My wordpress website has been taken over (hacked??) by an ad!

karentabornwalkingharlem · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 4:35 pm
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I visited my website this morning and everything was there … 2.5 years of carefully posted data and photos. Then when I returned shortly, again this morning, everything was gone except my top photo image and right side photo! In place of my uploads was a single ad that I have nothing to do with whatsoever!! Help!
themagicrobot · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 6:05 pm
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Are you talking about https://karentabornwalkingharlem.wordpress.com/ or some other site?
karentabornwalkingharlem · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 7:04 pm
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Hi Magiccrobot. Y

Yes I’m referring to my karentabornwalkingharlem.wordpress.com website. Do you have any suggestion for me to fix this? Thank you!

Karen
themagicrobot · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 8:05 pm
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This thread has been tagged to ask a member of staff to have a look and see what recent changes have been made to that site. Have you maybe deleted a menu that reached other pages?
staartmees · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 8:12 pm
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To know more about sponsored posts, https://wordpress.com/support/native-sponsored-posts/
justjennifer · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 8:22 pm
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Hi there, Google’s cache of the site is showing something very different
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:4Cn3IQd7ue8J:https://karentabornwalkingharlem.wordpress.com/

I can’t even bring up that post by searching for the 2017 archive. I get “Page not found.”

Let’s wait for Staff to reply. Sponsored posts is a new feature, but it shouldn’t be interfering with existing content!!
themagicrobot · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 8:28 pm
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If “sponsored posts” is the future for free sites it looks like I’ll be moving on.
staff-totoro · Staff · Dec 24, 2020 at 9:58 pm
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Hi @karentabornwalkingharlem

Is the missing content found in your “Walking Harlem” post listed here? https://wordpress.com/posts/drafts/kathleenevanshorn.wordpress.com

To explain, when you set your blog post to “draft” it is no longer shown to the public on your homepage. Instead you will see a “demo post” that we place there (otherwise there would be just an empty page) which is why you see a mysterious “sponsored post” instead.

You can restore the Walking Harlem content (and remove the sponsored post) on your site by editing it at this link: https://wordpress.com/post/karentabornwalkingharlem.wordpress.com/4

Once you are on that page, please click the “publish’ button at the top right, and then you well see the content restored to your site homepage.

Hope this helps!
staff-totoro · Staff · Dec 24, 2020 at 10:03 pm
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Howdy @themagicrobot, about this:

If “sponsored posts” is the future for free sites it looks like I’ll be moving on.

That is only shown if the site owner has set up a blog page, but has not actually published any blog posts yet. As long as one post is published on the site, this sponsored post is not shown.
karentabornwalkingharlem · Member · Dec 24, 2020 at 10:06 pm
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Oh my GOODNESS! It all reappeared!! I thank you all so much!!

Now, I’ll need to print out what you’ve said here. So if this every happens again, all I do is click the “publish” button at the top right!!!

Have a lovely holiday all !!!
And Thank you!!

Karen
justjennifer · Member · Dec 25, 2020 at 7:08 am
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Thanks for the additional explanations, @jerrysarcastic

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