In the earlier versions of WordPress, the only way to change it’s behavior was to change the core files of WordPress. That was never considered as safe and was never simple for those programers who didn’t have much experience with PHP/MySql. However, with newer versions, WordPress started supporting both plugins & themes and with that the need to play around with the core files diminished.
Till version 2.7.x, WordPress allowed the programers to make changes in the core behavior, in indirect way by allowing them to add functions in my-hacks.php file. This way it kept the core files safe. Although, after the release of WordPress 2.8 the support for this file has been discontinued. I believe that the move is absolutely correct as there weren’t many users of this particular feature and if at all any functionality needs to be added, it can be done through themes and plugins directly.
The good news is that those who are interested in keeping this feature can follow these simple solutions posted by Frank @ WPengineer. By the way, have you ever used this option or ever made use of my-hacks.php file?
What I am looking to do is similar. I am looking to have a static page as well as the blog appear on the main page of my wordpress site. Right now going to the settings section will only allow me to do one or the other. any feedback would be appreciated.
could you please give me a screenshot or something?
For now, I can only say – create a page by the name “blog” & as “home” – once done – go to settings and then select the “home” as static page & blog page as the blog page. It should work. Another thing that I can suggest you to do is …. upgrade the wordpress to latest version and then try to do the same.