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Gravatar.com Gets A New Look

Gravatar.com Gets A New Look

By Jeffro on August 20, 2009

gravatarlogoThanks to Viper007bond on Twitter, I was notified of a new redesign for Gravatar.com. Seems as though most sites under the Automattic umbrella are getting a refresh these days. The new design definitely provides more information than its counterpart along with links to developer resources on the front page. Also, there is a large screencast video produced by Michael Pick which explains what the service is all about.

Gravatar gets a new look

Gravatar gets a new look

Gravatar is not a complex site so this simple front page sums up the site quite well. What do you think?

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The Only Two Letter .ME Domain In The World

The Only Two Letter .ME Domain In The World

By Jeffro on August 14, 2009

So says Matt Mullenweg in his official WordPress.com blog post announcing that the new domain, WP.me would be host to shortened URL’s for users of WordPress.com. According to the post:

  • WP.me is the only two-letter .me domain in the world.
  • Every blog and post on WordPress.com has a WP.me URL now.
  • These are all exposed in the using rel=shortlink.
  • It doesn’t work for any URL in the world, just WP.com-hosted ones.
  • The links are permanent, they will work as long as WordPress.com is around.
  • WP.me is spam-free, because we are constantly monitoring and removing spam from WP.com.

Now for those of you wondering if the WordPress.org side of things will be able to tap into this URL shortener, the good news is Yes. However, you will need to use the WordPress.com stats plugin in order to do so. This means that the URL shortener is pretty much limited to WordPress users only and not to external parties. I have installed the WordPress.com stats plugin and at this moment, there is no button to shorten URL’s so I imagine at some point down the line, it will make it’s way into the write panel.

I as well as many others thought that WP.com would be perfect to use as a URL shortening service but alas, it was not to be. At least with WP.me, they cut one more character off of the domain.

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Synergy Project Still Swinging

Synergy Project Still Swinging

By Jeffro on August 12, 2009

The WP Synergy Project formerly known as the Gorilla Theme Project that I told you about back on April 27th is still going. According to a blog post by project creator Jeeremie, the project is steadily gaining steam. Since April, the project gained a new name which I’m very happy to have had a hand in, a new logo, project management and all sorts of other goodies. The infrastructure of the open project is as follows:

synergylogo

If I were not so darn busy, I would be participating more in this project as I think it’s really cool what those guys are doing. WP Synergy is currently working on a theme called PigNews which I’ve been anxiously waiting to see released for quite some time now. Based on the screenshots, this is one of the few themes that I have seen present a lot of content while not overdoing it and still providing breathing room for other elements on the site.

Help Them Out:

The Synergy guys need your help if you can afford your expertise or time.

If you are a designer or developer, there’s many way to be involved in this project. As a designer, we need you to create stunning themes, design mascots, logos, icons… As a developer, we need you to enhance our themes with options page, add AJAX effects, configure servers, develop our Options theme Framework… and we need everyone to spread the word (on twitter, Facebook, on your blog…) to move this project forward and take it to the next level.

I believe I’ve helped out a bit with this blog post!

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WordPress.com Testing A New Look

WordPress.com Testing A New Look

By Jeffro on August 12, 2009

Matt Thomas last night announced on Twitter that WordPress.com would be live testing a new design.

We’re running a live redesign on http://wordpress.com this week, if you’re into that sort of thing. I think it’s gonna be pretty swanky.

Upon checking it out, I gotta say that it’s strikingly different than the design it replaces. It’s visual, has more images, and still manages to keep that clean look that is a staple for Automattic.

freshpress

There are a few minor issues I have with the design. The first is that I think the right sidebar looks a bit clunky with images on the right and the top one on the left. Also, the spacing between the text and images varies and makes it look weird. The other concern I found was with the text color #888888. I think it’s too light and should be bumped up a shade or two darker. While the Sign Up Now button looks great with the orange gradient, the solid orange sign up now link does not mesh well with the background color. It seems too bright.

What do you think of this design?

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First Episode Of Press This Is Out The Door

First Episode Of Press This Is Out The Door

By Jeffro on August 5, 2009

pressthislogoJoost DeValk aka Yoast in the community has produced his first episode of his WordPress podcast called Press This published through Webmastradio.FM. In his first episode, Joost interviews John Gridley who is an Automattic new hire. Also during the show, Joost answers questions from the chatroom on optimizing WordPress for Search, one of his specialties. After all, he’s the one responsible for the Joost Boost (SEO Optimization) for StudioPress themes. The show comes in at 33 minutes so it shouldn’t be too hard to consume.

