Sequence of events
- I created a 'sliding door option for an Atahuapha site at
http://www.whiteravencenter.org/
almost a year ago, posted it here, and installed it on on other sites as well, like
http://www.raceskitrader.com/
- updated Wordpress to 3.0 for both sites- everything worked, including the sliding door menu, but
encountered problems on the White Raven site like others were having using Atahualpa with the
new 'draft post' features, came to this forum where it was suggested that AT 3.5.3 had solved
some things. (Running AT 3.4.9 at the time)
- installed AT 3.5.3 and immediately the sliding door menu disappeared.
- not acceptable, so rolled back to AT 3.4.9, sliding door menu still disappeared.
- rolled back to AT 3.4.1, still broken - sliding door menu still disappeared.

Not a WP 3.0 problem, since the code still works fine running 3.0 and AT 3.4.4 on the second site.
I've tried to compare the working site with the broken one, the code I added (entirely in AT supplied windows, core files never touched). looks identical.

I did do a backup, but my host doesn't provide phpMyAdmin installed, and I haven' had to install or use it in several years - not sure I remember how to do it and meanwhile the site is seriously crippled...

Please help! -- Jack

Is that a maintenance mode plugin running on the whiteravencenter site? I had trouble with one of those at one point. The ski race site did appear eventually for me just now.

I'd disable the maintenance mode plugin and any caching plugins you have running. I use WP-DB Manager plugin, so you could try installing that and doing a DB repair. Or hire Juggledad or Larry to help you. I know this is scary, but don't worry too much. Your stuff is all still there. Dump your browser cache too.

Yes maintenance mode is running.. sorry, I'll take it off for a bit but I don't want people trying to use it.

I've never had trouble with this maintenance mode plugin, no caching plugins.
Cleared the cache several times...

I also use WP-DB Manager and tried to do a repair. No change.

AT 3.5.3 installed on WP 3.0 did something to the database that I can't repair until I get a copy of phpMyAdmin installed (which my host, otherwise a perfect place to host all my sites, doesn't provide an installed phpMtAdmin) and I haven't done this installation for a couple of years and am going nuts getting it working.

There has to be some interaction between WP 3.0 and AT 3.5.3 that messed up my code added to the ATO panels in Style & Edit Header and Add HTML/CSS Inserts. The failure did not occur until I installed (using FileZilla) and activated AT 3.5.3

Jack

Remove or rename the atahualpa folder in the themes folder. This should cause the default theme to run again. If you install each version of atahualpa in it's own folder, you can swap back and forth.

Going from 3.4.9 to 3.5.3 doesn't do anything signafant to the db

Renaming folders is not the issue here - this site is running, it's just that since I first activated AT 3.5.3 to try to get around a WP 3.0/AT 3.4.9 problem, the custom header code I added a year ago through ATO panels suddenly disappeared.

The problem is I believe is some interaction between AT 3.5.3 new WP 3.0 scheme. All the rest of the site and all the plugins installed work fine - it's just my own menu solution that has worked for a year (and still works on a site I haven't upgraded to 3.5.3 yet) fails to get rendered and is replaced by a strange vertical menu. I have other sites that do not use my custom menu running AT 3.5.3 on WP 3.0 with no problems either...

The weird thing is that whatever AT 3.5.3 did when it was activated cannot be corrected by rolling back to previous releases of AT - (I've tried 3.4.1 and 3.4.9, both of which worked perfectly prior to touching 3.5.3, leading me to believe that AT 3.5.3 did something to the database that WP 3.0 was using. I'm struggling to recover my last database backup but am having other issues getting phpMyAdmin installed and working to try to fix whatever happened to the DB.. All in all, it's a mess and doesn't give me much confidence in either AT 3.5.3 - at least on WP 3.0, and you have sent any options in ATO that might have to do with menus.

Jack

First off that is not what I'd call a site down, problem with the way it's acting, yes, site down no.

Did you apply the menu bug fix that has been in the 'new versions' forum since Wp 3.0 came out?