How To Blog

WordPress 2.0.1 has been released

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One month to the day from when wordpress 2.0 first came out, the first wordpress point release to address the many needed bug fixes has come out.  The team states that :

"All in all we’ve closed 114 bugs in the 2.0.1 release, which you’re welcome to check out if you’re curious about every fix. To summarize:

• You can now specify an upload directory, and whether to use date-based storage or not.
• Caching has been fixed under certain PHP enviroments.
• Permalinks have been fixed for weird enviroments as well.
• XML-RPC uploading works.
• Compatibility with older versions of PHP.
• Several WYSIWYG fixes and cleanups.
• Imports now use much less memory.
• Now works with MySQL 5.0 in strict mode."

Now, what's ominously missing from this list of bug fixes is any mention of the problems with trackbacks, which is my main hesitation for upgrading all my wordpress blogs.  Yet in reading through the complete list of fixes, it appears the trackback problems were fixed -- see tickets 2197 and 2170 -- I must say that I don't know why the WordPress team didn't emphasize that in their bulleted list of fixes.  In any case, I'm thrilled to hear it's been fixed -- YAY!  Hopefully this means I can seriously contemplate moving my blog from TypePad to WordPress.  Unfortunately, TypePad doesn't support functionality for 301 permanent redirects, which are what would be necessary to tell the search engines that my blog has moved (and word to the wise and newbie alike -- don't ever make the mistake that I did and use a subdomain off a typepad.com, wordpress.com, etc account if you think there's ever the slightest chance you'd like to use your own domain name down the road, or heaven forbid switch to a different blogging system altogether -- moving How to Blog is gonna be one hell of a nightmare, but the benefits that WordPress provides may make it worth it...still on the fence)

In any case, you can download WordPress 2.0.1 here.

Technorati Tags: wordpress 2.0.1, new wordpress, wordpress bug fixes, wordpress release

Just Great - TypePad stats currently not working

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Wanna check your TypePad stats to see how many visitors you've gotten and where they came from?  Too bad.  Stats are temporarily disabled

Comparison of WordPress and TypePad by someone who has used both extensively for over a year

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I am feeling really frustrated right now – like I'm stuck in limbo with a conundrum on my hands.  Why?  Because I’ve grown to love WordPress so much so that I really prefer it over TypePad, for an increasing number of reasons.  (Please note that in this review, when I refer to WordPress, I’m talking about the full version of it – the one that must be installed on your own web server.  In the few instances where I refer to wordpress.com, the hosted and dumbed-down version of WP, I specify it’s wordpress.com I’m talking about.)

The main issue is how spam is handled.  On TypePad, spam is a nightmare to deal with, whereas on WordPress spam is almost a non-issue (provided you are using the proper plug-ins like Spam Karma 2 for those running v1.5.x – or for those on WP 2.0, the included and revolutionary Akismet).

Then there are all the other easily customizable things.  Like the look and feel of your site.  Ok, so TypePad’s is easier to control without having to know any code — but really limited in comparison to WP.  As my comprehensive wordpress theme list shows, there are now 615 free wordpress themes out there, and growing! OVER SIX HUNDRED.  That’s a staggering amount of templates to choose from to give your blog it’s own unique flair.  And they are all customizable as well (if you know some css) – and with WordPress 2.0, themes can be made customizable within the admin area by their authors such that bloggers can customize areas of the theme at will without ever touching any code!

Then there’s the issue of pagination.  It’s quite simple – WordPress has it and TypePad doesn’t.  By pagination, I mean those little links folks have grown accustomed to seeing on blogs that say “Next Page” and “Previous Page”.  Don’t see them on this blog?  That’s b/c TypePad doesn’t have that feature.  TypePad bloggers get to choose the number of posts that will appear on their homepage, and after that – well, good luck navigating the blog b/c the only options are to do so through clicking on the categories or the monthly archives.  TypePad doesn’t even have built-in search.  And of course, WordPress does. (TypePad users should check out my article on how to make your typepad blog searchable).

