The WordPress Podcast

In this episode of The WordPress Podcast:

1. Jonathan and I briefly discuss our experiences at WordCamp Dallas
2. Technorati has decided to not index vulnerable and exploited WordPress versions
3. Will Apple bundle WordPress into the iPhone?
4. I interview John Podzazides about Woopra
5. I interview Mark Ghosh about Weblog Tools Videos
6. WordPress Dev Donncha O Caoimh’s Theme Tester plugin
7. AJAXed WordPress plugin
8. Matt Mullenweg agrees to a “Ask Matt” Q&A segment in future episodes

 

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I’d intended to release this episode during the week of March 30th, days after it was recorded live at WordCamp Dallas, but problems with the recorded audio prevented doing so. The audio you’ll hear was actually ripped from the video John Pozadzides released, so thanks, John!
Joining me on the dais were Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today, Mark Jaquith of b5media, later Mark Ghosh of Weblog Tools Collection, and later still, Matt Mullenweg of Automattic. Lorelle Van Fossen was nice enough to run around handing the wireless mic around so people could comment and ask questions. Subjects discussed and links to items mentioned in this episode include:

1. WordPress 2.5 had been released exactly 24 hours prior. Some people have experienced problems with IE7 and other plugins. Expect 2.5.1 within about a month.
2. Beginning with WordPress 2.2 incoming links were changed from Technorati to Google Blog Search. If you’d prefer to revert back or use some other link reporter, find the Incoming Links Box’s “Edit” link in the Dashboard and change it to the RSS feed of your choosing.
3. Issues with “disappearing plugins” relate to the plugin updater’s requirement that plugin authors build in additional functionality to work properly with the updater and submitting it to the plugin directory.
4. Mark Jaquith discusses the genesis of his Comment Inbox plugin. Lorelle chimes in with Comment Ninja, a Firefox Greasemonkey script.
5. We discussed security, including the possibility of an independent review of the core, as well as the direction themes and theme development might take in the future.
6. Matt expressed a desire for improved client-side JavaScript performance.
7. Ronald Huereca asked an interesting question about how developers might store data without creating new database tables.
8. Scott Ellis asked for examples of WordPress being used as a CMS or other unusual uses, and the panel offers up Automattic’s Publisher Blog, Trumors and 71 Miles, amongst others.
9. Rick Ankrum’s question about changes made to the default theme leads to an interesting throw-away comment by Mark Ghosh concerning a possible file integrity-checker making its way into future versions of WordPress.
10. Jill McKeever’s question about image borders and a “word wrap button” stumps the panel. (Did we ever come up with an answer for this?)
11. Someone asks about the future of Sandbox, and the possibility of incorporating its best features into the core. Several themes are discussed, including the Options theme and Regulus.
12. Matt expressed frustration with the way WordPress handles menus as static pages and sub-pages, raising the possibility of choosing which items appear in the navigation menu. Mark Jaquith brings up his Page Links To plugin which allows you to point pages and menus to links outside of your blog’s domain.
13. Matt also expressed frustration with the disparity between the image uploader and inserting an image from within the WYSIWYG editor, and brought up the possibility of an easy “image caption” function.
14. Jeff Chandler’s frustration with the perception of WordPress not being able to withstand the “Digg effect” leads to a minor debate on caching. Matt effectively debunks the issue, blaming bad server configurations and cautioning against reliance on WP-Cache and WP-Super Cache. Mark Ghosh cautions against the use of Bad Behavior for high-traffic sites.

 

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Included in this episode:

1. WordPress 2.5 wasn’t released last week as we expected, and don’t expect it for several weeks.
2. ThemeShaper.com asked 11 prominent WordPress theme designers to predict the future.
3. WPThemeKit is a WordPress theming system where you choose from one of several htnk “blanks” representing your preferred layout of overall width, along with the number and position of sidebars.
4. WordPress is once again one of the Open Source projects chosen by Google to include in their Summer of Code for 2008.
5. Lorelle VanFossen is also jazzed about WordPress 2.5 coming to WordPress.com, details a security vulnerability for WordPress.com blogs was fixed in less than 10 minutes after initial report, Matt Mullenweg’s report that more than 800,000 blogs, or splogs, have been removed from WordPress.com, and the February Wrap-up for WordPress.com  has the latest statistics for the free blog hosting service.
6. FirstTimer Wordpress Plugin v1.0 by Bobby Handzhiev checks to see if an identifying cookie is located when a viewer views your blog, and if one if not found, displays a message you’ve written specifically for new visitors.
7. SEO Friendly Images v1.1 by Vladimir Prelovac goes throough all of the images used on your blog, checks to see if already have ALT and TITLE tags set, and generates valid XHTML tags for them based on options you’ve set.
8. MinisterMark verifies the WP Spam Blocker generates dofollow links to their site.
9. Corey Thompson points out the answer to last episode’s blogroll question.
10. Simon Jones reports back that a new service’s bot was the cause of his blog’s bandwidth problems.

 

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Oops! Jonathan and I recorded this assuming WordPress would be released March 10th, and then the day comes and goes without even a release candidate. Our bad…

Otherwise, we discussed:

1. Jonathan’s June speech at the 3rd International Plagiarism Conference at Northumbria University in Newcastle-upon-tyne, UK.
2. Charles’ presentation of WordPress for Podcasters at the New Media Expo in Las Vegas in August.
3. Continued preparation for WordCamp Dallas, March 29 and 30 in Frisco, Texas. Any attendees registering after this Friday aren’t guaranteed event t-shirts.
4. As previously mentioned, we discuss WordPress 2.5 which we’d expected to have been released to coincide with this episode.
5. Vote for WordPress in the Publishing and Photography category in the 2008 Webware 100.
6. Lorelle is away speaking to the San Francisco chapter of the Romance Writers of America, so no WordPress.com news this episode.
7. WP Spam Blocker seems useful, using AJAX and time hashes to prove your commenters are human without using CAPTCHAs, but the blatant linkage gives me pause.
8. WordPress Tweaks rolls lots of little, useful tweaks into one plugin.
9. This episodes feedback poll: “Should the podcast limit itself to purely WordPress-related news?”
10. Simon Jones asks, “Are bots are taking down my blog?”
11. Glenn Pendleton asks, “Is Install4Free on the up and up?”
12. Jonathan responds to a trackback related to U.S. copyright law.

 

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In WordPress news this week:

• How should the Codex be licensed?
• Preparations for WordCamp Dallas continue, including the decision to serve Rudy’s BBQ for Saturday’s lunch. (Which should make Matt happy.)
• Lorelle reports on WordPress.com:
  • WordPress 2.5 is coming to WordPress.com any day now, in whole or in pieces. Some of the new features can be found in Are You Ready for WordPress 2.5?
  • WordPress.com allows original content blog types covering a variety of subjects, but it does not allow scraper blogs, affiliate marketing blogs, search engine gaming blogs, or warez blogs.
• Jonathan discusses plagiarism and copyright theft, including some strategies to fight them. Some plugins mentioned in the discussion:
  • Copyright Feed: Adds a copyright notice and/or a digital fingerprint at the end of each post in the feeds.
  • AntiLeech: Produces a fake set of content especially for splogger bots that includes links back to your site and sends it only to them. When they steal this content, it appears online just like normal, except now you’ve turned the tables on them and provided them with useless content.
  • Several others.

 

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