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WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.3 News, WordPress 2.2.3 Released, WordPressMU Upgraded, WordCamp Israel, Breaking WordPress Plugins, and Counting Words
The Blog Herald
The Blog Herald

WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.3 News, WordPress 2.2.3 Released, WordPressMU Upgraded, WordCamp Israel, Breaking WordPress Plugins, and Counting Words

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September 13, 2007

WordPress 2.3 is still in beta with a lot of improvements and great features coming. I’ve got lots of news on the new version. WordPress 2.2.3 is out and is a mandatory security upgrade. WordCamp Israel is October 25. WordPressMU upgrade announced. WordPress.com processes 260 megabits per second of bandwidth – PER SECOND – be impressed. Some WordPress Plugins may break in WordPress 2.3. And WordPress.com users learn to count.

WordPress News

Update WordPress: WordPress 2.2.3 has been released and is a mandatory security release for the WordPress 2.2 line. You can download WordPress 2.2.3 in full, or update only the changed files for updating from WordPress 2.2.2 to 2.2.3 by Techtites or Viper007Bond.

WordPress 2.3: WordPress 2.3 is due September 24 and is still in beta testing. The latest beta versions are coming out hard and fast with a lot of fixes. Tags will be built-in, and new Plugins and utilities for importing different Tag Plugins are being released. Changes to the database will break some WordPress Plugins, and a compatibility list should be coming out soon. Here are some of the latest news about the upcoming release:

International WordCamps – Israel: WordCamp Israel is October 25 in Tel Avia. Information is available in English and they are looking for sponsors and are lining up some top notch speakers. There is a huge blogging community in Israel, so this should be an exciting event.

WordPressMU Updated: WordPress MU 1.2.5 has been released with security updates and some bug fixes, though one was late getting in for the wp-includes/kses.php and is explained by Donncha for a quick fix. WordPressMU is the multi-user version of WordPress which drives and Edublogs.org, free blog hosting services based upon WordPress.

Whose Making WordPress Upgrade Waves? Ozh of Planet Ozh has created the WordPress Bug Fixers Heat Map, a tag cloud of the volunteers and staff of Automattic who dedicate so much of their time and energy to making WordPress work and evolve. This is a fantastic “we love you” example, giving credit where credit is due. Thanks! And thanks to all on the list. We owe our blogging life to your hard work.

The WordPress Podcast: The latest WordPress Podcast is out with WordCamp memories, theme hijackers and vulnerabilities, and even more WordPress news and information.

WordPress on Your Calendar: Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change):

If you are having a WordPress-related event that isn’t on the calendar, post them below or via email.

WordPress WordCamp in Dallas, Texas: Work is underway to put together a WordCamp Texas in March 2008. Want to join the fun? Contact Charles Stricklin via the WordPress Community Podcast if you are interested in helping, attending, or sponsoring. More information coming soon!

Using WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: Just a reminder. WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s name or URL unless you have permission of and . Currently, they are lax about enforcing this, but why run the risk of being forced to change your blog’s name and URL? Get permission or don’t use it. Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “WordPress”.

Vote for WordPress Ideas: Did you know you could have your say in how WordPress works? You can add your idea and vote on any of the ideas to push them to the top in getting them added or removed from WordPress future versions. The section on WordPress is an open forum for you to have your say. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.

WordPress.com News

WordPress.com W logomonthly Report from WordPress.com: The August report on WordPress.com activities is out and includes some interesting stats:

  • 154 thousand blogs were created.
  • 176 thousand new users joined.
  • 2.5 million logins. (That’s about a login a second.)
  • 308 million pageviews on WordPress.com, and another 112 million on self-hosted blogs. (420 million pageviews total.)
  • 41 thousand splogs were killed off of WordPress.com last month.
  • 260 megabits per second of bandwidth average with spikes as high as 820 mbits
  • 80 terabytes of bandwidth

Among the new bits of news, WordPress.com will now be reporting on “active blogs”, blogs which were viewed by a human, not a web crawler only. In August, 704,855 blogs were viewed by a human being. Wow!

Counting Words: WordPress.com has added a word counter to their blogs so you know how many words you’ve blogged. While this doesn’t help most bloggers, it is good for those who use their blogs with word count goals or blogs with multiple users working with a word count minimum or maximum. Do you use it? Do you need it?

Create a Site Map for Your WordPress.com and WordPress Blog: An announcement on the WordPress.com Support Forum caught my eye about a program to help you create a table of contents, index, or more appropriately named site map for your WordPress.com blog. Dukelupus has written two versions of a small program to extract a list of your WordPress.com (or WordPress) post titles and categories from your WordPress blog. WordPress Listmaker version 1 accepts the XML Export file you download from your WordPress.com blog. WordPress ListMaker v2 does not require exporting of the XML file but gets it automatically from your blog.

For blogs with only a few blog posts, maybe less than 200, the Listmaker works wonderfully to create an alphabetical listing of your blog posts that you can copy and paste into a site map Page on your blog. It’s a great way to manually start your site map on a WordPress.com blog. Full version WordPress users should use a site map or table of contents style WordPress Plugin that automatically maintains your site map listing. I’ll have more news and tips on this for WordPress.com users soon.

No WordPress.com Access in Turkey or Thailand: I’m still waiting for an update on the issue of WordPress.com being banned in Turkey and in Thailand. To fight back, CJ Writer shares an “open letter” to the Turkish Ambassador on behalf of all WordPress.com bloggers and bloggers in Turkey that might motivate a letter of your own. What are your thoughts on this? Should countries have the right to take such sweeping actions? What should WordPress.com do?

