bits and pieces of it if need be.

You might also want to take a peek inside your evo_settings table and see what your db_version is just to see. Might be a helpful hint. Might not too, but it might be.

Okay I've done both backups.

I'm not sure where to see the db version so I took a screenshot
www.foreverpurple.com/evosettings.jpg

Now that I've done the back up do I do a new install??

Should I try the new install of 1.6 or try to upgrade to 1.8???

Man I gotta start paying attention better.

First off, to see your version you would have to click on the "browse" button on the page you made into a screenshot. That page shows the format of the table. Browsing it will show the content. Anyway we want to fix your blog is the thing, so let's go there.

I see where your blog tells me you don't have the "clean" skin installed, so it looks like you're making progress. I can't tell what version you're trying, and I can't tell what version your db is set to, so it's kinda hard to get going here.

Knowing you have your database backed up is a good thing! It might take a fairly big amount of work, but as long as you have the backup of the database you'll be able to get all your old posts and comments restored. The thing is jumping from 0.9.* to 1.* is a major leap for the database.

We can continue this in PM if you want as I think it'll take a bit more than you should be publicly sharing. Else you have to go to your back office and pick a skin for your blog from the existing list. Then I will be able to know your version, and possibly help get 'er going again.

Ed after I posted this I was talking to my host... he found an error in my config file where the dbuser was typo-ed! The only thing I can figure is that I was editing something else (what I have NO IDEA) and had my cursor in the wrong place and goofed it.

Anyhow he was able to get me back on track and I have to reinstall my theme.

Hooray for typos that get corrected!!!