I had the opportunity to put Matts gift to work while attending WordCamp Raleigh. I have over 45 minutes worth of video to upload, one interview at a time. In this interview, I spoke with Jonathan Davis. In it, we talked about what is new with the Shopp plugin, what to expect once WordPress 3.0 comes out and other e-commerce related topics.
I encourage you to watch the video at full screen.
General RC Readiness
RC readiness could be better. However, a big punt is needed but 3.0 is now under 100 tickets. The blockers are under control. Menus are looking good now that the IE issues are fixed. The rest of the menu tickets are trivial and if needed, can be punted. JohnONolan will be submitting a few UI patches for other stuff and Jane will be going through a final walk through this weekend to see if there is any UX that was missed. The list of remaining tickets for WordPress 3.0 can be found here. The patches that are in Has Patch/Needs Testing, needs testing. If anyone could help out on that, it would be appreciated.
It looks like the importers that are bundled with WordPress will be ripped out and turned into a core plugin with the exception of the WordPress one. The WordPress importer plugin can be found here.
Shrinking of WordPress. In order to have WordPress 3.0 avoid tripping memory limits on shared hosts, certain items are being lifted from the core. The importers are one of those items. TinyMCE.js is also on the slate to be removed. Removing stuff form WordPress is just a stop gap measure to the original problem so that WordPress 3.0 will not be delayed any further.
RC1 looks set to be released by the end of next week or sooner.
Meeting Time
Taken off list to figure out timezones etc.
Update On WordPress Tests
Peter Westwood stated that as far as wordpress-tests is concerned – they exist, I use them, I’m trying to keep them up-to-date and I will have them running automatically when it is worth doing – too many failures at the moment which need reviewing. If people want to play with them they are in svn here: http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress-tests/
If you want to suggest a topic to be discussed at the next meeting, you can by visiting the WordPress development updates blog. If you would like to participate in the chat next week, install IRC or an IRC compatible client and connect to the following IRC server.
chat.freenode.net or any random server on the Freenode network and then join this channel at 4:30PM Eastern time or 20:30 UTC Thursdays. #wordpress-dev.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before, a WordPress theme that has a 3-Dimensional post view. Nathan Barry over at LegendThemes has a screencast available showing off the theme in action with rotating post views and the different ways of viewing a post. Unfortunately, this theme is heavily dependent on the type of browser you’re using due to the use of CSS3. According to Nathan, only the most recent versions of Safari fully supports it.
Note: the 3D and animation only work in recent versions of Safari. Though the site does degrade gracefully in other, less capable browsers. Update: Only Safari in Snow Leopard can fully run this demo. Unfortunately preserve-3d doesn’t appear to be supported in Safari Windows or in Chrome on any platform.
Since I don’t use Safari on my desktop, I was not able to check out the 3-D goodness. Would be cool for FireFox to support the various 3D Transforms in CSS3. In fact, it would be awesome if all of the major browsers supported it so we could see themes innovate the ways in which content could be viewed and interacted with.
How much do we really know of individuals in the WordPress community? Unless you get to speak with them on a weekly basis or they are open about it via whatever method they choose, I don’t think we know very much. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Ronald since 2007. I’ve had the chance to co-author the same site as him (WeblogToolsCollection.com) and have him be my taxi driver at WordCamp Dallas 2008. He is also the genius behind one of my favorite plugins, Ajax Edit Comments. I knew Ronald had gone through some hard times but I had no idea of the trials and tribulations this man has gone through. For instance, he attempted suicide 3 times. Not once, but three times. I discovered this through an in-depth personal interview with Ronald that was published on the Readers Appreciate Project website.
I enjoy Ronald’s company within the WordPress community and I feel it necessary to point people to an interview that highlights more of the personal back story behind this individual. Thank goodness that part of his life is behind him and I hope he can stay on the right path for the rest of his life.
I’m nearing the end of my one month trial period of using WP CDN and before I make the decision to purchase a CDN account, I wanted to hear from all of you, especially from those that visit the actual site multiple times a week if the site has loaded any faster for you since the middle of April? Using a CDN is a nifty way to increase performance and decrease loading times. Couple the CDN with W3 Total Cache and you have a great little system set up. However, not every CDN is the same. The more sites that are set up as key points for the CDN, the better. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Did WPTavern.com Load Any Faster/Better For You During April-May?
