Episode 40 of WordPress Weekly discussed a wide range of topics from the release of WordPress MU 2.7 to the All In One SEO Plugin reaching one million downloads. Also sad to say that this was Keith Murray’s last episode as co-host. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Special Announcement:
Kym Huynh co-host of the WordPress centric podcast, WordCast was in a terrible car accident. Kym was in the middle of a three week vacation celebrating his recent graduation from law school when he ended up in a bad car accident. Unfortunately, Kym suffered quite a few broken bones and now has a metal arm. Dave Moyer of DaveMoyer.org, producer of show published an email he received from Kym earlier today that can be read on the DaveMoyer.org website. I personally wish Kym a fast and speedy recovery. Please visit DaveMoyer.org to find out how to send your get well wishes to Kym.
Each week from now on, I’ll be featuring a new listener poll question on WPTavern.com The poll is located in the sidebar on the right hand side of the site.
This weeks poll question was: Has the visual post editor ever made you angry?
Out of a total of 22 votes, 20 of you said yes while only 2 of you voted no.
Next Weeks Poll Question Is: Do you think configuration options need to be added to WordPress to configure Post Revisions?
Plugin Picks Of The Week: Jeff – Revision Control – Revision control gives users control over post/page revisions. With it, you can choose a blog-global setting which is found in SETTINGS – REVISIONS in the WordPress administration panel for pages/posts to enable/disable or limit the number of revisions which are saved per post/page. This setting can even be controlled on an individual level since the revision control shows up as a meta box in the WordPress Write Panel.
Keith – TweetSuite – TweetSuite is one of the most complete plugins available for Twitter-minded individuals. The tool allows for all the usual twitter features that we’ve come to expect (tweet my post, widget my tweets) but goes further: widget for favorite tweets, and most importantly TWEETBACKS. Becoming as important as trackbacks from other blogs are tweetbacks. When someone tweets your post with one of the major URL shortening services (tinyurl, is.gd etc) TweetSuite will find that tweet and add a tweetback to your post. Super cool. If you’re into twitter and have a blog, TweetSuite is a must-have.
Announcements: The next episode of WordPress Weekly will have a new co-host. Who will it be? Tune in to find out.
On the evening of Tuesday, January 27th, I had the pleasure to converse with Michael Pick, an employee of Automattic and also the guy behind the newly launched WordPress.TV. WordPress.TV is a new website which aggregates all sorts of WordPress content in video form. The site has already made a name for itself by showcasing many of the videos from recent WordCamps. Here is just a sampling of what we discussed during the show.
Here are some of the questions we covered on the show:
What is the purpose of WordPress.TV?
How did WordPress.TV reach fruition?
Will WordPress.TV feature content created by people other than Automattic?
What do you plan on doing with videos that seemingly disappear?
Can someone suggest a video that is produced with a language other than English?
If there were any plans to let the videos be downloadable or even a podcast?
Are WordPress.tv videos released under the GPL? Would love to use this stuff for company training videos
Near the end of the show, I let my curiosity get the best of me.
Plug For A Podcast: Plugins Podcast is a podcast which aims to cover one WordPress plugin a week with occasional interviews of plugin developers as well as heavy plugin users. Episodes range between 10-15 minutes and are in mp3 format. Angelo already has a podcast available on the pluginspodcast.com website where he discusses the CForms2 Custom Forms plugin. So if you’re a plugin junkie, this sounds like the show for you.
Announcements: This Friday will be Keith Murray’s last episode as co-host of the show. Please stop by for the going away party as we send Keith off to greener pastures.
Continuing with the theme of E-Commerce, this week I had the chance to interview Dan Milward who is the man in charge of the WP E-Commerce plugin. During the hour long conversation, we discussed the feature set of WP E-Commerce, e commerce in general, what its been like to operate a business in and around WordPress and much more. If you have used WP E-Commerce in the past or are just interested in hearing what Dan has to say regarding the plugin, definitely tune in to this episode.
Disclaimer: This interview was not purchased or is sponsored in any way.
Here are some of the questions we covered on the show:
What are the differences between the free version of the plugin and the gold cart solution?
In your opinion, why has WP E-commerce become synonymous with WordPress and E Commerce?
What are your thoughts on the GPL?
How has it been like for you and Instinct to run a business based on and around WordPress?
How well does WP-E-commerce work with WordPress MU?
Announcements: Next week will be Keith Murray’s last episode as co-host of the show. Please stop by for the going away party as we send Keith off to greener pastures.
It’s not often that we feature plugins or themes that you have to pay for but when the product is fully compliant with the GPL, things are gravy! In this special episode of WordPress Weekly, we talk e-commerce with Jonathan Davis who is the developer of the Shopp E-Commerce plugin for WordPress. Jonathan gives us the low down on what his plugin has to offer. What is also interesting is his business model. The plugin is fully compliant under the GPL but without purchasing the update Key, you won’t be able to upgrade the software. If you’re interested in learning about an e-commerce solution for WordPress, definitely take a listen to this episode.
