Hey There! Apr 25
The team over at WordPress are hard at work and have already come out with a new release, WordPress 2.5.1 This release focuses on over 70 bug fixes.
Tags: wordpress, wordpress 2.5, wordpress 2.5.1
Apr 13
Of all the new features available in the WordPress 2.5 release, I must say one of my most favorites is the all new Plugin Management system. Comparing the old plugin management system to this new one would be like comparing a walkman to an mp3 player.
Tags: wordpress, wordpress 2.5, WordPress Plugins
Apr 10
If you have not yet updated your WordPress blog to version 2.5 and are waiting for a “good reason” to do so, how about your ranking and your sites indexing? It has been announced that Technorati will be un-indexing blogs that are vulnerable to spam or hacking attacks.
Tags: Google, Technorati, upgrade, wordpress, wordpress 2.5
Apr 08
April 9th STCFX will be getting naked. Now don’t get crazy, our staff will be fully dressed, it is only the site that will be naked in support of international CSS Naked Day. Just as last year, and the year before, sites all across the net will be getting naked and going without their css style sheets for the day.
Now what is this all about you ask?
CSS Naked Day is a day to celebrate web standards and show support for all the designers who make our sites look “pretty”.
Can you recall years back when sites were formatted with tables and font tags? When just a simple change of formatting would require you to hunt for dozens (or even hundreds) of tags on dozens of pages?
CSS Naked Day also gives you a chance to see your site the was PDA’s and HandHelds do. This is also a great way to showcase the functionality of your site. Without the fluff and glitter will your site still function correctly?
The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good ‘ol play on words. It’s time to show off your <body>.
For WordPress users running versions 2.x you can use the WordPress Naked Day Plugin. For WordPress versions below 2.x you can use CSS Naked Day WordPress Plugin
and for non WordPress sites you can look into the Naked Day PHP Function script
Now don’t be shy, get naked and show your support
Tags: Cascading Style Sheets, css, HTML, Style Sheets, wordpress
Apr 07
You may have heard the name Gravatars quite often lately and wondered what its all about. I’m going to explain this morning about Gravatars, how they work, why you should use them and how to enjoy them on your own WordPress blog.
What are Gravatars?
Gravatars are Globally Recognized Avatars
How do Gravatars work?
With Gravatar you can participate in blogs and forums all over the net and never have to upload an avatar. With Gravatars you simple join for free with your email address at http://www.gravatar.com/ and upload or choose your favorite avatar. Thats it! Now whenever you take part in a discussion on a Gravatar enabled site your avatar is fetched for you. No more uploading to your profile at all the sites you visit, you don’t even need to login as long as your email is used your Gravatar will be fetched for you. Since the release of WordPress version 2.5 Gravatar support is now built in to all WordPress sites.
Why use Gravatars?
Your comments and ideas are you own, so leave your mark with your Gravatar.
Use your sites logo as your Gravatar to help promote your site.
Its so simple and convenient why wouldn’t you use them.
Did I mention it was free?
How do I use Gravatars on my WordPress blog?
As I mentioned above, starting with 2.5 Gravatar support is built in. Simply go to your admin area and activate them. Admin > Discussion > Gravatars
Now pending on your theme you may or may not have the correct code to display the Gravatars. Not to worry its very easy to add. See my post about adding avatars to comments.
Tags: Automattic, Avatar, Gravatars, wordpress, wordpress 2.5
Apr 06
Quite often WordPress trackbacks and pingbacks can sound too confusing and complicated to even be bothered with. However, you would be surprised how simple they really are to use. The great thing with WordPress is that the system itself does the work for you.
The idea of trackbacks and pingbacks are to let other sites know you referenced a post of theirs and to let you know when other authors have referenced your posts.
If you read someones WordPress blog and like, dislike or want to comment on their post on your own WordPress blog you would add a link in your post, to the other sites post.
What happens next is WordPress will send a note in the form of a comment letting the author know you have linked to them. A linkback is then posted in on the authors post page pointing back to your post.
You will see trackbacks that have been made to this site at the bottom of posts pages after the comments.
Example:
Site One writes a post about WordPress
Site Two also writes a post about WordPress and adds a link to the post made by Site One
Site One is then sent a trackback and notified that Site Two has referenced their post.
Site One (normally) approves the trackback and a link pointing to the post on Site Two is displayed below the post made by Site One
If all of this sounds like too much don’t worry about it, you have WordPress on your side and this is all done for you automatically if both blogs are running WordPress.
Now in the event you want to reference a post made on a site that is not run by WordPress you will want to look for the posts “trackback” url. This is normally posted at the end of a post and would look something like: http://www.stcfx.com/2008/04/06/wordpress-25-trackbacks-pingbacks/trackback/
So now when you write a post that references another post you will add the trackback url on your write a post page in the Trackbacks field.
Send trackbacks to: http://www.stcfx.com/2008/04/06/wordpress-25-trackbacks-pingbacks/trackback/
WordPress will then do its magic and send a notice to the blog post you are referencing.
If you would like to try this out on your own WordPress blog simply write a post and add a link to this post.
http://www.stcfx.com/2008/04/06/wordpress-25-trackbacks-pingbacks/
Then come back to this post and look at the trackbacks. Note: you may not see your trackback right away as I have to approve it first. Also be advised that spam will not be tolerated.
Recap
- Trackbacks and Pingbacks are used to let a blog know you have referenced them on your blog.
- WordPress takes care of this for you if both blogs are WordPress driven.
- You can send trackbacks to blogs that are running WordPress by adding the trackback url on the write a post page.
Tags: pingbacks, trackbacks, wordpress, wordpress 2.5
Apr 06
After my previous post about the Enhanced WP-ContactForm breaking the visual editor I contacted the plugin Author to ask about addressing the situation, however I have yet to hear anything back. So I decided to look for an alternative. I found a similar plugin written by Douglas Karr called WordPress Contact Form.
The plugin is currently running and causes no problems with the visual editor. For those of you with out a contact form due the the same issues I would recommend Douglas’ plugin. You can also edit any css attributes for the contact form in the admin. Very nice!
Tags: wordpress, wordpress 2.5, wordpress contact forum
Apr 05
Many users have sent in questions regarding WordPress 2.5, now rather than addressing each one by one I have decided to post this FAQ list. Many of the common questions have been addressed in the following list.
Tags: Dashboard, wordpress, wordpress 2.5, wordpress help
Apr 02
If after installing WordPress 2.5 you find that your visual editor buttons are displaying blank popups you will want to check your plugins for the following:
If the plugin is listed you will want to disable the plugin. Once disabled your editor should begin to work normally.
Tags: blank popups, broken editor, Enhanced WP-ContactForm, wordpress, wordpress 2.5, wp-contactform
Apr 02
Have successfully upgraded WordPress 2.3 to WordPress 2.5 using the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin with zero issues. The process was simple, clean and quick.
Tags: Plugin, upgrade, wordpress, wordpress 2.5
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