Apache is a great webserver… but it doesn’t seem to report errors when you use .htaccess directives. At least for me it doesn’t.

I was closing some holes, so the site can go into production, including password protecting sensitive areas of the site. Could not get the password box to show up. Always 500: Config error.

Eventually I figured out that I needed AuthType Basic in the mix of directives as well. I’m surprised that some of the areas worked for so long without it, but then when I try today it doesn’t.

Oh, and PHP that doesn’t spit back error messages is no fun either. That’s what’s holding up the roll-out right now: getting the internal forums working.

Gah.