Episode 31 of WordPress Weekly featured a special 1 hour 26 minute interview with none other than Lisa Sabin Wilson, the author of WordPress For Dummies. Keith and I grilled Lisa on the topics of:
Writing a book for a piece of software which has an extremely fast development cycle
How different versions affect the publishing of the book
WordPress For Dummies The Second Edition
Lisa’s thoughts on WordPress 2.7
Lisa’s explanation on permalinks and slugs
Lisa’s take on premium themes versus free themes
much, much, more.
Keith and I really enjoyed our time with Lisa and wish her the best for the second edition of WordPress For Dummies.
Announcements: The two lucky recipients who will each receive a signed copy of WordPess For Dummies 2nd Edition are Chris Thompson and Lenire.
Keith, Andrew, Jacob and I discussed the news of the week. In fact, I tried to break the world record by opening up as many cans of worms as possible within a 60 minute period. You’ll have to listen to the show to hear if I was successful.
We encourage you to leave a comment whether it be feedback, questions, rants, or corrections then tune in and see if your comment made it on the air! To send us feedback via email, conect us at wpweekly at gmail dot com.
Plugin Of The Week:
Jeff -WPTuner – WP Tuner for WordPress is a powerful and easy way to answer hard questions about why your blog is slow or cranky. What’s causing the slowdown? Is it a plugin? Is it your host? This plugin will help you find out. Used with a bit of common sense, this powerful plugin helps blog administrators as well as software developers improve their WordPress blog performance – One caveat with this particular plugin is that it’s not for the faint of heart. While I was able to understand what the plugin was showing me, it may not be that obvious to you. Be sure to read the plugins readme file and the associated help documents before using it.
Keith -Comment Approval Notification – This WordPress plugin will send an email to comment authors once their held-for-moderation comment is approved.
The WolfHound Segment:
Bill needs some help working with WordPress. He came away from WordCamp Dallas excited to use the software but has run into a few roadblocks and thus, needs our help. So to help Bill out, we have created the WolfHound segment because we know that not everything we cover on the show is addressed to a specific audience. I’ve been told numerous times by new comers who listen to the show that the content flies over their head. If this sounds familiar, this segment is for you.
The Short History Of The Blog And Near Term Goals:
Here is a quick history of Bills blog. – Installed a late 1.x version and have been updating along the way and experimenting with themes. Just recently I finally installed Akismet after I starting get hit with spam. Being that I still considered it to be “in work” I never really let the world know it was out there. I guess you could say that I have two sets of goals. One being near term and the other long term.
First, the near term goals.
1) Get my logo to work on my chosen theme (Chameleon 1.0 by Ainslie Johnson)
2) Only have most recent articles (2 max) appear on front page
3) Settle on what should be considered “must-have” plug-ins
Listen to the show to hear our responses. If you disagree and feel you can help Bill out better than we did, leave a comment with your tips and suggestions.
Announcements:Lisa Sabin Wilson, Author of the WordPress For Dummies book is scheduled to appear on November 28th.
WPWeekly Meta:
Next Episode: Friday November 28th, 2008 8P.M. EST
Keith, Andrew, Mark and I discussed the news of the week. With guest contributions to the show, we went in-depth on a number of topics including the icon survey and much more. Don’t forget to tune in to hear our plugin picks of the week. Come back next week for more action packed WordPress discussions!
We encourage you to leave a comment whether it be feedback, questions, rants, or corrections then tune in and see if your comment made it on the air! To send us feedback via email, conect us at wpweekly at gmail dot com. In this weeks episode, we covered a comment that was submitted to the blog on a previous episode. We also answer a listener question regarding how to let visitors submit stories to a website without being a registered user.
Plugin Of The Week:
Jeff -WP Advanced Code Editor – Integrates the EasyArea advanced code editor into WordPress. This adds real time syntax highlighting, line numbering, full screen editing, and more to the code editor to the “Add New Post” and “Add New Page” screens. After installation, make sure that the WYSIWYG editor is disabled. WP Advanced Code Editor is not compatible with the WYSIWYG editor. The entire syntax code editor (called EasyArea) was written entirely by Christophe Dolivet.
