Lost In Cyberspace

Archive for the ‘WordPress’ Category

Apparently the weekend was a good time for spammers, they hit-up MyBlogLog users big time with an exploit in their set up. According to the MyBlogLog Blog:

Saturday evening, a member discovered an exploit where you could send someone a request to join their community as a co-author and then automatically approve the request. In other words, someone (dare I call them a jackass) could force you to be a co-author of their community. I have no idea why they would do this, other than a negligible bump in marketing, but who ever said jackasses made sense?

They are introducing several new security features to try and keep things under conrol in future:

1. We're going to post an official Terms of Service (ToS) and hold people accountable.
2. By default, you now see only message from your own contacts.
3. We will include the text of the comment and associated controls (delete,reply, etc) in the alert email.
4. We will limit users to only five requests for co-authors a day.
5. We will limit users to join 15 communities and add 15 contacts during any day.
6. After the first five are complete, we will set up a comment approval system.

Up until now I had resisted joining up with MyBlogLog, but seeing how well they seem to of responded to this situation has convinced me to try them out for a while. In case you aren't too sure what MyBlogLog is, here is what they have to say on their "About" page:

About MyBlogLog You probably know a ton about your favorite bloggers - what they think about the subjects they write about, maybe some of their work and life history... you may even know what toothpaste they use. But how much do you know about all the other people who read their blogs? And how much do they know about you? For all this talk of a global conversation throughout the blogosphere, there's a lot to be desired. It's a two-tiered system, with bloggers talking amongst each other and the majority of the readers looking on from the fringes. You may get to call out something from the sidelines by leaving a comment, but things could be so much better. For everyone. MyBlogLog is launching this new Communities service to empower authors and readers to operate at the same level. For the first time, everyone who reads a web site or blog can learn about and engage with one another, and in the process take the conversation to a whole new level. Readers can become friends with other people who read your favorite blogs. See what else they're reading. Check out their MySpace and Friendster profiles and view their Flickr photostreams. Authors can learn more about their readers individually and as a group. What do they like and what are they ignoring? What are they reading elsewhere on the Web? MyBlogLog enables you to take advantage of your existing presence on the Web and ties it into communities of like-minded readers and authors to add context to the conversations in which you take part.

You have probably seen their widget around, it's on quite a few blogs these days. As it seems to be more and more prevalent I thought I would give it a try, see how it works out for a small blog like this one and see if it helps build some relationships around the Blogosphere. I was very impressed with the founders reactions and the sense of community they have. The plan they have put forward may be a little "stop-gap" for now, but they are prepared to listen to their users and fine tune it as things go on. In the near future I will add their widget to my side bar, perhaps giving me a chance to find out a little more about some of the people who drop by. Are you a MyBlogLog user? How have you found their service? What benefits are you gaining?

For a while now I have been using the Windows Live Writer as my desktop application for my blog, and overall I have been pretty pleased with it, but these last few days it seems to of developed a bit of a glitch.

I am not certain if this is because of some change in how WordPress works with the 2.1 install or if it's some update in the Live Writer that is causing the problem but so far I have not been able to work out what to do to correct the problem. The simple solution? Switch back to using "BlogDesk", which seems to have no problems with publishing to my site and has let me set up posting images pretty easily.

I recommend this desktop application to all blogger's, though it may not have the looks of "Live Writer" it has a few extra dictionaries that you can add:

• English (US and UK)
• German
• French
• Italian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Danish
• Croatian
• Czech
• Polish
• Slovenian
• Dutch
• Latin

Another nifty feature is that it allows you to save template posts as well as drafts, so if you have a weekly update or special repeated "Top 10" type post you like to make you can save yourself the hassle of setting it up every time.

Is there a desktop blogging application you would like to recommend?

Announcesd on Tuesday by Andy was the addition of VodPod as a new widget on all WP.com sites.

I am very happy to announce a new widget that is available to all WordPress.com blogs: Vodpod.com’s video sharing widget. Vodpod has tagging and voting and LOL’ing and everything else you’d expect from a Web 2.0 mashup and we’re just as pleased as parking meters to have this widget on WordPress.com!

