With new cohost David Peralty, this podcast covers some WP news, and several new plugins, including a couple from Alex King. Transcripts now available for previous podcasts. As always, a great way to catch up WP news while on the go.
The new podcast is out, covering a few plugins, a couple of WordPress related news items, as well as a listener survey, a newsletter, new forums and toll-free comment line.
Charles and company have released a new podcast covering problems with WordPress 2.0.5, a review of Akismet, Bad Behavior 2 and Spam Karma 2, and a brief tutorial on how to customize your login screen. Exceptionally helpful is Mark Jaquith’s review of the spam fighting tools, especially for those not familiar with the basic workings of the most commonly used tools.
In case you missed it, WP 2.0.5 was released last week. Though 2.1 is on the horizon, this release covers 50+ minor bug fixes and security issues. Mark Jaquith, who will be maintaining the 2.0 branch , outlines the changes.
Mark has also provided an “unofficial” download
of changed files, changes diff, etc.
Not done there, a small minority of users who upgraded reported a 500 server errors, Mark realized that a patch to 2.1 hadn’t been committed to 2.0.5, and provides a plugin to solve the issue. Thank you Mark for your hard work and dedication to this release.
WP Community
Charles over at WP Community has released episode 8 of his podcast. Topics covered include how to handle splogs, blogging by email as well as over a dozen and half plugins reviewed. Other topics include a new ad network from Performancing, a business week update and what to look for in WP 2.0.5.
While you’re there, be to check out previous episodes if you’ve not listened before.
Attention any WP theme designers. A job posting has been listed on the new 37 Signals gig board looking for qualified theme designers to take wire frame mock ups and convert them to WP themes.
Several dedicated WP users have given the database a new look and added some new features, though some have yet to be implemented. Still the number one spot to sort through the multitude of plugins available, these much need improvements will continue to allow users to easily customize their site.
Sean at 480x.com and Headzoo, along with help from Petit, have rolled out a new site for the WP community. A new plugin site, complete with plugin ratings, and top charts for top downloads, most popular, etc. Meant more as a end user site, this one is still in development as the site will rely on plugin authors to add there plugins. The jury is still obviously out as to whether the site will be adopted by the community, both users as well as plugin developers, and what the fall out will be for wp-plugins.net.
One thing I noticed right away is no ads at the wpplugins.org vs wp-plugins.net. I don’t have an issue with ads, obviously, but I noticed nonetheless.
Update Looks like I used the wrong term. It’s domain mapping, not forwarding. It also looks like in my sleepy haze, I missed a few other imortant points. The site has a custom theme and ads (as pointed out by wordpress wank), another often sought feature @ wp.com, and not just google ads, they have options to sponsor the site directly.
Looks like users will be able to pay for their own domain name with a wordpress.com hosted site. Obviously details aren’t available yet, but I remember seeing it tested a few months ago by Doncha, so this must the final phase before roll out. Should really advance the popularity of wordpress.com, as you’ll be able to customize CSS, have your own domain, and enough widgets to customize sidebar content till your hearts content.
This episode features discussions on milestones for downloads of WordPress and the one year anniversary of wordpress.com, as well as a feature interview with Jason Van Orden on promoting your podcast.