Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

Wordpress 2.0 WYSIWYG Editor

February 1, 2006 by debbie T | WordPress

Hmm, well, I already disabled the Rich Text Editor (WYSIWYG) for now. It was taking too long to load (and reload after a quick save,) and I wasn’t sure I liked the way it double-spaced when I hit enter once.

I did like the “insert link” and I loved the option to resize the text window. I also found the view html button intriguing, and I wonder if I can insert my own html. I will have to explore the editor further later, but for now, I will keep it disabled.

Updating Splash of Style to Wordpress 2.0

February 1, 2006 by debbie T | WordPress

Going to finally upgrade to Wordpress 2.0 tonight. FINALLY! I have the site files backed up, along with the database. Fingers crossed it all works!

See you on the other side folks!

UPDATE: I think the upgrade to 2.0 went well. I had to update my Subscribe to Comments plugin - the new one looks very good, with a few new features.

So far, Wordpress 2.0 is a little different, and I will have to get used to the WYSIWYG editor. So far, I see some really great potential here, and I think I will love the new version. Wordpress has definitely been my favorite blog software lately. But more on that on a separate article later.

Oh I do want to reference the 2.0 Plugin Compatibility page. I want to really dig in and check some of these plugins more closely.

WordPress Maintenance

January 12, 2006 by debbie T | WordPress

I have decided to work on a little maintenance behind the scenes in the WordPress software. In the past, I have been using Textile 1 for formatting my entries. I like Textile, but lately it has been bugging me, so I am going to try Markdown.

When I initially switch, there might be problems with the formatting of my entries, but I hope to check through all of them, so eventually all should be well.

UPDATE: So far, Markdown seems to be working for me. I think I like it better than Textile. I am trying to look at all my posts, and so far, it is not too messed up. I have seen a few problems with underscores (Markdown uses the underscore for _emphasis_) but they can be fixed by escaping with a \

I also am preparing to upgrade to WordPress 2.0, but I want to make sure all my files and database tables are backed up first.

Wordpress.com vs Blogsome.com

December 2, 2005 by debbie T | WordPress

After I signed up for a free blog account at Wordpress.com, someone mentioned there was also a multi-user WordPress hosted blog service at Blogsome.com. I rushed right over and signed up. I was shocked that the username “debbie” was still available!

So, now that I have both accounts, which one is better?

Pros/Cons WordPress.com

Pros/Cons Blogsome.com

Bottom line is, I will probably not use either account for anything truly special. I have my own blogging accounts for that. Either would be great for testing.

But if I had to choose one account, it would probably be the original one at wordpress.com. It just feels more modern, and there is no advertising. Now, if blogsome.com updates to wordpress 2.0, I might feel differently. We’ll see.

Akismet - Spam Control for WordPress

November 29, 2005 by debbie T | WordPress

Since it didn’t work out so well with SpamKarma 2, I decided to give Akismet a shot.

I found my API key in the Admin area in my Wordpress.com blog account. (note: the only way to get an API key is to open a free blogging account at Wordpress.com)

I guess once it is activated, it’s supposed to just work….

Update: (01/14/06) I have been using Akismet and it works great. I works silently in the background, but when I check on it, there is always a list of blocked spam comments. So far, I haven’t noticed any false positives.

WordPress.com Open Accounts

November 28, 2005 by debbie T | WordPress

Great news! WordPress.com has opened the doors for sign-ups without an invitation.

I signed up for my account this afternoon. I have no idea what to do with the blog, but it is fun to have. Kind of like a gmail.com account.

Spam Karma Apology

November 18, 2005 by debbie T | WordPress

I apologize to any legitimate commenter who has been caught in my SpamKarma’s spam blocker.

http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/

It is a complex plug-in with many back-end settings, so I am still experimenting with the levels.

UPDATE (11-21): After SpamKarma blocked another comment from Miraz, I decided to deactivate it. The comment was originally posted on the 18th, and the script failed to let me know it was held. It was supposed to send me an email every 24 hours. I don’t have time to mess around with the settings again, so I am just leaving it up to WordPress right now for comment moderation. I will revisit this again if spam becomes a problem.

Textpattern

November 16, 2005 by debbie T | Textpattern • Web Development • WordPress

I have started to research a new CMS or blogging for one of my other web sites (DisDatDesigns) and have taken a fresh look at Textpattern.

I installed Textpattern twice before (for two separate blogs), but did not upgrade from the pre-release version until recently. I updated to version 4.0.2 and it appears that there are lots of changes.

My Textpattern 4.0.2 Observations

Textpattern Resources:

Combatting WordPress Spam

October 15, 2005 by debbie T | WordPress

This entry is a reminder list (to myself) of ways to control comment spam in WordPress’ blogging system.

WordPress Comment Spam wiki page

Since I don’t use trackbacks, I deleted my wp-trackback file.

By default, WordPress adds the ‘nofollow’ attribute to all links listed in comment text; google will not give ranking credit to any links with this attribute. I am undecided if this is the way to go for my blog. It appears that it might not be the most efficient way to combat spam and might just hurt those that deserve google credit.

Initially I installed and activated Spam Karma. We’ll see if it works, or if it is too stringent. Another choice would be Hashcach and I will activate it if Spam Karma doesn’t work out for me.

Upgrading WordPress 1.2 to 1.5

April 24, 2005 by debbie T | WordPress

I followed the upgrade instructions, and it worked well.

I hit just one snag. My comment area was displaying a php error concerning the missing file “wp-comments.php”, so I did a little research and realized that WP is using themes now, and the comments file has been renamed. So, I uploaded the comments.php file from the themes directory and recoded my index.php file to reference the new file name.

So far, it all looks okay. I think I like the new version. I am looking forward to learning WordPress all over again. The new themes look promising, and the slight changes to the control panel look pretty good.