Wordpress stuff

Finally bought a domain for this blog. The change should be transparent, as the feed should continue to work (I use FeedBurner), and visits to the old domain are redirected to this one.

Go have a look, there are lots of changes. The administration panel is totally redesigned.

Chris Johnston has announced the availability of a public WordPress 2.5 demo site. This site will house the most up to date version of WordPress 2.5 prior to its release in March. This is particularly useful to those who do not wish to setup an SVN install of WordPress on their local machine or web server. Feel free to play around within the administration panel as the database is reset with default information every hour. The login credentials for the demo are as follows:

The username is admin and the password is demo.

I want to personally extend a thanks to Chris for taking the time to set this up and maintain it. What an awesome way to check out the progress of WordPress 2.5 without the need of doing a manual subversion install. (Although that would still be a good learning experience for those interested).

Via

Sean pointed out that if you don’t use the WP2.3 Related posts plugin, you get a PHP error when viewing single posts. It seems I was not using correctly the PHP function function_exists.

How to update

If you already have the theme in wp-content/themes, open single.php in a text editor and replace

<?php if (function_exists(wp23_related_posts())) {

with

<?php if (function_exists(’wp23_related_posts’)) {

If you just want to use this theme, you can get the updated archive here. The link in the original post also points to this updated version.

If you wonder why I’m not posting anything new, don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong. I’m working on a new Wordpress theme and on a Wordpress plugin.

Between those and my long readings I really don’t have time I’m feeling too lazy to post interesting articles. I have a long TODO list and what is left from this one week holiday seems too little to fit everything in. I need a few days just to relax…

Image via

You’ve finished writing another great post for your blog. You want to get it published as fast as possible, but don’t go rushing to the “Publish” button. Instead, click “Save and Continue Editing” or a similar button if you don’t use Wordpress. In another tab or window open “Preview”.

You’ll be examining the post in the preview tab/window and you’ll be editing it in the first one. Here’s a list of things you should do now:

• See if the post looks the way you want it to (formatting, images).
• Read very attentively what you have written.
• Search for unclear phrases.
• Pay attention to the meaning of the words, especially if you don’t write in your native language. Use an online dictionary. You don’t want people understanding something different from what you are trying to tell.
• Search for typos.
• See if you can link some words to other blogs or websites.
• Check if all the links work by opening them.
• If you use some kind of special formatting or HTML tags, try viewing the post in different browsers. Internet Explorer may display your post in a different way than other browsers.
• Check if you use the best category for your post.
• Choose your tags wisely.
• See if you find a suggestive image to include in the post. Your camera, screenshots, this site and Google image search should do. This is not necessary, but it is usually a good idea.

Urgent security update! Update immediately, especially if new users can register on your blog.

WordPress 2.3.3 is an urgent security release. A flaw was found in our XML-RPC implementation such that a specially crafted request would allow any valid user to edit posts of any other user on that blog. In addition to fixing this security flaw, 2.3.3 fixes a few minor bugs. If you are interested only in the security fix, download the fixed version of xmlrpc.php and copy it over your existing xmlrpc.php. Otherwise, you can get the entire release here.

BRB, I have to upgrade five Wordpress installations.

There are three main ways to block comment spam on Wordpress blogs:

1. The built-in Akismet plugin. You need to obtain an API key. See here how to use it. I don’t use it as I don’t like to depend on others. It is also known to generate false positives (marking legitimate comments as spam) and slowing down the comment system.
2. Some kind of CAPTCHA plugin. It is basically a image containing random generated text that the user must enter in a form when posting the comment. It is very efficient, but it may reduce a little the number of people commenting on your blog.
3. And the third method, which I think is the best one for small blogs. It uses just built-in Wordpress functions. Here’s what I’m talking about:
   • go the control panel on your Wordpress blog
   • open Options - Discussion
   • make sure that both options from Email me whenever are checked so you’ll receive and email every time a comment is posted
   • scroll down to Comment Moderation and write after Hold a comment in the queue if it contains the maximum number of links a comment may contain before it is automatically hold in the moderation queue. I use one, so that every comment containing links must be manually approved
   • in the next text area write keywords common in the spam comments together with IP addresses and nick names used by spambots. You’ll need to modify this list based on spam comments that pass this filter. Here’s the list of the keywords I use at the moment:
     xanax
     buy
     cheap
     purchase
     ephedra
     prescription
     overdose
     recall
     pill
     cymbalta
     diazepam
     dosage
     erection
     <strong>
     sale
     doodee

Bonus: I haven’t tested this plugin, but it looks interesting.

1. Subscribe to comments - if you have this plugin installed, people will have the possibility to subscribe via email to the comments on a certain post. It is a very good way to bring them back. Without something to remind them, most visitors will never go back to a post on which they have commented.
2. Google XML sitemaps generator - this plugin automatically generates an XML sitemap for your blog. This way, search engines will index all your posts and pages. Obviously, this is going to bring you more visitors from the search engines.

This is my first public Wordpress theme, so don’t be too hard on me.

Truly simple is based on an public domain template designed by Color Light Studio. It’s widget ready, light and simple, with a web2ish look and pleasant colors. Also, it has some built-in SEO tweaks.

Preview (actually this is the theme used on this blog at the moment)

Download (released unde GPL 2, but please keep the links in the footer)

I’m waiting for feedback, if there are new features requested or problems found I’m going to release an update.

Who am I? I’m Cosmin, a blogger, computer geek, and wannabe web developer, as I’m also a full time high school student.

What I’m going to post here? I’m going to write mostly about wordpress plugins, themes, tips & tricks and maybe some general stuff about blogging. I also plan to release wordpress themes and wordpress plugins created by me.

Feel free to email me at cosmin [at] linux-geek.org.