And then there are the plugins.  No small matter.  WordPress has plugins that enhance it’s functionality for almost any thing you could want to do with it:

• Tagging plugins (such as Jerome’s Keywords or the Ultimate Tag Warrior) that provide an easy way to automatically tag posts with keywords for social bookmarking systems such as Technorati, del.icio.us, and Flickr.  This means more traffic for your blog. Tags also provide a whole new way for readers to interact with a blog.  For example, Jerome’s Keywords makes it so “readers can click on a post’s keyword/tag link to see other posts with the same tag. It’s a simple but effective way of letting users find content that interests them.”.   You can even create a local tag cosmos.
• Post related plugins, such as the ability to display the top 10 most popular posts in your sidebar, or the ability to show a list of related posts when viewing an individual post
• Comment related plugins, such as giving users the ability to display gravatars in their comments and allowing blog readers to subscribe to a particular post’s comments
• There are just WAY too many ways in which plugins expand the functionality of WordPress way beyond the capabilities of TypePad to even discuss here.  And from what I’ve been hearing about WP 2.0, which provides added hooks making it even easier for programmers to create even more fantastic plugins in the future, the possibilities seem limitless.

Customization of where you ping to notify the world that you’ve updated your blog — WordPress has it, and (you guessed it) TypePad doesn’t.  The workaround with TypePad if you want to use a service like pingoat, is to paste the URL for pingoat’s RPC server into the Trackback area for each and every post, each and every time you update it.

And while this isn’t an issue for me in choosing a blogging platform, the issue of cost still needs to be brought up in any review.  Again, it’s simple – WordPress is free, and TypePad isn’t.  Of course, the full version of WP with all of it’s glory and customizable options (including access to all free themes and plugins) requires you to have a web hosting server with mysql support (which most do).  Which means it really isn’t entirely free b/c now you’re paying for web-hosting.  But if you do want entirely free, Wordpress.com offers that — and while it’s a really dumbed down version of WP, it still offers some things that TypePad doesn’t, like sub-categories (however, it doesn’t allow you to run adsense ads on your site – you get what you pay for with wordpress.com).

Then there’s ease of use when posting.  When it comes to blogging editors, WordPress 2.0 finally has a built in WYSIWYG editor (something TypePad has had all along, and which I think every blogging tool should offer).  The only problem is that WordPress’s wysiwyg editor is kinda buggy. See this problem that I encountered on my WordPress 2.0 test blog. However, I generally use an external  windows client (BlogJet) to post to my blogs, which has it’s own WYSIWYG editor that’s better than both of them.  But you also need to take speed into account when you talk about ease of posting.  WordPress is very speedy when creating or updating posts.  TypePad is very sluggish, especially if you are sending trackbacks to a large number of sites.

Want stats for your blog?  Well TypePad only shows you referrers from the past 24 hours.  That’s it.  And not only that, but it is slow as molasses

Now there are a few areas in which TypePad sort of shines in comparison to WordPress, with the main one being maintenance and upgrading.  I say sort-of, because sometimes TypePad has outages and when that happens there ain’t a thing you can do about it.  On the other hand, every time WordPress comes out with an upgrade, it can sometimes be a major pain in the rear to install it, wreaking all sorts of havoc over your blog (although sometimes the upgrade process is totally smooth).  All of that customizability that WP offers through themes, plugins, etc, makes for more things that can get broken every time there’s an upgrade.  And sometimes it seems like those upgrades come every few days (like after the release of WordPress 1.5 when there were numerous minor point releases that were required updates because they pertained to security flaws which seemed to come out every few days!) And when there’s an upgrade, you’re the one that has to install it (unless you’re using a free wordpress host like blogsome, but then you’re at the mercy of them deciding which themes and plugins are available to you, and when and if they’re going to do an upgrade – right now they’re still using WP 1.5).  When TypePad does an upgrade, it’s behind the scenes and you find out about it in the TypePad news (unless the upgrade wreaks havoc on their servers, in which case you get the joy of TypePad outages, the inability to post to your blog for sometimes days on end, etc – but ultimately they fix it, and it’s up to them, not you, to fix it).

