[solved] Lost categories while skinning - what did I do?

Do you have the Category block turned on? That's in ADMIN->BLOCK->Categories

Do you have it set to Show on the Index only? (Your other choices in this pull-down is Inactive or Active)
You could also click on the Options link next to it and select if you want 1 column or multiple columns; there is also a Default or Use .TPL if default doesn't work try Use TPL

Category block is definitely turned on.  It is set to Index only, as well.

I tried 'use.tpl' as well, but nothing happens; the exact same issue is present; the categories block remains stubbornly empty on my front page.

If you want to take a look at it yourself, there's a test account: username is test, and password is password.

You may have to tweak in the index.tpl or header.tpl depending of if you modified one of the skins that are around here. For instance in your Soul skin,

You have in the index.tpl:

  <div class="block">
      	<div class="tl"><div class="tr">
<div class="title">Categories</div>
</div></div>
       	<div class="content"></div>
       </div>

But it should be something like:

  <div class="block">
      <div class="tl"><div class="tr">
<div class="title">Categories</div>
</div></div>
      <div class="content">{categories_content}</div>
      </div>

I think that will fix the problem where the class for the ="content" you need to put {categories_content} in that div tag.

Hokay, I think we're getting to the heart of it now.  I checked out what you mentioned there, and ... I swear I haven't changed anything, but it's exactly as you said it should be.  categories_content is definitely in there, but does not show up on-site.

Have I maybe somehow messed with the place categories_content pulls its code from?

Check the Variables.php file that is in your skins folder. A typical variables.php will look like this:

<?php
$blocks["categories"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks["featured"]["status"] =  '0';
$blocks["info"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks["menu"]["status"] = '1';
$blocks["menu"]["content"] = array (
  0 => 'home',
  1 => 'recent',
  2 => 'authors',
  3 => 'catslink',
  4 => 'titles',
  5 => 'series',
  6 => 'search',
  7 => 'tens',
  8 => 'challenges',
  9 => 'help',
  10 => 'contactus',
  11 => 'login',
  12 => 'logout',
  13 => 'adminarea');
$blocks["menu"]["style"] = 1;
$blocks["login"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks["random"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks["recent"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks['recent']['tpl'] = 0;
$blocks["skinchange"]["status"] = '1';
$blocks["news"]["status"] = 2;
?>

You might have to change the part that says:
$blocks["categories"]["status"] = 2;

to

$blocks["categories"]["status"] = 1;

Tried it -- hoped for the best, but alas. :<

This is what my variables looks like.  Looking through it, I changed the categories/column line to =1;, but there was no change there so I put it back to 0 like I found it.

<?php
$blocks["categories"]["status"] = 1;
$blocks["categories"]["template"] = "{image} {link} [{count}]";
$blocks["categories"]["columns"] = 0;
$blocks["featured"]["status"] =  '0';
$blocks["info"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks["menu"]["status"] = '1';
$blocks["menu"]["content"] = array (
0 => 'home',
1 => 'about_link',
2 => 'browse',
3 => 'electric',
4 => 'shounen');
$blocks["menu"]["style"] = 0;
$blocks["footermenu"] = array(
"title" => "", 
"status" => "1", 
"file" => "menu/menu.php", 
"style" => 0, 
"content" => array (
0 => 'adminarea', 
1 => 'login', 
2 => 'logout',
3 => 'contactus'
)
);
$blocks["login"]["status"] = 1;
$blocks['login']['acctlink'] = 0;
unset($blocks["login"]["template"]);
$blocks["login"]["form"] = 1; // Long form with register and lost password options
$blocks["random"]["status"] = 0;
$blocks["recent"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks["recent"]["tpl"] = 1;
$blocks["skinchange"]["status"] = '1';
$blocks["news"]["status"] = 2;
$blocks['news']['num'] = 3;
$new = "<span class='new'>New!</span>";
$displayprofile = 0;
$linkstyle = 0;
$displayindex = 1;
?>

Change:

$blocks["categories"]["columns"] = 0;

to

$blocks["categories"]["columns"] =1;

Okay, it's there but categories still aren't showing up.  Is there a global variable setting somewhere that is overriding it somewhere?

Try changing the Category status back from 1 to 2. Truthfully I'm never sure what those numbers mean. Also check in your admin settings that you gave categories a number (Adimin->Settings->Display Settings->Number of Columns) make sure it's not set to 0 or it won't show anything put at least 1 in there and it should show up on your skin. Are you sure in ADMIN->Settings->SITE SETTINGS that for Categories you have it set to More than 1. Just changing the variables might not be enough.

SOLUTION BELOW:

ADMIN->Settings->SITE SETTINGS->CATEGORY Make sure you select MORE THAN ONE. I just tested it by selecting ONLY ONE and my categories didn't show up on the front page. (They did show up under Browse->Category).

Oh my god, that did it -- I feel completely silly!  I was certain I'd done something huge ... thank you so much, babaca!  You're a lifesaver! ♥

I'm glad that we got it sorted out. Sometimes it is the little things that cause all the trouble.  👿