Honoring the Languages of WordPress.com Blogs and Bloggers: This week, to honor the international nature of WordPress.com bloggers, we explore the top blogs in Hrvatski, the Croatian language. I couldn’t find any online translation services. Anyone know of any? Some of these blogs are in English or a combination of English, Hrvatski and other languages.

  1. Astro.log
  2. Multiplayer PC games cd-keys
  3. MasterMind
  4. Cronomy
  5. Moj indigo-kristalni svijet
  6. Statler & Waldorf
  7. Oil Storms
  8. Irreverent impiety
  9. Digresije
  10. ki.ber.kom.uni.st
  11. Efect’s Weblog – Photoshop stuff

What’s Hot on WordPress.com? The hottest blogs on WordPress.com were:

  1. pollycoke :)
  2. POPSEOUL! entertainment, style and beauty in seoul
  3. CNN Political Ticker
  4. Mr./Ms. Days
  5. Les Amateurs de Stars
  6. I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
  7. GretaWire
  8. deputydog
  9. GigaOM
  10. Entre tuxes y pepinos
  11. Media Biz

The hottest blog posts on WordPress.com were:

  1. “Se volete la libertà non seguite Torvalds”, parola di Stallman
  2. 9 Tips how to give a technical presentation
  3. Is the refi rescue a “bailout?”
  4. Celebs of Reddit
  5. People are gasping for Oxygen
  6. Video: Kanye West – “Good Life” Feat. T-Pain
  7. Hope grows for Sirius-XM merger
  8. The Chewbacca Defense?
  9. Wentworth Miller Interview Roundup
  10. i can fix thiz sorta

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

WordPress Plugins DatabaseWarning: New Tagging in WordPress 2.3 May Break Plugins: Ryan Boren warns that the new WordPress 2.3 Taxonomy Schema may break some WordPress Plugins:

The taxonomy schema is hidden behind a fairly comprehensive taxonomy API. The category API remains as a backward compatibility layer on top of the taxonomy API. Plugins that use the category API should not require any changes when upgrading to 2.3. Plugins that perform direct SQL queries on the categories, link2cat, or post2cat tables will break, unfortunately.

Please update your WordPress Plugins accordingly.

See Also
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Apple Delays Launch of New M3 Apple Silicon into 2024

The WordPress Theme Viewer Fixed: The WordPress Theme Viewer has been fixed and is able to be searched and used again, though uploading and updating of your WordPress Themes to the Viewer is still on its way. Matt also announces:

…we developed a set of functions around the new taxonomy system that allows [search, filtering, and paging] for ALL WordPress blogs, and those improvements will be included in the upcoming 2.3 release.

Worried About Your WordPress Theme? Pro Blog Design offers some tips on how to test your WordPress Theme for unwanted links and hidden nasties that you might not want on your WordPress Theme, or even know that you may have. Also, check out the WP-Scanner WordPress Plugin to test your WordPress Theme for common security vulnerabilities. Just to be on the safe side.

Internationalizing Your WordPress Plugins: Weblog Tools Collection offers “Localizing a WordPress Plugin Using poEdit”, tips for helping WordPress Plugin authors to make their WordPress Plugin international, adding hooks and features for easy translation options, helping your Plugin cross international borders.

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection of WordPress Plugins released daily.

A Few Interesting WordPress Plugins: Here are a few interesting WordPress Plugins I’ve discovered recently:

  • Composite Post WordPress Plugin allows the blogger to incorporate posts, Pages, and posts from a specific category into a post or Page. I’d love to see it feature only titles of specific posts and post titles from categories instead of the whole post to help create site maps, directories, indexes, and table of contents.
  • Friends Don’t Let Friends See Adverts WordPress Plugin blocks regular readers and subscribers from seeing ads on your blog.
  • Login-Lockdown WordPress Plugin increases your blog’s security and prevents abusers from forcing their way in by slowing them down. It limits the number of times people can attempt to login with a wrong password, then makes them wait a while before they can try again.
  • Show Top Commentators Widget has been improved, displaying the top commenters on your blog in your WordPress blog sidebar.
  • Date Stamp WordPress Plugin creates a graphic date for blog posts featuring the month, day, and year.
  • More Link Modifier WordPress Plugin allows you to change the text and look of your “more” or “continue reading” link on blog post excerpts.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Here are some featured articles and videos from around the WordPress Community and the , the online manual for WordPress Users, the source to turn to first for your WordPress help.

NOTE: If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips.

WordPress Community News

WordPress Community graphicLooking for a WordPress Expert? Do you want a custom WordPress blog? Want to convert your website into a WordPress blog or use WordPress as a CMS? If you are looking for an expert in WordPress Themes, WordPress development, WordPress Plugins, or other WordPress-related expertise, check out the list of WordPress Consultants on , the parent company of WordPress, the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.

WordPress Jobs: WordPress Jobs is a new “service” announced by Weblog Tools Collection. It features jobs for WordPress experts and WordPress experts looking for work. Currently, the service is free as it is still in beta testing. Give it try.

WordPress Installed For Free: If you have problems installing the full version of WordPress, visit Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress). This free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.

Even More WordPress News?

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

WordPress News Sources

Each Wednesday on 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

The author of Lorelle on WordPress and the fast-selling book, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging, as well as several other blogs, Lorelle VanFossen has been blogging for over 15 years, covering blogging, WordPress, travel, nature and travel photography, web design, web theory and development extensively as web technologies developed.

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