Now Reading
WordPress News: 650,000 WP 2.7 Downloads, BuddyPress, Theme Threat, Schwag, and More

WordPress News: 650,000 WP 2.7 Downloads, BuddyPress, Theme Threat, Schwag, and More

WordPress 2.7 downloads now past 650,000. Poll out for WordPress 2.8 input. Possible WordPress Theme threat you need to know about. BuddyPress beta released. Imagine moving millions of Typepad blogs to WordPress? Want some WordPress schwag? WordCamps coming up in January – are you going to a WordCamp near you? And if the weather permits, and electricity holds, we’ve got more WordPress news for you!

WordPress News

Get Ready for WordPress 2.8: Already work is ongoing for WordPress 2.8 and WordPress wants your feedback. In “Prioritizing Features for WordPress 2.8,” Jane Wells invites people to take a poll on what are the top priorities WordPress developers should be putting their energy into. Currently, they are focused on WordPress Widget management, automatic Theme updates and installs, and performance improvements. The poll features the most popular features requests from the Ideas forum and more that the WordPress developers want to work on. Vote by noon on December 31 to have your say in what you want to see in WordPress 2.8.

Half-Million Downloads of WordPress 2.7 and Growing: Last week, there were 500,000 WordPress 2.7 Downloads and Miroslav Glavic caught the rollover of the counter. As I write this, there are now 654,434 downloads, moving fast for 1 million. Bets are on Twitter as to when one million downloads will be counted on the counter. There is now the WordPress Download Counter which adds a counter to your blog’s sidebar featuring the number of official WordPress version downloads from the WordPress Download Counter for WordPress fan blogs.

Friendster Moves Millions of Blogs from Typepad to WordPressMU: Matt Mullenweg and the WordPress Publisher Blog have switched “millions of blogs from Typepad to WordPress” to .

WordPress Theme Intruder Reported: A lot of people are reporting notifications from their web hosts regarding the remv.php file creating malicious behavior on your WordPress blog. Jason Cosper offers a good step-by-step tutorial and Ronald Davies has a video tutorial on how to remove this malicious file from your WordPress Theme folder. After removal of the file from your server via FTP, update your site immediately to WordPress 2.7. For more information, see these discussions on the WordPress Support Forums: Blog hacked, host said to upgrade and WTF is remv.php in wp-content/themes folder.

BuddyPress Released First Beta: The first beta, BuddyPress 1.0b1 Components, of the eagerly anticipated new social media integrated WordPress Theme for sites is out and bug testing is ongoing. Feedback is appreciated. Bava Tuesdays offers “Integrating WPMu, BuddyPress, and bbPress” as a guide to help those interested in using the version of WordPress with the new BuddyPress social media Theme and bbPress forums.

Exploring WordPress 2.7 Theme and Administration Panels: Mastering Your WordPress 2.7 Theme and Admin Area: Tips and Tricks features a variety of techniques for the new WordPress 2.7 interface including enhanced comment display, post sticky, post classes, logout links, keyboard shortcuts for comments and browsing, the new comments panel, Plugin administration, Dashboard modules, Quick Edit options, bulk edit posts, and more.

Haven’t You Upgraded to WordPress 2.7 Yet? For information on upgrading to WordPress 2.7, see WordPress 2.7 Release News and Links. If you are worried about whether or not WordPress 2.7 will work with your server, Themes or Plugins, see:

WordPress Buttons, Stickers and Tattoos: Maya Desai of Automattic is offering WordPress Schwag for anyone who wants it. It’s for a limited time only. Check out the WordPress logo tattoos!

The Ghosts of WordPress Past: Ozh released “A Journey Through Five Years of WordPress Interface” and Peter Westwood brought back memories with “Useless graphs (What went before),” each showing us their view on the history of WordPress.

Fake WordPress Malicious Site: I’ve heard that some people aren’t getting the news, so spread it. Look out for a fake WordPress site. Wordpresz.org looks like the site but isn’t. The version of WordPress you download has malicious code in the download that opens a backdoor to your blog. If you upgraded WordPress to 2.6.4, you are running a fake version. There is no WordPress 2.6.4. The latest version is WordPress 2.7, and in the 2.6 line, it is 2.6.5, skipping 2.6.4 due to this threat.

Don’t Let WordPress in Your Domain Name: Do you use “wordpress” in your blog’s domain name? This is in violation of the WordPress trademark. If you find a site using WordPress in their domain name, remind them of the trademark rules so they won’t be asked later to remove it.

The WordPress Podcast: Episode 48: WordPress 2.6.5 released, Mark Jaquith on 2.7, WordPress Direct controversy is the latest episode by Charles Stricklin and Jonathan Bailey and features those topics and interview, as well as security issues, Project Icon, and more.

WordCast Podcast: The last two episodes of the year are WordCast 39: Longer than a list of Madonna’s ex-boyfriends and WordCast 40: And a happy new year!. In the first episode, Jonathan Bailey joins the crew to talk about WordPress 2.7, global Gravatars integrated into WordPress.com, and more WordPress news.