Total Voters: 43
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Although I won’t be attending this particular event, WordCamp Fayetteville is occurring one week after WordCamp Raleigh which happens to be this weekend. This particular WordCamp is a two day event with Sunday being dedicated to getting your toughest questions answered by WordPress gurus. The event also features two different tracks, one for bloggers and the other for developers. There are a couple of sessions that look really interesting such as Unlocking Government: Understanding the Freedom of Information Act (State Rep. Lindsley Smith, D-Fayetteville), and The Transparent Blogger – How much disclosure is enough?. I wouldn’t mind attending the session on Understanding Analytics – Why Google Analytics Matters (Anna Miller) an area that I’m pretty weak in. All I know is that big numbers for the most part are a good sign.
Checking out the registration page, it looks like there are only 9 tickets available for $40.00 each plus a $1.99 fee. If you’d like to follow the event on Twitter, the hashtag is #wcfay. Daniel Gold has told me that he is in charge of putting the presentations on Ustream with live video. I’m not sure of the web address for the Ustream video but if I find out, I’ll update the post. Also keep an eye in the comments for Daniel.
I think this is the first episode of WordPress Weekly ever that I flew solo the entire episode. That’s why it was so short today. I’m not use to flying solo so bare with the mumbling I did that makes up most of the episode. I talked about some of the tibits I picked up from Matts keynote at WordCamp San Francisco, my efforts to monetize, my review of the limit logins plugin and a couple of other things. Hoping that after vacation and such, I can implement a few changes I have planned for the show. Long needed changes by the way.
This episode could have been sponsored by you. If you own a commercial plugin or theme that is GPL compatible or a service built around WordPress and are interested in advertising it, check out the advertising information page.
Review Of The Limit Login Attempts Plugin
Interesting Tidbits From The Keynote
GoDaddy Hacks Due To Old Software – Bad Passwords
Jason Schuller Did It – I Can Do It To
Next Episode: Saturday, May 29th 2P.M. EST
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Length Of Episode: 29 Minutes
Download The Show: WordPressWeeklyEpisode99.mp3
Listen To Episode #99:
Jason Schuller has published a great post that takes us on a journey on how he went from point A to point B. Two years ago, Jason was sitting in a cubicle. Today, he is one of the top guns when it comes to commercial WordPress themes. His story is not only inspirational but it really hits home for me. Right now, I’m in the same situation. I think about quitting my job all the time. I sometimes get pretty depressed that I have no career in front of me. I don’t have a salary where I get paid at least 30-40 thousand dollars a year. I’m 28 years old and the only thing going for me is WPTavern.com. Within the next three months, I’ll be moving out of my parents house into one of my own with my wife to be. I’m starting to feel the pressure of the need to make more money to at least keep the bills paid.
Part of my reason for not quitting my job just yet is that I’m afraid. I’ve given that grocery store 10 years of my life and right now, I make about $13.75 an hour with anywhere between 16 and 35 hours a week. I’m also trying to figure out a plan to properly monetize my passion so I can continue to do it while paying the bills at the same time. However, unlike Jason, I do not have a theme or plugin to sell. Also, consultant work is out of my league. What I truly enjoy doing is continuing to write about the evolution of WordPress through this website. I also love the fact that I can provide a wide outlet for people to share their stories on how they use the software. Anyone who has ever interviewed me for a podcast or for a textual post realizes that I love talking about the software. After all, that’s why I have my own show. So I what I love to do is generate content without being tied down into what I can write about. The problem is, this content is free so I have to come up with other creative ways to generate revenue. Here is a list of current methods with a couple of other methods I’m thinking about.
Display Advertising – This has worked well for me since I added it to the site. The only problem is that the display ads do not get as many clicks as advertisers would like. However, the display ads definitely provide visual awareness of their product or service.
Audio Advertising – This has also worked well for me although there are currently no advertising slots being used on the show. This type of advertising is two deals in one. Not only do the listeners get to hear about a product, event, or service, but the text as well as a link to it is provided within the content of the show notes.
Affiliated Reviews – This method by far has had the biggest impact on me in 2010. Especially the review I did of BackupBuddy. Affiliated reviews have definitely picked up the slack during the times when there were open display advertising slots. I’ve also taken to the idea of any affiliated review I perform gets added to the Tavern store since the review post can get lost after a few days.