All of this makes me want to move this blog and all of it’s posts (and future posts to come) over to wordpress on my own server at emilyrobbins.com.  Which brings me to my conundrum (and the possible state of limbo).  Is it worth moving an existing site that gets over 1000 visitors a day and is ranked well in the search engines over to another server, URL, and blogging system entirely, possibly losing all of my backlinks and high pagerank that I spent so much time in generating?  And if so, should I wait until WordPress 2.0 has ironed out some more of the kinks (there are currently problems with trackbacks, which I think is a rather major issue, among other things) before proceeding?

WordPress 1.5.2 works great and is a very stable release.  But I know I’ll eventually want to move to Wordpress 2.0.x — it’s new features are just too enticing.  And I also know that I do not want to have to deal with doing the kind of major upgrade that going from 1.5 to 2.0 entails on a website that is this important to me (I just don’t have the time deal with it in case something goes wrong with the upgrade, and there have been far too many reports of people having trouble with the upgrade for me to risk it).  But I’m getting so damn sick of TypePad’s limitations, and even more so of managing all the spam (I have to have all of my trackbacks and comments moderated because of the vulgar spam that people try to put through a zillion times a day – an issue that I wouldn’t have to deal with if I were using WordPress instead).

So what should I do?  Should I hold off on doing any more posting until WordPress 2.0 comes out with a more stable version and then move the whole site over to WP 2?  Should I just take the plunge now, and hope that the trackback issues don’t affect me too much until they are resolved?  But what if I lose all of my traffic as a result?Should I just leave things as they are right now and stick with TypePad for ‘How to Blog’??

What to do?  What to do??????

My Comprehensive WordPress Theme List Crosses the 600 Mark!!

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Wow, I can’t believe it — I’ve just uploaded the latest update to my WP theme list and it now contains a mindblowing 615 free wordpress themes that wordpress users can download and use on their blogs for free.

Some of the themes have been tested on WordPress 2.0, and have been marked as such, and a few of the themes are actually specifically for WordPress 2.0 and won’t work with 1.5.x (also marked accordingly).

I’m super excited about the prospect of all the new themes to come down the pipeline now that WP 2.0 is out — and for all of the updates to current themes that theme authors might be lured into performing given the fabulous customization that wordpress 2 allows.

For those who don’t know, WordPress 2.0 has taken themes to the next level in a serious way, providing the ability for theme authors to actually allow theme users with options that can be easily customized through a panel in the adminstration area of WordPress.  If a theme is customizable, there will be a tab under Presentation for “Current Theme Options”.

The Default theme that is packaged with WordPress 2.0 allows you to make changes to the theme’s header, including the font color and colors used for the background of the header.

But themes like Regulus 2.0 really take it up a knotch by providing checkboxes allowing the blog owner to change the header image, the color scheme, whether to show full posts or excerpts on the homepage, whether to display the post’s author on the homepage, as well as sidebar options such as ‘show calendar’, ‘show recent posts’, ‘show all archive months’, etc. 

You can also see a running demo of a new WP 2.0 theme called BloxPress which actually allows the blog viewer to change the layout of the theme, dragging and dropping theme sections around to change their order in the sidebar at will and adding and removing content as it suits them (something which I wish was incorporated into the WordPress core for the blog owners, at least).  Seriously cool stuff.

It’s a beautiful thing, this level of customization.  I sincerely hope that more WordPress 2.0 theme authors create their themes with these sort of theme options (and more!) in mind!

WordPress 2.0 also allows theme designers to include a screenshot as part of their theme package which will then display on the Presentation|Themes tab so it’s much easier to select a theme that’s suited to your blogging style.

I’m going to need a better way of managing my theme list now that some themes are for v1.5.x and others just for 2.0, etc which isn’t something I can easily due from within the constrains of TypePad.  Which leads me to my next post….feeling like I’m stuck in limbo and with a conundrum on my hands.