WordPress Weekly Podcast: Last week’s episode with Matt Mullenweg has been mostly transcribed. This week’s episode, WordPress Gone Social – BuddyPress, featured Andy Pealty of the BuddyPress project for , and more WordPress news and tips.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Awesome, WordPress.com 5 Million, Plugins Updated, and WordCamp News.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordPress Events CalendarWordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar.

Upcoming WordCamps not scheduled or confirmed:

Upcoming WordCamp and WordPress Event News

WordCamp Las Vegas on a Roll: WordCamp Las Vegas is the first WordCamp of the new year and the line up of speakers is great. There is a WordCamp Las Vegas Live Stream you can register for to watch the event live. WordCamp Las Vegas now has banners and badges available to help promote the event. WordCamp Las Vegas is also merging with the Las Vegas WordPress Meetup Group and Vegas Tweetup for a “meetup-mashup” the evening after the WordCamp event at 5:30PM on January 10, 2009, and calling it the Happy Hour after WordCamp Las Vegas.

WordCamp Las Vegas

WordCamp Whistler – Geeks Ski! WordCamp Whistler January 24, 2009, will be announcing that they’ve sealed a deal with a hotel and facility with a great discount rate. Register now to ensure you get the discount. They are also seeking sponsors for this incredible WordCamp, a mix of skiing, photography, and WordPress. It is set in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world. There is now a Facebook event set for those wanting to sign up, as well as a WordCamp Whistler Barcamp Page or their new official site, WordCamp Whistler.

WordCamp Whistler

Learn the Lessons of Content Publishing: New York WordPress Meetup Group will meetin on January 20, 2009, with the meeting topic to be “WordPress as a CMS: The Strategy of Content Publishing.”

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic: The University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center has been set for the first ever WordCamp Mid-Atlantic covering Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia areas on May 16, 2009. You can register now at their WordCamp Mid-Atlantic Facebook.

Chicago WordPress Meetup: The Chicago WordPress January Meetup on January 24, 2009, will feature a Q&A session on “Who uses WordPress” with everyone invited to share why they use WordPress.

WordCamp Columbus, Ohio: WordCamp Columbus is set for May 16, 2009. The Twitter account is @WordCampColumbus. WordCamp Columbus has announced that since WordCamp Mid-Atlantic is scheduled for the same date, and Matt Mullenweg will be speaking there, his keynote will be streamed to attendees of WordCamp Columbus so no one will miss the “state of the word” by the founder of WordPress. Noel Jackson, designer of the Monotone WordPress Theme, and Nick Momrick, speaking about WordPress.com, will be noted speakers at the event. Registration is $20 and will be open soon.

WordCamp Columbus

WordCamp Chicago: WordCamp Chicago is now set for June 6-7, 2009, in the windy city. The Chicago WordPress December Meetup is scheduled for December 23, 2008. There is also a WordCamp Chicago Facebook page.

WordCampED: WordCamp Education Vancouver 2009 is scheduled in Vancouver, BC, for February 19, 2009, on the UBC Main Campus in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. They are currently looking for speakers and those interested in attending this educational based WordPress event.

Attention WordPress Lovers in New Jersey: The new The New Jersey WordPress Meetup Group will be meeting January 7, 2009, in Belmar, New Jersey, at 7PM at the WebDevStudios.com office. Get help with WordPress, upgrading to WordPress 2.7, and learn about exciting WordPress Plugins and what’s going on in Jersey with WordPress.

WordCamp San Francisco 2009 Announced: Matt Mullenweg has announced the date for WordCamp San Francisco 2009 for May 30, 2009, at the Mission Bay Conference Center. There is also a Upcoming Event page set up.

WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere

See Also
YouTube features for Content Creators

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

WordPress Plugins DatabaseReviewing WordPress Plugins Once a Week: has restarted it’s Plugin Review with an invitation to all WordPress Plugin authors and lovers to submit their WordPress Plugins to be reviewed over the next year. Starting January 4, 2009, they will be reviewing one Plugin a week as their Featured Plugin.

Parent/Child Theme Building: How to Make a “Child Theme” for WordPress is a good tutorial on building a WordPress Theme based upon the new parent/child Theme development in WordPress 2.7. See also Frameworks, Child Themes, Filters, and Hooks?

Why Build a WordPress Theme Framework? Why I Created a WordPress Theme Framework by Justin Tadlock gives one developer’s strong perspective on the reasons behind development of a strong framework for a WordPress Theme, literally, creating a canvas upon which to build WordPress Themes. His tips are worth considering if you are going to design WordPress Themes for the public.

Video Framework for WordPressMU: has released the WordPress Video Solution Framework WordPress Plugin, part of the API framework package to support uploading video to WordPressMU sites. It’s only the framework, not a specific MU Plugin, and supports video solutions. For those who are working on developing WordPressMU, there is a lot you can learn about how this works with transcoder and administration interface utilities and PHP code.

