Starting blog view count problem
Design and Skin Customization
Agreed, if you put it in exactly the same file in exactly the same place then it should work exactly the same.
That the {debug} is not opening suggests that the edit has not taken effect. Try resetting the caches
ACP -> MODULES -> CORE -> SYSTEM CORE -> TOOLS -> RESET CACHE
then check the page again. You might have to click a button in firefox "allow popups from this site" which will appear in the top right if you have popup blocker setting on which is usually the default.
Maybe also try adding some text "Here is some text so I can see the file has changed Avacardo, Apples, Whatever".
If you CAN see the text then you know the {debug} is in there too.