Keith -Ultimage Google Analytics – Automatically enables the use of GoogleAnalytics’ urchin tracking technology to pull together web stats
WordPress Job Of The Week:
Job published on November 12th 2008. The job description is as follows:
Hello, My name is Dave and I write a pop culture blog called NineDaves.com, out of the NYC area (Flatiron District). My server is Yahoo, and I’ve been with WordPress since I started the blog in July 2008. Since then, I’ve had the same WordPress version. I’m interested in upgrading to a more current version, but I’m nervous. Despite the fact that WordPRess offers detailed “how to’s,” I’m still worried that I don’t understand things properly. Rather than have someone just do it for me, I would like a WordPress expert to teach me to fish.
So – would you be interested in showing me how to upgrade my WordPress before I mess something up and lose all my work? I’d prefer someone to meet me in person and show me how to do it, so if you live in the NYC area, that’s perfect! If not, I can set up a WebEx and phone call.
As you can probably tell from the title, this episode features quite a bit of discussion surrounding WordPress 2.7. Not to worry though as there are plenty of other things that Keith and I discuss such as our favorite feature in WordPress 2.7 Beta 1, the WordPress showcase, whether or not Drupal can beat WordPress, and near the end of the show, Anthony Cole called in and gave us the 411 on WordCamp Australia which is taking place on November 29th and November 30th.
We encourage you to leave a comment whether it be feedback, questions, rants, or corrections then tune in and see if your comment made it on the air!
Plugin Of The Week:
Jeff -Custom Permalinks – Custom Permalinks is a WordPress plugin that gives you ultimate control over your site structure. Lay out your site the way you want it. Set the URL of any post, tag or category to anything you want. Old permalinks will redirect properly to the new address.
Keith -Feed Entry Header – FeedEntryHeader provides you the ability to protect your content online. Many of us have had the experience of seeing our content posted mysteriously on someone else’s website word-for-word. It usually happens by having someone grab content from your RSS feed and slap it into their blog. (Bloody splogs!) This plugin provides you the ability to customize a header to be placed at the start of each article in your feed to help ensure that sploggers are pointed out, and links back to your original post are included in the splog’s repost.
WordPress Job Of The Week:
Job was posted on October 30th, 2008 by Mark Ghosh. The job description is as follows:
We are looking for a web and graphics designer for a popular blog. Ideal candidates include artists and designers with experience in working on WordPress, who have a fair amount of experience in designing graphics with a flair for modern colors and styles and the ability to conceptualize and produce web experiences from the ground up. Experience with SEO, web usability, semantics and
ethical and effective marketing also required. PHP programming experience not as important. If you want to work with us, you need to wow us with your portfolio. Individuals and design houses welcome. Our promise is to give you the ability to flex your design muscles, provide outlets for your creativity and a lot of exposure for your work. If we like your work, we will get back with you and talk about costs and timelines under NDA.
If interested please contact mark at wltc dot net
WPWeekly Meta:
Next Episode: Friday November 14th, 2008 8P.M. EST
Our special guest on Halloween night was Jane Wells of Automattic. On this episode, Keith, Jane and I discussed a wide assortment of topics and issues surrounding WordPress and usability. Here is a short list:
The Definition Of Usability
WordPress 2.7 And Usability
The Usability Testing Centers/Environment
How WordPress 2.7 Came To Be
Is WordPress Bloated?
Lessons Learned After WordPress 2.5 Was Released
The Status Of WordPress 2.7 And Whether Or Not It Is Delayed
In Depth Discussion Of Many Of The New Features And Enhancements In 2.7
And much much more. Be sure to download the show and give it a listen and then come back here to leave a comment letting us know your thoughts regarding what was discussed. I easily consider this episode to be another classic WordPress Weekly.
Episode 31 of WordPress Weekly featured a special 1 hour 26 minute interview with none other than Lisa Sabin Wilson, the author of WordPress For Dummies. Keith and I grilled Lisa on the topics of: