The Culprit

The Culprit

Recently bluehost made an update to their “SimpleScripts” installer so that when you install WordPress, no matter what theme you’re using, your site gets a “Web Hosting Provided by Bluehost.com” footer advertisement.

This can be pretty aggravating at first, especially since it seems like the only way to remove the promotional message is by commenting out the wp_footer() call in your theme. (Bad idea, will break some plugins.)

Fortunately, the fix is pretty easy once you know where to look:

  1. Go into your WordPress admin page
  2. Click plugins from the sidebar
  3. Deactivate “SimpleScripts Footer

Shame on BlueHost for (a) forcing its clients to switch to SimpleScripts by not providing WP updates via Fantastico anymore, and (b) automatically installing and activating a plugin that ads a promotional message on the websites of paying customers.