TypePad has no pagination features (next and previous buttons at the bottom of the page) AND no way of implementing them!!

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Under the category of more absolutely ridiculous things that current blogging platforms are missing the boat on, I just found out that not only does TypePad not have pagination built in, but there is NO WAY of implementing it even through advanced templates.

By pagination, I mean the <next> and <previous> buttons that many bloggers and blog readers are accustomed to seeing at the bottom of a blog page (a feature that is built into WordPress, for example).  TypePad gives you the option of customizing how many posts appear on a page, but no way to easily navigate to posts beyond those appearing on the front page.  For example, How To Blog is set to display 10 posts on the front page.  But when users visit the old typepad version of the site at http://blogging.typepad.com/how_to_blog/ and read through those posts, and want to see the rest of what I’ve written, they have only 2 options, neither of which is optimal:

1. View each category one at a time
2. Go through the monthly archives

I had put it on my personal ‘to do’ list to figure out how to add Next and Previous links to the buttom of my TypePad pages, and when I finally decided to tackle the project and couldn’t figure it out on my own, I submitted a support ticket to Six Apart asking for help with it.  I wrote:

WordPress has built in previous / next page links at the bottom of every page. This makes their blogs much more easy to navigate, especially for beginners. As each page only contains a certain number of posts, without having next and previous buttons it's hard for people to easily navigate the blog.

In addition to making this a feature request, I'd also like to know what code I should use in my advanced templates in order to implement this on my blog on How to Blog.

Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Emily Robbins

The response I got back from TypePad Customer Support was astounding (bold added by me): 

Hi Emily,

Currently TypePad doesn't offer pagination (Next Page and Previous Page links), so there isn't any code that I can offer you to do this.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. We are always looking for ways to enhance TypePad for our users, so we will keep this in mind as a possible future feature for the system.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Thanks,
Kymberlie

Excuse me for the double-take, but NO CODE AVAILABLE TO DO THIS?  How can this be when SixApart themselves acknowledged the importance of pagination features in their own article on Six Apart Pronet entitled “Building on Movable Type Part 3: Creating Pagination Controls”, wherein they say (again, bolding is from me):

Pagination controls are sufficiently ubiquitous that our own developers saw the value in creating a reusable mechanism for creating the links developers should all be too familiar with: “next page," “previous page," “last page," “first page" and “you are viewing results X to Y out of Z." This reusable framework is not only accessible within Movable Type, but by plugins as well.

So apparently Six Apart thinks that pagination controls are so ‘ubiquitous’ that we’d be ‘all to familiar’ with them, and they are not only built into the functionality of Movable Type but also accessible by MT plugins.  GREAT.  For Movable Type users.

So how come when SixApart created (and updated and updated) TypePad, this “ubiquitous” functionality was somehow forgotten?

Why I'm not upgrading to WordPress 2.0 - for now

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I know that I promised to test out the process of upgrading an existing WordPress installation from 1.5.x to 2.0, but until 2.0 has resolved some of the existing bugs (and the resulting slew of additional minor point release upgrades have been completed, forcing users to upgrade to 2.0.1, and then 2.0.2 possibly days later, etc – (remember what happened after 1.5?)) I’m holding off. 

As mentioned before, I’ve done a clean install of WordPress 2.0, and while I’ve been told that much has been done in the underlying code base to provide for the possibility of  future themes and plugins that are more spectacular than ever, those themes and plugins don’t exist yet, WP 2.0 itself is still way too buggy, and from an end-user perspective I just don’t see that much that’s new and exciting to compell anyone to want to upgrade. 

Yeah, the new user interface is prettier.  And it’s nice to have a built-in WYSIWYG plugin, but that too is quirky and WYSIWYG plugin options already existed for 1.5.x users who wanted them.  The built-in spam plugin of Akismet is pretty darn cool, BUT it requires you to register at WordPress.com in order to get an API key to use it, and apparently if you use it too much you’ll be required to get a commercial license for it (and there’s some talk about the ethics of packaging a somewhat commercial product like Akismet with an opensource free product like WordPress).  Not to mention the fact that there were already some pretty amazing spam fighting plugins available for WordPress 1.5.x that now don’t work properly in WordPress 2.0 (like SpamKarma2, for example).  The purported benefit of Akismet over plugins such as SpamKarma2 is that it is always 100% up-to-date and never requires any upgrades.