Disclaimer: This interview was not purchased or is sponsored in any way.
Here are some of the questions we covered on the show:
Why did you create Shopp when WP-Ecommerce was already available?
Speaking of WP-Ecommerce, what does Shopp have to offer that the competition doesn’t?
Which payment options/gateways does Shopp support?
For a single site license, the plugin costs $55.00 What else does a user get when they purchase the plugin?
Does this plugin work with WordPress MU?
Announcements: On January 23rd, Dan Milward of the WP E-Commerce plugin will be our special guest to discuss E-Commerce from his point of view and tells us what his plugin is capable of.
Joining me this week on WordPress Weekly was Douglas Bell who operates Webmacster87.info as well as hosts the PHPBBWeekly podcast. In this episode, David and I chatted about a number of subjects including:
WordPress User Interface History
BBPress
PHPBB3
The possibilities of the WordPress team working with PHPBB to develope a bridge between the two
Security of PHPBB3 and WordPress
And a whole lot more. While PHPBB and WordPress are two different pieces of open source software serving different needs, I find it interesting to discuss the differences in strategy as well as the similarities between the two.
Plugin Of The Week:Maintenance Mode – Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end. When the maintenance mode is activated, a custom defined message is shown to site visitors
Announcements: On January 16th, Jonathan Davis who has created a comprehensive e-commerce plugin for WordPress called Shopp will be our special guest.
I flew solo for episode 35 while Keith cranked out some college work. In this episode, I interviewed Mark E. who is just about ready to release the first beta of his comprehensive WordPress Security plugin called Maximum Security. During our discussion, it was easy to see that this plugin contains just about everything except the kitchen sink as it relates to security and WordPress. If you don’t believe me, view the long list of features this plugin has with more on the way. We also discussed security through obscurity, basic WordPress security practices and much more. Mark has 15 years of experience in network and system security and within this episode, he gave us about 4 years worth of experience in less than an hour!
Plugin Of The Week:Comment Luv – Comments are a wonderful thing to receive on your blog and while adding the dofollow plugin is one way to reward your commenter’s, why not place a link to their last post under their comment. With CommentLuv, you can do that automatically! This is an excellent way to promote comments from your readers. The CommentLuv WordPress Plugin will visit the feed of the comment author and attempt to scrape the last post they made and display it under their comment, this way you can encourage people to join in the discussion of your posts and give something back straight away. WordPress.
Announcements:Douglas Bell will be our special guest on January 9th..
First off, BuddyPress is looking real good these days. Secondly, I’d like to thank Andy Peatling, head honcho for the BuddyPress project for stopping by and lending us an hour of his time to explain exactly what BuddyPress is and does. On December 15th, 2008 Andy released the first beta version of the project. So what exactly is BuddyPress?
BuddyPress is essentially a set of WordPress MU specific plugins. Each plugin component adds a distinct feature to BuddyPress and only handles functionality for that specific component (for example, private messaging). BuddyPress also has a core plugin that all other plugins require, it contains shared functions and performs the basic modifications to the WordPress MU interface.
Tune into the show to hear Andy delve into the feature set of the project as well as taking questions from the audience. By the way, if you don’t have the ability to install WordPress MU and then BuddyPress, you can view and participate in a live demo by registering an account on http://www.testbp.org
Announcements: This was our last show for 2008. Keith and I look forward to creating more great podcasts in 2009 and we both thank each and everyone of you who continue to support the show. Have a happy holiday and a merry new year.
Mark E. Will Be On The Show For January 2nd To Discuss His Comprehensive Security Plugin
On Thursday, December 18th, I had the honor of having a fireside chat so to speak with Matt Mullenweg. The chat lasted a little over two hours and then, Matt stayed around after the show for an additional two hours to field questions from anybody that asked them. There are a number of things that I have taken away with this chat with Matt and I’ll be listing those in an article in the following days but without a shadow of a doubt, Matt is a stand up guy. He answered all of my questions, even the tough ones which were submitted by the community. While there is room left to debate the GPL and what is or isn’t compliant, Matt answered the GPL questions to the best of his ability and in most cases, his answers are nothing more than his personal opinion since certain aspects of the GPL would be much clearer if there was a court case to stand by.
I really feel as though this two hour recording is the most important recording I’ve made yet and is the biggest contribution I have made so far, back to the community. If there was one podcast that you should listen to as it relates to WordPress, the GPL, Matt’s involvement with Automattic and the Project, this would be it. Special thanks to Matt Mullenweg for agreeing to come on the show to address all of the issues that were presented to him by me.
To get a sample of the information discussed in this episode, here are the list of questions that I asked Matt. After this list, he took questions from anyone that asked them either by those who called in or sent them in the chat.
Why were those themes removed from the repository and if you look back at the situation now, do you think you made a mistake by not making a public post about the removals?
