Wordpress

WordPress 2.2.3 Released

Wordpress.com logoWordPress version 2.2.3 has been released. The release is slated as a “security and bug-fix” release. Considering this fixes a few security issues, it is highly recommended that you upgrade your WP install to the latest version ASAP. Considering WordPress 2.3 is around the corner, this upgrade is probably not going to sit well with a few people.

Two of the fixes in the latest version of WP are rated as “high priority“. Those two are labeled as, 4704 Invalid RSS2 Comments Feed and 4720 Users without unfiltered_html capability can post arbitrary html There were also a number of files that were changed. To see a complete list of these file changes, be sure to read WordPress 2.2.3 File Changes

Download the latest version of WordPress here http://wordpress.org/download/ Pardon me, as I commence with the upgrade! If you don’t hear from me by Monday, you’ll know why.

Happy Birthday WordPress.com

Wordpress.com LogoCan you believe that WordPress has only been around for two years? It’s true. Back on August 20th, 2005 the first blog on WordPress.com was created, that being Matt’s blog. I didn’t know this but, invitations for the WordPress.com beta were sold on ebay for as much as $90.00 Check out these insane stats that Matt published concerning what has been accomplished over the past year:

  • Created 50,334 blogs
  • Added 269,035 static pages
  • Tagged 715,905 tags on posts
  • Gotten 920,363 comments
  • Written 678,842 posts
  • Had 96,095,493 pageviews!

Wow, that’s what I call user generated! I’ve only used the stand alone WordPress CMS for a few months now, but it’s been the best damn CMS I have ever used. It’s been a pleasure to work with and it’s one of the only systems I’ve used where everything seems simple. So I’d like to take this oppurtunity to thank Matt and his crew for this awesome piece of software, and to wish everyone involved with WordPress a Happy 2nd Birthday.

Also, if WordPress.com is indeed getting the same amount of traffic as Facebook.com chances are, WP.com will see birthdays 3, 4, and 5!

WordPress Real Time Browsing Stats

Sizlopedia.com LogoEver wanted to see who is browsing your site in detail and in real time? Now you can, using WordPress Live, a live blog statistics plugin.

WordPress Live gives WordPress site owners the ability to track IP addresses currently browsing the site while also being able to view which posts/pages that IP address is browsing. The plugin divides stats into three categories: Page hits, Feed hits, and Comments. There is actually a speed bar which allows you to control the speed in which the plugin refreshes. Move the slider to the left, the refresh is quicker, move the slider to the right, the refresh rate is slower.

This plugin is really cool and from what I could tell, is only accessible through the backend of your WordPress install. If you’d like a plugin which displays a similar set of data on the frontend, check out the WP-UserOnline 2.11 plugin written by Lester Chan.

The only downfall WordPress Live has is the lack of documentation. The plugin lacked a read me file and there are no concrete installation instructions published on the authors site. If your familiar with how to install WordPress plugins, you shouldn’t have a problem with this one.

WordPress Live In Action

Be sure to check out Headzoo.com to download the WordPress Live Plugin. So far, I’m digging it.

Disabled Hotlinking Protection And Other Stuff

I disabled hotlink protection today after discovering that the HTML email subscription emails were not displaying images. After today, all images used within an article should now show up if your viewing the HTML version of the email.

Tomorrow, I will be going through the archive and properly tagging items that haven’t received any tags due to the plugin being installed  after a certain amount of posts were already published. This should help make discovering those older articles a bit easier.

I will also try to figure out why the search function of this site doesn’t seem to be finding things I think it should be. I’m also going to try to get a hold of the author of the SEARCH EVERYTHING plugin, to see if I can get that to work, so users can search within comments and various other parts of the site that are not covered by the built in WordPress search.

Just wanted to pass those updates along.

Ajax Edit Comments 1.1.1.0 Released

Reader Appreciation LogoRonald Huereca has released a new version of his plugin, Ajax Edit Comments, which gives users and guests the ability to edit their comments similar to the way that comments can be edited on Digg.com The latest version includes a couple of bug fixes, most notably dealing with UTF-8 encoding.

The following issues were addressed in this release:

  1. Admin were able to edit, but non-admin couldn’t. This was caused by the timer offset in the WordPress admin panel.
  2. MySQL errors resulted in the comment unable to save. This was caused my blogs and MySQL database not in UTF-8.
  3. Some characters were being screwed up when saving to the WordPress database. This issue was caused by non-UTF-8 back-ends.
  4. The blog would be inoperable in Internet Explorer due to multiple session headings being called.
  5. Random loading comment failure on WP 2.2.2 installs.

The issues (with the exception of issue number 4) can occur on a case-by-case basis depending on blog configuration and character set.

Be sure to visit The Readers Appreciation Website to pick up the updated version or to grab it for the first time.

Turn WordPress Into Personal Hub

Wordpress.com LogoSean Aune from Mashable.com has put together a useful list of 30+Tools that help turn your WordPress blog, into a personal hub of information. Using your blog as a central hub, allows you to keep in touch on multiple networks using one site.

 

I’m not sure which of these tools I might install onto this WordPress install because I think, most of the subscribers to this blog are looking for useful information, not a series of posts which are nothing more than clippmarks that I have found on the web. However, installing one or two of these might help out on those days when I can’t think of anything to write, yet I need to put some sort of content onto this blog.

With more of our lives being lived online, it’s nice to centralize our media as much as possible. New aggregated social networks are springing up, but did you know you can do much of this already from your blog? These 30+ WordPress tools will help you display and run more of your digital life from WordPress itself.

Some of the tools include, Blogmark Integration, Facebook Comments, StumbleCrumble, MeeboMe Plugin, WP-ICQ-Status, MasterWish, Phoogle, and Facebook Photos. Check out the entire list by reading, 30+ Tools to Turn WordPress into a Personal Hub

If you happen to install and use any of the tools listed in that article, please let me know how they worked out for you.

WordPress 2.2.2 Released

WordPress LogoJust wanted to pass along that WordPress 2.2.2 was released the other day. This release includes only security and minor bug fixes so they should not cause any plugin or theme compatibility issues, so you have no good excuse not to upgrade.

 

Click here to see the list of bugs and security upgrades that took place. One of these fixes was a CROSS SITE SCRIPTING Vulnerability. These things are popping up all over the place.

Download the latest update here

Don’t Blog As Administrator

Display Name As Seen In WordPress

Donncha has posted a WordPress blogging tip which in my opinion, should be common sense by now. Don’t blog as administrator or at least don’t let your display name show up on your blog as administrator. Not only does it send a red flag to potential hackers but it also looks pretty unprofessional too see a bunch of posts on a blog posted by administrator.

To alleviate this problem, log in to your WordPress admin panel and click on USERS. Edit your usernames profile and change the display name to something besides administrator, for example, your real name.

Don’t Blog As Administrator

Display Name As Seen In WordPress

Donncha has posted a WordPress blogging tip which in my opinion, should be common sense by now. Don’t blog as administrator or at least don’t let your display name show up on your blog as administrator. Not only does it send a red flag to potential hackers but it also looks pretty unprofessional too see a bunch of posts on a blog posted by administrator.

To alleviate this problem, log in to your WordPress admin panel and click on USERS. Edit your usernames profile and change the display name to something besides administrator, for example, your real name.