Wordpress 2.5 has a bug in that wordpress/feed/ will work fine and wordpress/wp-rss2.php will not work. This is a problem when you use Permalinks for your blog URLs. You set this up in your admin settings -> Permalinks.
Wordpress Permalinks Setup ScreenThe RSS feed is really important to the success of your blog, but the latest Wordpress breaks your RSS feed. This is bad if you have subscribers because they cannot see your latest posts. In fact, I had all my subscribers give up on me and they can no longer subscribe. 
I have tried and tried to fix this problem for almost 3 weeks. I finally gave up yesterday and posted a tweet about it. A nice person on Twitter found my post and encouraged me to go on.
PHP Code to Update
Based on my research from this last weekend was that the problem was not mine. It is a bug in WP 2.5.1 and possibly 2.5 You can find the beginning fix at the Wordpress Trac page regarding this error. You need to be a rather confident geek to update two files in your wp-includes folder of your blog. These files are the /wp-includes/rewrite.php and /wp-includes/version.php You can find the updates on the above link. The code in pink is the naughty code and the fixes are in green. I have taken some screen shots of the new code.
Wordpress 2.5 RSS fix 1 for rewrite.php
Wordpress 2.5 RSS fix 2 for version.phpOnce you fix this code, make sure the pages are saved to your wp-includes folder.
Reload your blog admin and you will be asked to update your database. Don’t be afraid… it’s supposed to do that.
.htaccess File
You should also have an .htaccess file at the root of your blog. The following is the code that should be in this file:
# BEGIN WordPress RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /WordPress/ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /WordPress/index.php [L] # END WordPress
Warning: If you already have an .htaccess file, make sure the current code stays in that file! Just append the above code to the current code.
Wordpress & Feedburner
To enable a “burned” feed, you need to first set up a Feedburner account that knows where your RSS feed is located. You will probably want to enter http://www.yourblog.org/feed/ as your blog’s feed. (Replace www.yourblog.org with your own URL).
You will want to use a Wordpress plugin to enable your blog’s burned feed. I have found that the Wordpress Feedburner plugin that works best is found right on Google’s web site. Instructions on how to enable this plugin are found on the plugin’s site.
Sit Back and Let the Subscribers “Roll in”
Once you have enabled a burned (Feedburner) feed, people are much more likely to find your blog. So good luck and let me know if my solution works for you.
One Comment
Actually, quite frankly, the commentary is more interesting messages themselves. (Not to insult the author, of course:))