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15 Useful Hacks From WPBeginner

15 Useful Hacks From WPBeginner

By Jeffro on August 4, 2009

wpbeginnerlogo The folks over at WPBeginner.com have a great list of 15 different hacks for WordPress that they consider to be extremely useful, and I’d tend to agree. Their first hack which enables you to link to an external source from the post title sounds like something Matt Mullenweg could implement on his personal site. One of the useful hacks I found was the ability to use a custom image for the default Gravatar. Simple, but nifty. I’m also starting to see more of this thing called rand which is used to randomize something.

The most useful hack on that post which I’m thinking of implementing myself is the ability to delay the post from being published via RSS for a period of time so that I have a small window in case I need to make a change or edit the post. Couple of other good ones on the list as well so go check them out and bookmark it.

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Down Memory Lane With WordPress.com

Down Memory Lane With WordPress.com

By Jeffro on July 31, 2009

waybackmachineWordPress.com, the commercial service owned and operated by Automattic has undergone a redesign. Now, I can’t tell you what changed and what didn’t because I don’t visit the site often enough to notice the changes. However, if I had to take a guess, I’d say the footer is different, some things have been rearranged, but overall, the clean and simplistic look is still there.

However, upon looking for a screenshot of WordPress.com before these recent changes, I dove into some WordPress.com history based on the results of the Internet Archive. WordPress.com has been around for a long time, long before I even knew there was a WordPress. Upon browsing through the results that the internet archive has, it’s very interesting to see the progression of the site/service. At one point, it looks like Matt or Automattic lost control of the WordPress.com domain but eventually got it back. Also worthy of note are the links to OpenDomain.org which was a service that provided opensource project domains. I have no idea if WordPress was an open domain or not but it certainly appears as though Drupal.com was.

With all that said, lets take a visual tour down memory lane of the WordPress.com domain with special thanks to the Internet Archive.

July 2004 – Dec 2004
WordPress.com displays a parked domain page for the better part of the year and during the middle of December of 2004, WordPress.com turns into a free domain that is available for use as an open source project.

wpcomavailableforfree

Feb 2005 – May 2005
WordPress.com goes through a few errors during the first part of the year but during May, WordPress.com ends up back in control of the WordPress team. Obviously, this implies that they lost control of the domain some how. Not sure what happened but this is the first time in the Internet Archive where I see the WordPress image logo for the first time. Also, it’s the first time I see a link to WordPress.org which just for giggles, I highly encourage you to check out what it looked like at the time the link was published. My goodness, that design reminds me of bbPress today! Good thing they are getting a redesign!

welcometowpdotcom

May 2005 – July 2005
The same WordPress logo and page text stuck around from May to mid July but around July 28th, the excitement level for WordPress.com should have been ramping up as the page offered up a form to sign where interested users could be notified once the site went live. The signup also reserved the person’s username.

getnotified

July 2005 – August 2005
Soon after the form goes online, WordPress.com goes through a minor redesign on August 17th where users can enter their invite code or signup to receive an invite code. At this time, the credit link on the bottom of WordPress.com says that WP.com is powered by WordPress. At this point, we can say hello to the beginning of the branding nightmare that haunts us today.

wpcominvites

September 2005
During the month of September, WordPress.com introduces Hot Blogs Today alongside the invitation form which till this day, still exists on the front page of WordPress.com. Among some of the hot blogs at the time were Matt On WordPress, Lorelle On WordPress, Ryan On WordPress, and Ubuntu Blog. Also on this page, there is text where the Open Domain link used to be which says Domain Donated By Ric Johnson. Just as a WordPress.org tidbit, version 1.5.2 was making it’s way around the web.

hotblogstoday

October 2005
Around October 23rd of 2005, WordPress.com sports their support of the Flock browser. They consider it to be like FireFox but with goodies.

wpcomflock

November 2005
On November 24th, 2005 the archive of WordPress.com showcases the full design instead of a CSS less page. We get to see the blue colors, the WordPress.com logo and the W. On November 30th for the first time, WordPress.com displays an image logo of Automattic in the bottom right hand corner. The image linked to a landing page for Automattic.com which also linked to WordPress.com and Akismet. What I find fascinating is that the Akismet site design has been the same since 2005 but it has always looked refreshing to me and it still does.

wpcomfirstdesign

December 2005
On December 10th, 2005 the WordPress.com homepage changes to show a Username And Password box. Above the login form, there is text that explains WordPress.com has over 37,000 other bloggers on the service. Below the login form is a block that features WordPress.com news. Also on December 10th, the WordPress.com header design features snow flakes which has become a tradition. Just two days later on December 14th, the number jumps up to 39,000 bloggers. By the time December 31st arrives, WordPress.com has over 51,000 users.

