How To Blog

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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.

Need someone to create a custom template or plugin for your blog? Need help with SEO? Check out Rent A Coder!

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I just found the coolest resource!  It’s called Rent A Coder, and you can post any project that you need help with, whether it be as simple as installing WordPress / MovableType / etc for you on your server, or as complex as asking someone to write a custom blogging platform for you.  Want a custom template for TypePad or a special WordPress theme and don’t have the time or skills to do it yourself?  Just Rent A Coder to do it for you.  You can even find people to help you with Search Engine Optimization, people to write content for you, etc.

Once you post the specifics of the project you need help with, coders will then bid on your ‘job’ and you can decide who you want to hire based on their bid, the feedback they received from other users on other projects they’ve completed, etc.

From their website:

Need a coder to help you create the next 'killer app' or answer questions?  Just post your program or question here and coders from around the world will email you bids on doing the work.

    You can review each bidder's resume and reputation online, and when you're ready to make your decision, you can rent  your personal, expert, coder with just a few clicks! Its that simple!


     Posting a bid request is free, and you are under no obligation to accept any bids sent to you unless you choose to.   Once you accept a bid, you will place your payment into escrow. The money is not released to the coder, till they complete the work according to your original specification. There are no service charges or finders fees for buyers.

On the flip side, got skills?  Flaunt ‘em and earn cash!

Looking to earn extra income using your hard-won technical skills?  Rent a Coder lets you locate and bid on coding projects and questions from around the world!  By completing a free registration, you can publicize your skills on the online resume system and receive emails as new bid requests come in.

So those of you who are creating all those great free themes and plug-ins (which I hope you’ll continue to offer for the sake of the blogging community), you may wanna consider listing your talents at Rent A Coder and earning some extra $$ through freelancing. 

I just did.

Troubles getting BlogJet to work with WordPress? You need to upgrade to WordPress 1.5.1.1

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5/20 update – the problem was indeed a bug in wordpress and requires an upgrade to WordPres version 1.5.1.1.  Then you’ll be happily blogjetting your way along!  Yay!

5/12 update - despite the comment that indicates this is a bug in WP that is fixed in the nightly builds,  wordpress 1.5.1 has been released and after upgrading to it, I'm still experiencing the same problems with Blogjet not working with wordpress.  However, the below workaround I came up with still works w/1.5.1

4/27 update - I've come up with a workaround, that, while annoying, does allow me to use BlogJet to post to WordPress 1.5.   Basically, I make my posts in BlogJet and then from the Blog Menu choose the item 'Post as Draft'.  Then I have to login to WP, click 'Write' and click each draft and then click publish.  Yes, pain in the rear.  But it works...   I prefer BlogJet's editor because it is wysiwyg without using up a lot of resources on my webserver (I've heard the wordpress plugins that allow for wysiwyg are very resource intensive), which is why I post from BlogJet - but the having to go and label as draft and then republish and all that may make it not worth the effort.  Original post follows:

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I’ve been enjoying my trial of BlogJet to make these posts to TypePad, but before I figure out whether it’s worth buying the program I needed to test it on other blogging platforms.

So I decided to start with this new WordPress powered site I’m just launching called absurdness.com, (which will have tons of funny pictures, quotes, and jokes when I’m done with it…partly it’s a test to see if it gets traffic as quickly as my typepad powered funny pictures site did, because I’m still wondering if typepad powered sites just seem to rank better in the search engines…I think it has a lot to do with typepad’s list of recently updated blogs..and while I’m off on this tangent, does anyone know if there’s a plug-in for wordpress that does the equivalent?)  Anywhoo – back to my trials and tribulations posting to wp from blogjet — wouldn’t you know it – I can’t get the darn thing to work.  It’s very bizarre, because when I create a post in BlogJet and then click to publish it to WP, the post shows up in my WP dashboard’s list of posts – yet trying to view the post brings up a 404 error.  When I duplicated the post but created it from within wordpress’s own UI, the post worked fine (except for the fact that I was hosting my images on yahoo photos, so half of them aren’t even showing up – need to host my images elsewhere and maybe go for a flickr pro account..)

So has anyone else had success posting to a wordpress 1.5 blog from BlogJet?  I know I’ve configured it correctly because, as I mentioned, the BlogJet posts are being listed as posts when I log in directly to wordpress, but they don’t seem to have actually been published (even though they’re labeled as such – it’s more like they’re drafts)

Plugins for WordPress 1.5.1

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One of the greatest features of WordPress is the vast extent to which users can customize (through plugins, themes, and hacks) the look, feel, and functionality of their weblogs – allowing your blog to be simultaneously powerful and unique.  As stated in the codex:

“Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. The core of WordPress is designed to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins offer custom functions so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs”

WP plug-ins can do anything from addg technorati tags to your blog to grabbing your latest furl or de.li.cio.us links and automatically displaying them on your site to generating teaser previews of your posts.

But where do you get plugins for WordPress?  Well, if you know PHP you can make them yourself, but most will probably want do download the plugins that others have authored and made freely available to the wordpress community. 

I’ve found the following pages to contain links to many plugins.  However, it is often unclear whether a plugin was designed to work in v1.5 or if it only works in older versions of wp (it is up to each individual plugin author to decide whether they want to update their plugins), so for now you’re just getting a bunch of links out of me, but I have plans to go through them all and put together a comprehensive list of plugins that work in wordpress 1.5+.

Sources for wordpress plugins:

• The WordPress Plugin Directory
• The WordPress Plugins Database (provides wp 1.2 & wp 1.5 compatibility information, although I haven’t always found it to be accurate..)
• Blogging Pro's list of wp plugins
• The Wordpress Plugin and Mod Competition Blog and Wiki
• MundoGeek's wordpress plugin list – seems very comprehensive, but it’s in spanish (also does not give compatibility info)
• Plugins « WordPress Codex

Be warned though, some plugins do not play well with others, so if you experience a problem simply deactivate the plugin through the plugin manager (or, if for some reason you cannot access it, rename the file in your plugins directory)

 

WordPress plugins are generally easy to install, only requiring you to upload them to your wp-content/plugins/ directory and then go to your Plugin Manager and ‘Activate’ the plugin of choice. 

For information on customizing the look and feel of your wordpress site make sure to read the following articles on templates and themes:

• Comprehensive list of 280+ WordPress 1.5 Themes / Templates available for download

• How to customize an existing WordPress 1.5 theme just the way you want

 

WordPress Plugin and Mod Competition sponsored by weblogtoolscollection.com

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Just in case would-be WordPress developers were feeling empty since the completion of  Alex King’s theme competition, along comes Mark with Weblog Tools Collection’s Wordpress Plugin and Mod Competition!

Given the popularity of Alex’s theme competition, this Plugin and Mod competition is sure to spark the creative juices of many in the WordPress community (much to the benefit of the entire WP community!)  This is utterly fantastic because who knows in what ways new plug-ins will enhance the functionality of WordPress 1.5!   I can’t wait to see the entries roll in.

The contest will run for two months, starting on April 15th (ugh – tax day…guess you can’t expect folks to have time to work on much before that), and while the prize list hasn’t been fully determined, there’s at least $500 in it for one lucky developer courtesy of weblogs.us, and Mark may even contribute a Sony PSP (which, btw, has one of the best TV ad campaigns I’ve ever seen – every commercial I see REALLY makes me want to buy one (and that says a lot since I usually pooka pooka (tivo) my way through commercials), alas I lack the funds