Go immediately and download the newest version (2.1.2).

See the Wordpress Weblog for details.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging, wordpress security

Because of the inordinate amount of spammy and annoying comments I’ve received on older posts (most of which are handled by Akismet), I tried to turn off comments for posts older than 1 month.

Only, I succeeded in only turning off comments for posts I made today. Those have been fixed now..comments are open on all posts.

If anyone knows how to automatically switch off comments and/or pings on older posts in Wordpress, I’d welcome suggestions.

Update: The eternal gratitude award goes to Scout, who sent me the link to the comment timeout plugin .

Technorati Tags: wordpress, comments, blog management

I upgraded all of my blogs and websites running Wordpress to the newest Wordpress release tonight. There are some new and pretty slick features in it, including some substantial and much needed upgrades to the editor. It seems to run a bit faster than the old version, too.

The only problem I’m having is with the Post by Email function, which is used heavily by the band boosters’ site. As far as I can tell, Wordpress 2.1 breaks that plug-in, which means I’m going to have to manually post updates.

Anyway, if you’re a Wordpress user, go download it and upgrade. Don’t forget to back up your database first, and for safety’s sake, turn off all of your plugins and custom themes (turn it to the default theme). Then upload the new files, run the database upgrade, and have fun with the new features.

One other cool feature — Akismet is built in — no more separate download and activation. Akismet does a great job of blocking comment spam, which I am getting a lot of lately.

Technorati Tags: wordpress upgrade, akismet

Before I left last week I changed around the configuration for the blog to make it more search-friendly. That may have created a problem if you’re subscribed to my old feed location. Update your feeds to this one (my feedburner feed) if you’re missing posts.

Technorati Tags: feeds, rss, feedburner

I’m still having weird issues with my RSS feeds in Bloglines, Firefox 2.0 and Google Reader. Posts will come through hours after they’re published or not at all. I’ve gotten feeds for Blogger blogs that go back to the beginning of the blog, but nothing current.

Is it something on my end? Are any of you seeing weirdness?

Update: For some weird reason, Wordpress is registering the date as one day ahead. I have no clue why this is, but I’m going to try some tweaks to fix it.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging, RSS, feed errors

Switching to a different theme and much less stuff on the sidebar until I can figure out what the heck is causing the problems with my date stamps and the like.

Shelley Powers posted a warning about ‘gotchas’ with certain WP themes last week.

However, I found a gotcha with one WP theme today. One of the more popular WP themes is Water 1.1. Like all themes, the creator is listed in small print at the bottom, usually with a link to the creator’s web site. This linkage is more than a fair price for the use of the theme. However, at least with this theme and who knows how many others (quite a few from this Google search), there’s a link to a theme sponsor, in this case a site selling poker tables.

She also gives steps for removing the sponsor link from the template, so you don’t give any free advertising to poker sites or anyone other than the theme creator, and goes on to give a really wonderful explanation of why links in templates, as well as posts, matter.

Technorati Tags: wordpress, themes, blog, blogging, advertising links

I think I’ve finally got the site tweaked the way I want it. I just finished tonight.

I added the “Most Popular” plugin to the sidebar and tweaked the colors and background to be a bit less harsh on the eyes but not too dark either. The blogroll has been updated and I also added the “related posts” plugin to the post pages.

I also created a page to pull in the most recent 25 del.icio.us posts.

I’m not sure if any of this makes a difference. Studies show that sidebar clicks are almost non-existent, but if you wanted handy stuff on the sidebar I think I’ve got it there.

Because this site is my gift to myself and my sandbox for learning how to do Wordpress stuff, I’m opting not to put ads on here. Besides, whatever would I do with the nickel or so they generated? LOL.

Anyway, tell me what you like, don’t like, wish I had, wish I’d get rid of…any and all suggestions are always welcome.