37thousandbloggers

February 2006
WordPress.com adds a section to the homepage that enables users to submit their email address to retrieve their activation key. At this time, WP.com has over 92,000 users. Also introduced is a change to the WordPress.org promotion link at the bottom of the page. Instead of a link to WordPress.org, it took you to WordPress.org/hosting as a list of recommended webhosts with affiliate links to those webhosts. This page exists today and amazingly, is not that much different.

lostkey

March 2006
WordPress.com introduced a new navigation link called Topics which was in fact, tag functionality in WordPress in beta form. On the WordPress.org side of things, WordPress was at version 2.0.2. Also, WP.com now had over 119,000 users.

wpcomtags

April 2006
A few new links added to the WordPress.com home page. About Us, Terms Of Service, and Privacy Policy.

wpcomnewlinks

June 2005
In June, WordPress.com added the Blogs Of The Day to their front page.

blogsoftheday

July 2006
In addition to hot blogs of the day, hot posts of the day were also linked to from the WP.com homepage. Also in July, a new link was added to the footer (Contact Support) where users could contact support through a contact form.

hotposts

August 2006
The footer of WordPress.com become a little bigger since it was filled with links to other languages of the site. A link to notable users on WordPress.com was also added to the frontpage. Apparently, these were the cool kids. Just for giggles, the text on the contact page was changed to highlight the fact that only blogs with urls that contain WordPress.com would be supported with a link to the WordPress.org forums for other users.

otherlanguages

September 2006
After realizing that all of those language links broke the design of the footer, it was changed in September so that only a few other languages were displayed with a link to more.

otherlanguages2

October 2006
WordPress.com realizes it has hundreds of great features to offer new bloggers. At this point, the service hosts over 399,000 blogs. A FAQ link is added to the footer.

November 2006
A small avatar shows up alongside links to the hot posts of the day. Instead of the login text asking if you already have an account, it now asks whether you’re already hip? Matt’s personalty is sinking into more of the service. Two new links are added to the footer. Features and Advanced. This is around the time when VIP hosting was introduced to the Automattic Mix.

smallavatars

February 2007 – July 2007
WordPress.com looks like a mess in the Internet Archive in this time span so it’s tough to gauge what’s new or what’s been taken away. If you’re really curious about these months, check out the archive for the domain yourself and click on them.

August 2007 – February 2008
WordPress.com receives a huge redesign which completely reshapes the display of the frontpage. It doesn’t look as great as what the actual design looked like because of some archive issues but basically, everything on the page received some attention. By this time, Automattic was getting ready to acquire Gravatar which they did on October 18th. One thing that was introduced with the brand new design is Stats. After the major redesign, it was basically business as normal as according to the archived pages from the Wayback Machine, nothing really changed. The last page that is accessible on the Internet Archive of WordPress.com is February 15th, 2008.

wpcommajorredesign

Wayback Machine Is Awesome:

It really is. Without it, I would have never been able to see things from that moment in time regarding the state of WordPress.org, Automattic, WordPress.com, Akismet, etc. One thing I learned while compiling this post is how awesome it is to click on a link in an archived page from the Wayback Machine and see the content linked to as it was in that time frame which gives me a much better picture of that time period. For example, during my clicking around, I saw WordPress.org sporting sponsored links which we know by now, Matt learned his lesson. In any case, I hope this dial-up crushing page not only enabled you to learn a thing a two from the past regarding WordPress.com, WordPress.org, or Automattic, but I hope it gives you a sense of appreciation for how far the project has come, thanks in large part to the contributions of code from volunteers.

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Virtual WordCamp Virtually Disappears

Virtual WordCamp Virtually Disappears

By Jeffro on July 29, 2009

Back on July 3rd, I published an article about the first WordCamp event to take place on line giving it the name, Virtual WordCamp. I wasn’t the only one to take issue with the fact that the price to attend a Virtual WordCamp was higher than a physical event. Not only that, but some people argued that WordCamps are all about networking and getting together in a physical location and not virtually.

Fast forward to today, and VirtualWordCamp.com no longer loads. The site is gone. Instead, it’s been replaced with VirtualWordWeek.com. The new site removed the mention of WordCamp while also providing more details as to who the event is targeted for. But how did this come about? Was it a change of heart?

