I haven’t had time to spend much lately on the WordPress Support Forums and WordPress.com Forums, so I set aside an hour to help out, then found myself spending two. The support forums are addictive. Helping people is addictive. And fun.
If you are a WordPress, or familiar with the inner workings of WordPress.com, spend some time on their forums. It’s a huge learning experience. read more
WordCamp 2008 in San Francisco videos should be out any time. Lots of WordCamp News including last weekend’s WordCamp South Africa and upcoming WordCamps in Portland, Hawaii, Birmingham, Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, Utah, Philippines, and more. Jeffro asks you to stop blaming WordPress. Crazyhorse shakes the WordPress 2.7 trunk. How to switch from TypePad to WordPress with only a little stress. And more WordPress news.
WordPress News
Stop Blaming WordPress: In a daring post, Jeffro asks you to stop blaming the WordPress team for problems they have no control over, specifically, WordPress Plugins. I’ve written on this subject before and I agree. WordPress is an ongoing product in constant development and will undergo changes. For the most part, they are very good about announcing changes in code that will impact Plugins and Themes, and getting better all the time. If you support a WordPress Theme or Plugin, it’s your resonsibiilty to keep it updated. Thanks for reminding us, Jeffro.
Bleeding Edge Interface for WordPress 2.7: Ryan Boren announced that the new user interface from the Crazyhorse experimental version of WordPress 2.7 (we hope) is in the trunk. It is usable, but it will bite back, so only use it on your alfa testing blogs where it can do little harm.
Considering Switching from TypePad to WordPress: The never-ending battle between Lloyd Budd of Automattic and TypePad continues with his latest rant against TypePad, The TypePad Trap. Rant or not, this is a great article with tips you need to know about if you want to switch from TypePad to WordPress. read more
Blogs began their life as online journals. Then weblogs became the word, which eventually was shortened to blogs. Do you still call them online journals? Weblogs? Or are you “with it” and call them blogs?
Every once in a while I run across an article by a new blogger or an article not updated from five years ago that refers to blogs as weblogs. I saw one reference that called them weBlogs – not referencing a company but in a sentence about blogs in general.
When I see someone calling blogs “weblogs” I think that they aren’t up with the times, don’t you? When I see people using old terminology or wrong terms, I try not to judge them, but it’s really hard, since their words are all I have to evaluate. The wrong name for something can put me totally off. It tells me that they don’t know what they are talking about, and they certainly aren’t going to give me new and valid information. Do you feel that way?
The language, especially the language of the web, is evolving quickly. I remember when we laughed at Yahoo being a silly name for anything, let alone an Internet directory, then giggling over Google. Not much giggling now. These words are part of our every day lingo and we google for information without a second thought at what we are saying. read more
WordPress iPhone mania sweeps the WordPress Community. WordPress will now rule an entire nation. WordCamp UK a resounding hit. WordPress 2.6 appears to be a stable release. The new WordPress Themes Directory is now an extend. WordPress working hard on improving localization and international translations. Go VOTE for your favorite new WordPress Plugin.
WordCamps in Africa, China, and the Philipines. WordPress is spreading. WordPress 2.6 is out with only a few problems, and a lot of cool features and improvements. The Weblog Tools Collection WordPress Plugin Competition is now closed and there is a great list of Plugins for you to vote on. Lots of news on WordPress 2.6. WordCamp UK is this weekend, and there are some record breaking WordCamps coming up. Jeffro2pt0 bids the WP Weekly Podcast good-bye.
Google Gears (Turbo) to speed up your interaction with the WordPress Administration Panels by “local server” caching – storing the files on your computer (not offline blogging – yet). Lloyd Budd explains how it works and privacy issues.
Post Revisions to track changes to your blog post and go back to previous edits if necessary.
Press This, the new version of the Press It function, which allows fast blogging from whatever page you are viewing, such as a YouTube video page including the video embed code automatically.
Theme Previews for a real look at what a Theme will look like before deciding.
Word Count helps you track how many words you’ve written in your blog post.
Integration of the Media Library with the WYSIWYG Visual Editor including toggling between the new Flash and classic uploader, and the ability to upload media in the full-screen mode.
Drag-and-drop reordering of images within the photo galleries.
The announcement also included some interesting information about the release of WordPress 2.6. Over 75 people contributed code to this version. That is a huge team that deserves all our applause for their hard work!
If you are having a problem with a WordPress Plugin after upgrading WordPress, check the Plugin author’s site for news and information on the status of the Plugin. There have only been minor issues with Plugins.
WordPress 2.5 Branch No Longer Supported: The announcement of the release of WordPresss 2.6 came with the news that WordPress 2.5 will no longer be supported. It is nearly identical to the new version and has little impact on Themes and Plugins.
WordPressMU Beta Release:WordPressMU 2.6 beta 1 has been released to work with WordPress 2.6 features and includes a change in the version number from 1.6 to 2.6 to match WordPress, improved spam proofing on the sign up page, object cache changes to improve efficiency and speed, and many more bug and security fixes. WordPressMU is the WordPress version that runs multi-user blogs like WordPress.com.
Do You Blog By Email?Ozh brings up blogging by email and asks readers if they are using this long time core feature of WordPress. Are you? Would you like to see it improved? Join the conversation.