Pushing Pages in WordPress: In Using WordPress Pages Differently, Abhijit Nadgouda discusses moving beyond the limitations of the pseudo-static Pages of WordPress to managing the Page content independently outside of the WordPress loop from inside the Administration Panels and not from within the template files. It’s an interesting step towards a Plugin worth exploring.

Check WordPress Theme and Plugin Compatibility with WordPress 2.7: If you are a WordPress Plugin or Theme author, and your Theme or Plugin will work with the new version, there are two things you must do NOW:

  1. Check to see if it is listed in the on WordPress 2.7 Plugin Compatibility and WordPress 2.7 Theme Compatibility. Users will check there before upgrading, so make sure you are on the list.
  2. Go to the WordPress Plugin Directory and other services and sites hosting your Plugin and update the information to show that it is compatible with WordPress 2.7, or not.

Installing WordPressMU EBook: Andrea Rennick of WPMU Tutorials has just published Installing WordPressMU – The E-Book, a guide to helping you install the popular multi-blog version of WordPress called . The book is available in PDF form for free download.

WordPress Functions Implementation History: Along with other looks back at history, Ozh offers the WordPress Functions Implementation History Tool for a look at the changes and options for WordPress functions for coders. It’s important to know when a function is deprecated and introduced so you can maintain Plugins and Themes through the various WordPress versions and also include some backwards compatibility, if available. This has been updated now to include WordPress 2.7.

Interesting WordPress Plugins:

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

WordPress.com News

WordPress.com W logoNew WordPress.com Support Site and Holiday Hours: Heather of the WordPress.com Support Team published “Support Updates: New Resources, Holiday Hours” with the news that the new help pages for WordPress.com support are now available featuring a knowledge-based style with overviews features and tasks. The announcement also comes with news of the support hours during the holiday.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

WordPress Tips on Twitter: I’ve started sharing WordPress Tips I’ve collected over the past couple years on Twitter at @lorelleonwp. I’ll be posting one WordPress tip link every morning (PST) covering recent versions of WordPress and WordPress usages and features. NOTE: December 25 and January 1, I’ll be posting 10 WordPress Tips for each day.

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Community News

WordPress Community graphicThings You Need to Know in the WordPress Community:

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

WordPress News Sources

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.


Each week, the features WordPress News, a weekly column by featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact her at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

View Comments (15)
  • Thanks for this update, Lorelle. I find it interesting that WordPress recently released 2.7 and now things for 2.8 are already gaining speed. If this pace keeps up, we may all be updating our WordPress version on a daily basis. Luckily. it only takes a couple of minutes.

    • Oh, no, WordPress 2.8 is a long way off, but work continues on all the versions all the time. :D Don’t worry. With the new auto upgrade feature, it will take less than a couple of minutes to upgrade your blog. With WordPress.com, though, you don’t even have to worry about that. It’s done for you.

      Luckily, other than a few minor tweaks, the development team has said repeatedly that the new interface will not change for a while.

  • I will try to get the 1,000,000 screenshot….Lorelle I challenge you to a duel.
    Who can get the screenshot closest to a million but can’t be under a million.
    If I win, you bake me cookies…….for some reason after the whole 48 hours with family holiday stuff and boxing day I have an urge for cookies.
    I noticed that the counter has slowed down.
    How would I go about finding out what is the highest the counter has gone up to? I know it gets reset every version.
    If you win, I will make you cookies next time I am in your part of the world (I travel a lot).

    • Duel accepted – however, my cooking leaves much to be desired when it comes to cookies. Want hockey pucks instead? Much more useful. :D

      If the counter has slowed down, it’s temporary. Holiday impact. I expect it to race back up in a week… so are you willing to take on that bet? Not for the screenshot but for choosing the DATE of the flip? Hmmm? Let’s see, what could I bring to the bet? Want some snow? :D

  • Talk about a monster post, Lorelle. Amazing job! I ‘ve been following BuddyPress for a while now, so it’s exciting to see it making headway. I’m also really looking forward to the upcoming WordCamps this year. I hope to make it to Chicago, Indianapolis, and Columbus!

  • Oh, my friend, stooping new wordpres version!!! I have 20 blogs – and 2.6 veriosn, and now see – new version 2.8 !!!! NO!
    STOP ! PLEASE!

    • WordPress 2.8 is not due out for a very long time. The WordPress development team is seeking input, not hysteria. Hopefully you’ve updated all those blogs to WordPress 2.7 for security purposes if nothing else, and have figured out that upgrades are now automatic and you will have to do almost nothing in the future. :D

  • Thanks for the information. Great update. Word Press is doing valuable work. Lucky to have so many hard working people providing the tools for communication.

  • Looks like WordPress will hit the 750,000 mark within the hour, about 3 weeks after it was released. Simply amazing!

  • wordpress is the latest trend that has no limits..
    big companies have moved their sites to wordpress platoform apart from the number of newbies tending to move to wordpress because of its easy usability.

Scroll To Top