I’ve no doubt that, eventually (and hopefully sooner rather than later), the bugginess of WordPress 2.0 will be resolved, and some amazing 2.0 specific themes and plugins will start to appear that will tantalize us to make the switch.  But until then, I’m staying put.

WordPress 2.0 problems for google adsense users, and a workaround

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As just another reason to not upgrade to WordPress 2.0 (or even install it in the first place for now), it's been widely reported that WP 2.0's live preview feature causes serious problems for those bloggers who utilize Google's Adsense to monetize their blogs.

Lunacy Unleashed has a great article on dealing with the adsense problems in Wordpress 2.0 dealing with the adsense problems in Wordpress 2.0, as well as a few workarounds.

In sum, the problem stems from the fact that the live preview will try to fetch your google adsense ads, even if your post has not yet been published.  This can be seriously problematic, as when google tries to determine appropriate contextually relevant ads for the page, it receives a 404 (page not found) error because the page does not yet exist.  At a minimum, this could result in ads that aren’t relevant to the content on your page.  At it’s worst, it could result in your adsense account being suspended, “since Google prohibits displaying ads on 404 pages”.

Not good.

Michael Hampton’s post provides details on how to get around this problem by modifying your template code (which beginning WP users are probably not so comfortable doing..) to put in a check to see if the what’s being displayed is a preview, and if so not display AdSense ads using the following code:

<?php if (!is_preview()): ?>
// Paste your AdSense code here //
<?php endif; ?>

Unfortunately, this workaround still results in multiple problems, the first one being that there is a known bug with the is_preview() function in WP 2.0.  Furthermore, the abovementioned code only works ‘inside the loop’ (see Matt Read’s post for help in understanding “the loop”, as well as the information on The Loop in the wordpress codex)

Michael suggests yet another workaround for those who want to place their ads outside the loop (a common occurence) in the form of the following code:

<?php global $wp_query; if (!$wp_query->is_preview): ?>
// Paste your AdSense code here //
<?php endif; ?>

HOWEVER, because of the problems with the is_preview function being quirky in WP 2.0, these workarounds don’t always work and in the words of EUGENIUS, “It looks like until is_preview is fixed, don’t put adsense on the WordPress (2.0) blog.”

To me, I find this unbelievably unacceptable -with the given propensity for the majority of bloggers these days to utilize Google AdSense ads on their blogs, I simply cannot understand how it is possible that this was not resolved prior to WordPress 2.0’s being released, and is reason alone not to use it (never mind upgrade your existing installations to WP 2!)  And shouldn’t there be a simple checkbox to just turn live preview off for those of us who would rather have AdSense ads working on our site than see a live preview of our post??  How hard would that really be?

OFF-TOPIC: Hey Ladies! Now you can carry your laptop around IN STYLE thanks to Mobile Edge

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Pardon me for the off-topic discussion here, but I had to share my excitement over these amazing new stylish laptop cases that are just for women!!  I’m not what you’d call a total fashionista by any means – but it sure has been a pain that all of the options for laptop carrying cases were rather masculine, boring and definately not trendy or stylish.

Those days are over! 

A company called Mobile Edge has created a line of “designer  elegant computer carrying cases that address a woman’s needs.  Designed by women for women, these fashionable bags will protect and carry your computer in style.”  And they’re not kidding — take a look at some of these beauties:

Mobile Edge The Milano – Large

“This beautiful, handbag style computer carrying case has the same luxurious features as the regular Milano but we have increased the overall dimensions so that it will accomodate the larger format computers with 17" screens.”