WordPress Plugin Competition: The Weblog Tools Collection’s WordPress Plugin Competition for WordPress 2.5+ is over for entrants and now it’s time to check out these hot and innovative WordPress Plugins and rate your favorites. Here are most of the final entries:
Having Trouble Publishing Code in Posts and Comment? If you publish code in your WordPress posts and comments, WordPress may think it is code. To prevent code acting like code, WordPress automatically filters it out of the posts and comments, as does many other blogging and CMS programs. To publish code as content, see Writing Code in Your WordPress Posts and Writing and Publishing Code in Your WordPress Blog Posts.
WP Weekly Podcast: This week saw the Final Episode Of WPWeekly with Jeffro2pt0, a fun WordPress weekly live show. The final episode includes a rare interview with Alex King, one of the hottest Plugin developers and WordPress fans. The Alex King Theme Competition and other contests and WordPress Community efforts are legendary, and he continues to produce and support some of the most popular WordPress Plugins. What a great send off. Good luck, Jeff, with your future with Performancing!
WordCast Podcast: The 20th episode of WordCast featured Lorelle on WordPress in the longest podcast they’ve ever recorded. Topics included WordPress 2.6, favorite books for bloggers, blog advertising, Matt Mullenweg, and a lot of blogging and WordPress talk. Lorelle also shares her favorites: WordPress Comment Ninja and Akismet Anti Spam FireFox Greasemonkey Scripts for WordPress. The next issue, WordCast 21: Purple Knuckles, featured WordPress 2.6, WordPress.com versus WordPress.org, and more WordPress Plugins.
WordPress on Your Calendar
WordCamp UK Rocking:WordCamp UK is on for this weekend and is filled with some of the best of the best in WordPress and blogging from the area:
Record Breaking WordCamps: We’ve got some record breakers coming up for WordCamp events. There are 5 WordCamps set for this September, and three will all be on September 27: WordCamp Utah in Salt Lake City, WordCamp Birmingham in Alabama, and WordCamp Portland in Oregon. Three WordCamps are scheduled so far for October. It’s going to be an autumn stuffed with WordCamp and WordPress fun.
WordPress 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.
WordCamp San Francisco August 16: August 16, 2008 is the next WordCamp San Francisco, considered by many to be the premier WordCamp event. This year, it appears it will be only one day instead of two, but details are still coming. It will be at the Mission Bay Conference Center this year.
WordCamps and WordPress Meetups Everywhere: A WordPress Meetup is a frequent meeting of WordPress fans. A WordCamp is a day or two long event with sponsors and dozens if not hundreds of WordPress fans gathering annually. If you would like to sponsor or host a WordCamp, check out the new official site for tracking WordCamps is WordCamp Central, which includes instructions and guidelines for running a WordCamp. If you would like to start a WordPress Meetup group, find a meeting place and announce it among your friends, and add a listing to the Yahoo Upcoming events for WordPress, as many track WordPress event announcements there.
WordPress Plugins and Themes News
Mark Ghosh of Weblog Tools Collection asks “How many Queries are too many?” in a WordPress blog. In summary, the issue is how many queries to the WordPress database are made by WordPress Plugins and WordPress Themes and what impact that has on the database, server load, and user experience. His experience with his popular site gives a great example and he asks you to chime in with your experiences.
Must Have WordPress 2.5 Plugins:Mashable: 20+ Must-Have WordPress 2.5 Compatible Plugins has been released with some great Plugins in their listing. However, they are a week short since WordPress 2.6 is now out. Fortunately, most WordPress 2.5 Plugins will work with the new version.
Interesting WordPress Plugins: Here are some interesting and unusual Plugins I stumbled on recently:
Version Creator WordPress Plugin adds your blog’s design version number, name, and note, so you can entertain or inform your visitors on which version your blog is in its development.
Do You Say “WordPress Plugin” on Your Plugin Page? I’m finding a lot of WordPress Plugin authors are not using the word “WordPress Plugin” in their Plugin’s official page, nor within the text. Remember that “WordPress Plugin” is a popular keyword search term and if you aren’t using it, your chances of being found drops. Avoid separating the two words like “WordPress Blah Blah Plugin” and keep them together such as “Blah Blah WordPress Plugin” as the closer the terms are to each other, the more important they are. Most people search for “how to do blah WordPress Plugin” when they search, so help them find you by using the words and keeping them together. And it’s Plugin not plug-in, something you connect to electricity.
WordPress Techniques and Tips
Here are some more interesting WordPress tips I’ve uncovered:
Get Your WordPress Mug:I love my new WordPress mug and shared my love with a lot of people recently. Go get yours at the WordPress Shop along with t-shirts and hoodies. Don’t want to buy one? Enter the WordCast Mugshot Contest and you could win one, alone with some other fun schwag.
Found a Bug in WordPress? If you find a bug in WordPress, report it by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress Users.
Vote for WordPress Ideas: There is still time to get your vote in for ideas on upcoming versions of WordPress in the The WordPress Ideas section. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.
WordPress Installed For Free:Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress) is a free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.
Don’t Use WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: It’s about respect. Please use WordPress names right because WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s domain name or URL unless you have permission of Automattic and WordPress. Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “WordPress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).
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Each Wednesday on Blog Herald is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com
WordPress Podcast: 
WordCamp UK Rocking: 
Get Your WordPress Mug: 
