Problem: You’ve finally found a theme you like but you want to modify it. The modifications are pretty simple but what happens when you want to upgrade the theme? Do you really want to go through all those files again hunting down the changes? Don’t you wish you could just upgrade and be done with it?

So, basically, install the theme you want, create a new theme directory for you modifications, and in the style.css file, which defines the metainfo for the style, designate the original (unedited) theme as the template.  If need be, use functions.php to make more modifications.  Just note that any template files in your own version’s directory beyond style.css and functions.php will be ignored.

When it comes time to upgrade the theme, you upgrade the “parent” theme and your modifications are unchanged in their own directory.

There seems to be two kinds of hackery going on, just like I’ve described:

1. Inserting “invisible” HTML full of links (for NSFW sites) into your WP template that isn’t obvious when you go to your blog, but is VERY obvious when you look at the source code (and start seeing that you’re getting traffic for some “peculiar” terms).

2. Inserting whole new source code / new sneaky themes that copy other blogs / content *exactly*, which is full of spammy content and affiliate links.

(Vulnerable WordPress Blogs Not Being Indexed > Massive Blog Hackery Exposed > TailRank Exposes Massive Number of Blogs Hacked) It seems like if you’re running WordPress, it’s advisable to upgrade to 2.5 (which was relatively painless) as well as checking the actual code of your theme…