 

 

 

 

Mobile Edge Suede Computer Tote

“Superior SafetyCell™ computer protection compartment , dedicated cell phone pocket and zippered interior pocket , detachable cosmetics/accessory pouch, stylish fittings and self-healing zippers, and EZ-Access ticket pocket.  Holds notebooks with up to 15" screens”

 

 

Mobile Edge Leather Ladies Briefcase

“This rich Full-Grain Leather briefcase, with its soft and luxurious poly-suede interior lining will spoil you forever. Never again will you even look at a boring and bland computer carrying case.”

 

Mobile Edge Komen Paris Backpack

“This is a truly beautiful and comfortable backpack with computer protection, multiple pockets for organization and it supports a great cause!” 10% of sale is donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.  It’s got dedicated safety cell computer protection, a seperate section for files, books, and magazines, AND a removable accessories/cosmetics pouch.

Mobile Edge Madison Tote

“This stylish design will never be mistaken for a "computer case"! The Mobile Edge designers have outdone themselves by creating an exterior that is a true classic while creating an interior that is pure funtion.” Detachable cosmetics/accessory pouch, zippered interior pocket, stylish fittings and self-healing zippers, durable metal feet, and of course a Dedicated Superior SafetyCell™ computer protection compartment make this tote unbeatable.

 

You can find Mobile Edge Women's Laptop Bags at discounted prices over at eBags.com (where they even have user reviews for some of the bags, all of which have been rated very highly).  On top of that, right now they’re having some sales – choose the promotion that provides the better all around deal for you

• $20 OFF $75 Handbag Purchases at eBags.com
• 10% OFF Plus Free Shipping on all Orders at eBags.com

I’m so psyched – and all of these wonderful bags have lifetime warranties, and ship for free (with a 60 day return policy and FREE return shipping costs, too if you order from eBags - talk about awesome customer service)!! 

I’m ordering one of each so I can figure out which one I like the best, looks the most ‘me’ when I see it in person, and is the most comfortable, and then I’m returning the rest.  Oh, who am I kidding — I’ll probably keep at least two.  Like many other women, I’ve a bit of a purse fetish.  A woman’s gotta have options after all (some days I might want to use a gorgeous backpack, others days a stylish over the shoulder tote).  OK, so I’ll keep 2 and return the other.  Gotta love shopping from home!!

WordPress 2.0 users, tell me your stories

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Consider this an official request -- I want to hear from WordPress 2.0 users about what your experiences have been (positive and/or negative), whether you're glad you made the switch from 1.5 (or another blogging platform), if you are having problems then what kind, etc

BTW - I've heard reports of people having problems with permalinks and trackbacks, but haven't experienced them myself on a new (i.e., not upgraded) install of WordPress 2.0 (and I'm using custom permalinks w/o problems).  Could someone who IS having problems with these areas please clarify what the issue is?

Either email me at howtoblog (at) gmail.com or, preferedly, comment on this post. Thanks in advance, faithful readers.  I appreciate your input!

What's going on with TypePad's commenting system???

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I just tried to enter a comment on one of my own posts, in response to a comment that someone else left.  When I clicked the "Post" button, I was taken to another screen with a really messed up template that took bits and pieces of my site and put them in a single column and when I then scrolled down I saw a PREVIEW of my comment (even though I clicked the post button and not preview), and then there appears to be a new captcha device where you're to enter a number shown in a very hard to read image to prevent robots (shouldn't this have been on the initial comment page?), and when I enter the code and click 'Post' (AGAIN), it then brought me back to the same messed up page with the same comment preview, etc.  I re-entered the code in the image, clicked Post yet again, and still got the same screen.  My comments are moderated, and when I logged into the TypePad user interface, and chose the 'List Comments' option, my comment wasn't even there!

When I tried the same thing on a different post, I had a similar experience where clicking 'Post' took me to the messed up screen where everything looked like crap and I had to enter in the image code, and this time after doing that it took me back to the original post and the comment DID show up in the comment list.

Some very bizarre behavior going on, only semi-reproducable, and what's with the captcha after people click 'Post' and the messed up template???

Any other TypePad users experiencing this problem??