This is a prety nifty little widget that allows you to save your favourite videos from around the web straight on to your blog page sidebar with just one click. If you want to you can upload your own videos to your VodPod account and have them on your site too, a nice easy way to include some vlogging on your site if that is your kind of thing.

I have it installed on my Whedon blog if you want to go check it out.

"Ella" has been avilable for a litle over three weeks now and the WordPress community seems to be prety happy with the improvements, but already there is news about what we can expect in v2.2! Over at "Mark On WordPress" there is news of an excellent added feature, a plug-in "sandbox" facility:

So the feature I’ve put into WordPress 2.2 is what I call plugin sandboxing. Before a plugin is activated or a plugin is edited, it is tested in a temporary fashion (that is, without being permanently activated). If it passes the test, it is activated for real

A very useful feature indeed for plug-in developers and addicts. ;-)

Over the last week I have seen the "Powered By" directory site mentioned in several blogs but it wasn't until tonight that I finally had a chance to check it over for myself. This site is set up expressly to be used by WordPress bloggers. Going by the footer the site is run by Vasmi Gangavalli, but it looks like this person has a massive job on at the moment as each site that is submitted is manually checked. There is an option to set up a reciprocal link (which is now set up on my sidebar just above my logo) which means you should get quicker authentication. Submission was pretty easy, though the page went a bit kapplooey (possibly not a real word) when I hit the "Continue" button. That was probably due to an error by me on the captcha. It definitely worked on my second try as I got my confirmation e-mail through straight away. Though this is a free service you can pay for some extra exposure, a featured link will cost you $19.95/year but the cost goes up to $29.95/year at the beginning of May. The benefits are:

• Your link will stay on top of the category that you submit and so attracting more visitors.
• Featured links are also displayed site wide at the right hand side in random.
• Featured Blogs have the advantage of Express Approval.

Though this is not something I would be that interested in it may well come in useful for some of those out there starting to try and monetize their sites. Are there any other directories out there that you have used?

 I just read about the new Widgipedia over at Techscape, this looks like it could prove to be a very useful site to have bookmarked, a total widget-fest for all you widget lovers!

Widgipedia online widget-fest officially launches

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Oh yes. Widgets are taking over the Web 2.0 world, as any fule kno, so what better than a website cataloguing every single widget available: including those for your desktop and web browser? Widgipedia is that site - I like what they've done with the name there - and it's already a comprehensive database of widgety goodness, along with developer forums and technical info if you're actually making widgets yourself, rather than just filling up your computer with them. No mobile stuff in there yet, although hopefully Nokia's WidSets will make it in sooner rather than later.

Source: Techscape » Blog Archive » Widgipedia online widget-fest officially launches

I have already found a couple I like the look of, you can guess where the rest of my evening will be spent. ;-)

 The big release of WordPress 2.1 has arrived, nicknamed "Ella", and I think I have successfully survived, though to be honest I am never entirely certain if I have done the job quite right.

And this time I did it without any help from Mark Jaquith!

Understandably he decided to leave a major upgrade like this to WordPress.org, as he said on his blog:

No upgrade files for 2.0.x to 2.1.x Just a quick note to tell you that I will not be providing upgrade files for the 2.0.7 to 2.1 upgrade. Too much has changed . . . it'd be a waste of time. Just download the official zip file. I will, however, continue to provide these upgrade files for future 2.0.x releases, for those who are saying on that branch.

Hopefully he will be able to supply a similar service for the future smaller upgrades of 2.1, his service has definitely been a hit with a lot of WP users.

On the main site they also warned that a lot of the plugins may not work with the new install, so I expect a lot of developers will be busy this week upgrading their work to make it compliant with "Ella".

There is a list of working plugins being compiled over on WP.org, it may well be a good idea to keep an eye on this link.

I have only been using WordPress for a little while and already this is the second upgrade I have had to do, but as these are for security issues they must be addressed. A useful way to get these upgrades done can be found over at Mark Jaquith's blog where he provides a download that just contains the necessary files for each upgrade rather than the full .zip with the entire WP install that WordPress provide. Mark has been providing this service throughout the WP 2.0 series, let's hope he continue as we head into WP 2.1 in the near future. Thanks Mark.