Can you explain why the new guideline was added to the theme repository?
Why is it that so many people within the inner circle of the WordPress community believe you and Automattic don’t want anyone else profiting through or around WordPress?
In your opinion, do you think that premium themes have actually benefited the community by way of furthering the overall development of WordPress themes?
In a recent conversation, I saw you describe premium themes as propietary and how you felt that was a better word than premium. Why is that?
How many of these debates and the way things are done are a result of their not being a court case to go by?
Does it bother you at all to see countless debates on various WordPress theme author sites about the GPL and what is and not compliant with it?
Drupal and Joomla have decided the commercial stuff is okay but why not WordPress?
In November of 2007 hot off the heels of WordCamp Argentina, news came out about a possible theme marketplace where people sold themes through the marketplace and the theme author as well as Automattic each recieved a cut of the profits. Was that your way of trying to help premium theme authors and has their been any progress on the idea?
The Drupal community has debated this GPL/Premium/Theme issue for a while. And a solid understanding has come from it:
A theme is made up of several files – template files (ending in .php), CSS, images and JavaScript. The template files are considered a part of Drupal, which is licensed under the GPL, which means they are not restricted in their redistribution. You are free to share the .php files so others can benefit from them. However, the rest of the theme – images, CSS and JavaScript – is independent from Drupal and owned by us and licensed by you for one website per purchase. You may not publish or share these parts of the themes with anyone else. Please review our EULA for full details. (Taken from a Drupal Theme Developers page)
When the notion of making money by selling themes pops up at WordCamps, you are quick to explain the WordPress.com business model of selling services and building support/value around the prodcut but this model will not work for everyone. What is a premium theme author to do?
I’ve spoken to a few premium theme authors and they tell me that because of the GPL, nothing stops someone from picking up Brian Gardners themes, changing the footer link and then undercutting his business by selling support at a cheaper price. Is that a valid argument?
Redistributing paid themes for free, which is ok under the GPL thus, rendering the business model of selling themes useless, as I understand it. Yet, that hasn’t happened and I wonder if that is because most end users are not aware of the GPL, all they see is the single-use multi-use licenses attached to themes
Is there a way where premium theme companies such as iThemes and you or Automattic can come to a compromise?
Lets say I have a template generator that outputs GPL themes, but has premium features. It could be used to create freebie themes which would be eligible to be in the repository, but since the generator outputs themes with a link back to my site which promotes the premium services, which in turn may be used for creating themes suitable for the repository, but again those themes have a link back to my site.
Is it true that the notion of Child themes which appears to be gaining momentum can be viewed as a loophole as far as the GPL is concerned considering these are themes which are purele CSS and Image based?
At what point do you stop accepting good themes that comply with the GPL because of a connection an author has with commercial themes. How far does it go.
If WP.org is about the community, why are decisions made unilaterally, rather than by the community?
Just out of curiosity, do you get annoyed sometimes by people blaming or mentioning Automattic for the decisions or things that take place for WordPress.org? I mean, Automattic and the WordPress project are two separate things.
What is your role with automattic and what is your role with the wordpress.org project and is their ever a conflict of interest between the two?
In your opinion, how far does the GPL go? CSS, images, phpfiles,
Why have you not used the WordPress development blog to bring forth the issues of GPL and various other aspects of the project?
This whole show has pretty much been dedicated to themes but how does all of this effect plugins, the plugin repository and such?
Episode 33 Kenn Bell of TheDogFiles.com as well as Jason Schuller who is one half of the Revolution 2 project. This was a great combination of guests as Kenn initially created the design for TheDogFiles site while Jason applied his code ninja skills to make the design a reality. Here are a couple of bullet points of discussion from this episode:
Brief discussion of WordPress 2.7
Why WordPress was chosen as the publishing platform of choice
The design and implementation of TheDogFiles website
The Revolution 2 project
Last but not least, since Jason is a prominent theme designer in the WordPress community, I took the opportunity to have a small discussion with him regarding the removal of 200 themes from the WordPress repository. We did talk a little bit about the GPL and we also discussed the Revolution 2 business model.
Announcements:Andy Peatling of the BuddyPress project will be our special guest on December 19th..
Due to some obligations which sprang up, Keith was unable to make it for this episode. So while schools, automakers, and banks ask for bailout packages, I had to do the same thing and you delivered. Special thanks to those who called in and turned what would have been a boring show into a great discussion on a number of topics.
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, contact us at wpweekly at gmail dot com.
Announcements: Ken Bell, who operates TheDogFiles.com is scheduled to appear on December 12th.
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Next Episode: Friday December 12th, 2008 8P.M. EST
Episode 40 of WordPress Weekly discussed a wide range of topics from the release of WordPress MU 2.7 to the All In One SEO Plugin reaching one million downloads. Also sad to say that this was Keith Murray’s last episode as co-host. I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.