I have it on very good authority that higher ups in the WordPress community took note of VirtualWordCamp. They didn’t like what they saw and ended up with an email exchange with the organizer of the event. Because WordCamp has a fundamental meaning that is explained on WordCamp.org, on the surface, it looked like VirtualWordCamp was geared to take advantage of the WordCamp term and make a ton of money off of the event. If there is one thing WordCamp is not about, it’s money.

During WordCamp Montreal, Matt Mullenweg participated in a Q&A session. One of the questions came from me delivered via Brad Williams to Matt. The question was: Does Automattic have any plans on trademarking the term WordCamp as they have done for WordPress? Matt’s answer: There is probably going to be a trademark for WordCamp but it will be under the non profit side of things, under the WordPress Foundation. The Nascent foundation. However, Matt believes that the meanings of WordCamp and WordPress should be protected and upheld by the community. Via community pressure. However, Matt believes that trademarks should be used as a nuclear option.

Regarding the WordPress foundation, I have some info on that but I’ll be putting a post together that highlights the benefits of this foundation and what it’s possible purpose will be.

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Ask Jeff: How Did You Get The Photo To The Left Side Of Your Posts And How Was The Post Automatically Shorted?

Ask Jeff: How Did You Get The Photo To The Left Side Of Your Posts And How Was The Post Automatically Shorted?

By Jeffro on July 27, 2009

askjeff80x80This post is part of an ongoing series called Ask Jeff. This is where I’ll take a question someone within the WPTavern or WordPress community gives me and provide my thoughts/answer to. This question was submitted by Andrew.

How did you get the photo to the left side of your posts and how was the post automatically shorted?

I use a child theme called Hybrid News which is a theme built on top of the Hybrid framework. Out of the box, this theme has a frontpage template file that automatically cuts off posts after a certain character amount so that it only displays the excerpt. However, I don’t like the minimal amount of control I had over the display of the excerpt which is why I installed and use a plugin called The Excerpt Re-Reloaded. This plugin gives me the ability to fine tune the behaviour and display of the excerpt.

As for the images, this is another feature provided by the theme out of the box. Thanks to the Get_The_Image script Justin put into this theme, it can automatically take the first uploaded image in the post and use that as the post image thumbnail or you can specify which image to use based on the image URL. You can have the post thumbnails show up on the left, or right which is just a change in the CSS file.

In short, both features come with the theme out of the box except I used a plugin to modify the excerpt.

Submit Your Question:

If you have a question regarding any aspect of WordPress you would like me to answer or at least, hear my take on, you can either contact me using the following contact form with your question or you can follow WPTavern on Twitter and send me an @reply with your question. If the WPTavern account is following you, simply send me a Direct Message with your question.

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Ask Jeff: How Did You Get The vBulletin Template So Similar To Your Main Site?

Ask Jeff: How Did You Get The vBulletin Template So Similar To Your Main Site?

By Jeffro on July 27, 2009

askjeff80x80This post is part of an ongoing series called Ask Jeff. This is where I’ll take a question someone within the WPTavern or WordPress community gives me and provide my thoughts/answer to. This question was submitted by Rob.

How did you get the vBulletin template so similar to your main site. Like header and footer wise?

Well Rob, the hard part was getting the WPTavern site design to a point where I could stop focusing on the actual design. So, I opted for this brown and reddish color scheme. Thankfully though, I was in luck as I found a vBulletin style that pretty much matched the design of the website. The style is called gfx_v3BrownGold and can be located for purchase at GFXStyles.com. I removed most of the images and replaced the containers with CSS colors. I also edited the header file so I could add the same links to the forum header that are the same as on the blog. The background for the forum is the same as the site which was just a CSS edit for the background property in the style. The header is not exactly the same as the site since it does not stretch across the entire page. It doesn’t stretch because of the way the style has been coded but it’s close enough for me.

To make a long story short, I designed the site first, then found a style that was as close as I could find to the site design. I then replaced images, deleted images, and edited the forum styles CSS until I got it matching pretty close to the site. It took me about 30-45 minutes to edit the forum style to match the site which at the time, I was really thankful for.

Submit Your Question:

If you have a question regarding any aspect of WordPress you would like me to answer or at least, hear my take on, you can either contact me using the following contact form with your question or you can follow WPTavern on Twitter and send me an @reply with your question. If the WPTavern account is following you, simply send me a Direct Message with your question.

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