WordPress Comments Blank Page Problem

After the recent WordPress 2.9.2 update I noticed that the comments within this blog stopped working – I have since noticed the same problem across a few other self-hosted wordpress sites.

The problem comes about after a user has posted a comment to an article and then they are greeted by a blank screen from the wp-comments-post.php – seems at first the page just won’t redirect back to the original post.

So, I checked the database to see if the actual comment was being inserted – it wasn’t – which meant the script was bombing out before it reached the database part of the script.

Next I checked out the official wordpress support site to see if anybody else had similar problems. Seems there has been a few people out there with the same sort of trouble (http://wordpress.org/support/topic/288615)

Now, going through the threads I tried all the various advice & help

• I modified my wp_comments table and also ran a repair – it didn’t work
• I readjusted my redirect_to form value – it didn’t work
• switched back to Default theme instead of the custom NSM one I have – it didn’t work
• I disabled Askimet – it worked

Now I’m in a conundrum. With no spam protection the bots would have a field day – so, I’ve decided to give Defensio a chance to see how it does.

But what is still bugging me is why has my Askimet plugin decided to act in this way? Is it WordPress? Has Askimet just decided to go total 100% on spam and just disabled my comments?

Perhaps, I’ll never know.