Branded Merchandise – I’m currently researching various companies to figure out how I could easily create some WPTavern branded merchandise for folks to purchase. I wouldn’t mind having a WPTavern mug myself or a couple of shirts to give away at any WordCamps I attend. Since the audience has pushed me for merchandise, I’ll figure out a way to deliver. The only problem with going through a company is that the prices are generally steep and I only make profit if I charge above the flat rate price. However, the convenience of not having to package and ship the items myself makes up for that.
VIP Membership – Longtime fans of WPTavern.com know that I was very close to putting in a pay wall for the forum. However, I backed out of it after a lengthy discussion. I’m now considering doing it again but instead of making the entire forum a pay wall, I will be creating a new section in the forum exclusively for those who pay a membership fee of $25.00 a year which I think is fair with all things considered. Some of the perks I’m working on include special monthly deals on commercial products or services, an area where members can post and respond to job offers, a private forum that can be seen or responded to by ONLY paying members, a special discount on any of the merchandise I sell as well as any other perks I can think of.
WordCamp Sponsorship – I’ve toyed with this idea before but I turned it down because I didn’t want to be a shill for a company. However, after giving it some more thought, I’m pretty sure I can conduct my business at a WordCamp without that happening. I’m going to try and come up with a price that at least covers my airfare and hotel to a city where a WordCamp is being held. During this trip, any video content, audio content, or posts that are generated from the event will be branded with the sponsors company, product or service. Also, if the sponsor sends me some sort of sponsor package with business cards, a hat or shirt branded by them that I could wear, buttons, etc. that would be even better. I even wouldn’t mind giving that companies stuff away to any fans in attendance. The key here is that this would allow me to work for the people, work for myself, and work for the company that sponsors me all at the same time without having to worry about the financial aspects of it all.
I really hate the grocery store where I work but the thought of quitting and not having job security is scary, especially when I know I can make one to two-hundred dollars per week if need be. With WPTavern, there might be a week that goes by where I don’t get paid anything and payments come in at all different times of the month. It’s also important to note that much of the money that WPTavern makes goes back into the site or helps pay for my travels to WordCamps. Not much of it is used to directly pay myself.
Also, it is my strong belief that if making money is your only goal in life, you will probably spend the rest of your life chasing that goal and never end up where you want to be. I realize that the title of this article is “How I Monetized My Passion”, but what I really mean by that is money can sometimes become a by-product of chasing your passions. Money is not a bad thing, but it really should not be your means to happiness. When I left my day job two years ago, money was never my end game, and I hope it’s not yours when/if you decide to make a major change in your life. Let your interests and your passions be the driving force behind change in your life – I did.
In my situation, money is not the end all be all. Money is what will help me to continue doing what I love to do. I don’t want to become filthy rich from running an enthusiast community, I just want to make enough to continue doing what I’m doing while being able to put bread on the table and give my wife to be the confidence that what I’m doing is paying off. A sense of accomplishment and well being wouldn’t hurt either.
Over the weekend, numerous users on GoDaddy shared webhosting accounts reported that their sites had been hacked with injected malware. Neowin.net was able to get a hold of GoDaddy’s security expert Todd Redfoot who explained what happened:
GoDaddy reassures customers that the attack was via WordPress and not an attack on the GoDaddy servers themselves. The coordinated attack on WordPress was formed in a botnet-like attack, which targeted outdated versions of WordPress, however, the exploit was not found in version 2.9.2. In some instances, users not running WordPress were also hacked, but did have an active or inactive WordPress installation on their account. In as many cases, users were unaware that an installation of WordPress was present on their account.
So in this instance, GoDaddy was not specifically attacked but sites using WordPress on their servers were. This is another lesson that upgrading ASAP to lessen the chance of these types of exploits affecting your site is imperative in maintaining a healthy website.
On a related note, a couple of the U.S. Department Of Treasury websites have been hacked as well. These sites are located within the Network Solutions hosting system which explains the compromise. According to NetSol:
This past weekend, an application that we support on our hosting platform was exploited as we were in the process of fixing it. We believe we have fixed the issue and we were able to contain the number of potentially affected websites to less than 250.
Discussion regarding the hacks affecting the various webhosting companies is ongoing in the following WPTavern forum thread.
Ajax Edit Comments For Just Five Bucks
By Jeffro on May 20, 2010
It will be interesting to hear from Ronald in a month how well the À la carte option is performing.
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Posted in Plugins | Tagged ajax, comments, edit | 2 Responses