WordPress Wednesday Special Edition: WordPress 2.5

This week’s issue of the WordPress Wednesday News is going to be a special edition featuring the recent WordPress 2.4 release, and in the next day or so, I’ll summarize the fantastic news coming from from WordCamp Dallas.

WordPress News

WordPress 2.5 Released: Just before Matt Mullenweg walked upon the stage of WordCamp Dallas Saturday morning, WordPress 2.5 was released to the world after weeks of extensive beta testing.

So far, the reports have been overwhelmingly positive. Reports from the WordPress Support Forums are that while there are a few glitches, the majority of problems people are having with the installation come from their own mistakes, Administration Panel menu based WordPress Plugins, and problems with their customization and tweaking of their WordPress blog and Theme. Few problems have been found directly related to WordPress 2.5 during the upgrade and installation process.

In Peter Westwood’s article on the details of WordPress 2.5 development, he cites that it took 185 days for development, changes to 364 files, patches from over 110 different contributors, and over 1300 individual changes.

WordPress Development published a WordPress 2.5 Screencast Preview just prior to the official release, showing you the new features and improvements.

Here are some articles covering new features, reports and reviews of WordPress 2.5:

• LiveStream: Matt Mullenweg at WordCamp Dallas on WordPress 2.5
• Technosailor – WordPress 2.5 en Español
• Not a Niche – How To Upgrade To WordPress 2.5 In 5 Minutes
• Alex King: WordPress 2.5 Plugin Compatibility
• Westwood – Updating Plugins for WordPress 2.5
• Ryan Boren – MD5 Password Hashes for 2.5
• Chris Merriman – WordPress 2.5 Early Reactions – Sticky Post + WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugins
• WordPress Codex – Instructions on Using the Gallery shortcode
• WordPress 2.5 Plugin Style Guide
• Holy Smoly – There’s never been a better time to upgrade WordPress
• planetOzh – WordPress 2.5 ShortCodes API Overview
• A Fool’s Wisdom – WordPress 2.5 in the Wild!
• WPThemesPlugin.com – What’s In WordPress 2.5?
• CodeScheme – WordPress 2.5 Good stuff and bugs
• PatchLog – Upgraded WordPress to 2.5
• Webware – 5 things we love about WordPress 2.5
• Lakeview Information Technology – WordPress 2.5 Released Today
• Performancing – Upgrading Your WordPress Versions
• Socialized Softwware – WordPress 2.5 Review
• Weblog Tools Collection – WordPress 2.5 Upgrade Guide(s)
• Dion, WordPress Community Volunteer, offers “Answers to Questions about Version 2.5”
• Web Worker Daily – WordPress Updates To 2.5, New Features Abound
• WordPress Support Forum – 2.5 Image/Media Uploader problems explained
• How to Spoter – WordPress 2.5, Things You Must Know
• Lost Art of Blogging – WordPress 2.5: A Thorough Analysis
• Neville Hobson – Blogging simplified with WordPress 2.5
• Sephyroth – WordPress 2.5 – Not coming here soon
• Neosmart covers WordPress 2.5 and the Object Cache
• Weblog Tools Collections – Colorful Future For WordPress 2.5 Administration Panels
• PlanetOzh – Per User Custom Stylesheet in WordPress 2.5
• PlanetOzh – Five New Things In WordPress 2.5
• Aaron Brazell – 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.5
• WordPress 2.5 Plugins Beware: Automatic Plugin Upgrade Problems
• WordPress 2.5 Plugin Settings Pages Style Guide
• WordPress 2.5 Revealed and Compared to Version 2.3.x
• Dougal Gunters – WordPress 2.5 RC1

In an attempt to honor the many who contributed to WordPress 2.5 development, Peter Westwood created a WordPress 2.5 Contributors tag cloud.

Do You Need Help with WordPress? I’m finding a lot of people still asking for help with their WordPress and WordPress.com blog by blogging their request. This is really dumb, folks. You don’t know who is reading or how qualified they may be to help you. Or you might never get the help you need. Please, go to the WordPress Support Forums for help with the full version of WordPress and the WordPress.com Forums for help with WordPress.com blogs. Get the help you need directly from those who can help you.

Do You Want to Help with WordPress Development and Community? If you would like to help with the WordPress Codex, the official online user manual for WordPress users, we need you. If you would like to contribute to WordPress as a volunteer in the WordPress Support Forums, testing, coding, and more, see Contributing to WordPress. If you would like to help improve WordPress by reporting bugs, please report them via the WordPress Bug Report form. Your help is needed to ensure WordPress works.

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 Wednesday News report which covered WordPress 2.5 Due Any Day, Beta 2 Released, Many Plugins Updated, WordCamp Dallas This Weekend, WordCamp UK Suggested, and More.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordCamp Dallas: Dallas WordCamp was a resounding success. I’ll have a full post summarizing the event in the next day or so. We’re all still recovering from information overload.

WordCamp UK? There is a WordCamp UK proposal on the table on Tony Scott’s blog. I’d love to be there, wouldn’t you? Go get involved and help make WordCamp UK a reality.

WordCamp Australia: Rumors are flying about a WordCamp in Australia. Stay tuned for news!

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.

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):

• WordPress Denmark Meetup for WordPress 2.5 at Advice – April 6, 2008
• Los Angeles WordPress Users Group – April 6, 2008
• The New York City WordPress April Meeting – April 19, 2008
• Nashville WordPress Meetup – April 26, 2008
• iBlog4: The Fourth Philippine Blogging Summit – April 26, 2008
• European WordCamp in Milan, Italy – May 10, 2008
• WordPress fans social gathering in Austin, Texas – May 13, 2008
• PodCamp Atlanta 2008 – May 17, 2008
• WordCamp 2008 in San Francisco – July or August 2008

Even More WordPress News?

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5 Due Any Day, Beta 2 Released, Many Plugins Updated, WordCamp Dallas This Weekend, WordCamp UK Suggested, and More
• WordPress Wednesday News: Sneak Peeks of WordPress 2.5, Beta Released, WordCamp Dallas Next Week, and More WordPress News
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5 Due March 17, Administration Plugins May Break, Tons of Plugins Updated, Add Buttons to Toolbar, WordPress Dallas and Now Milan!
• WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5 Next Week, WordPress Goes Social, Cleaning Out Splogs, and More WordPress News

WordPress News Sources

• WordPress Planet
• WordPress Development Blog
• WordPress.com Blog
• Weblog Tools Collection
• BloggingPro’s WordPress News and Tips
• The WordPress Podcast
• Lorelle on WordPress
• Planet WordPress from Planet Ozh
• WordPress Publisher Blog

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the Blog Herald 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.

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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