WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5 Issues, WordCamps Everywhere, Mullenweg Addresses Security Fears, Coffee2Code Finishes 14 Days of Plugins, and More

WordPress 2.5 continues to be a popular download, and most are positive about the changes, though there are a few bugs and problems. WordCamps are continuing to pop up around the world. Is there going to be a WordCamp near you? Matt Mullenweg addresses recent security issues with WordPress. WordPress Plugins continue to be updated for WordPress 2.5. Scott Reilly concludes 14 days of WordPress Plugins with more than a dozen new and updated WordPress Plugins. WordPress.com may soon be banned in Brazil. Super Cache has a mandatory update. WordPress.com has a new search. And what are your favorite WordPress resources?

WordPress News

WordPress 2.5 Released: WordPress 2.5 was released last week. In the past two weeks, I published WordPress Wednesday Special Edition: WordPress 2.5 and more information on the new version, so check those for news and updates.

WordPress 2.5 Hassles: The following are some resources for dealing with the most popular issues many users are having with WordPress 2.5:

WordPress 2.5 Techniques, Tips, and Plugins: The following are some WordPress 2.5 specific tips, techniques, and Plugins:


WordPress Development Continues: WordPress Development Updates continue on WordPress 2.5 and the next releases. The latest news includes updates to TinyMCE (visual editor), comment count queries consolidated, shortcode HTML issues fixed, broken page links for categories fixed, improvements in post categories feature, and more.

Update Super Cache: Donncha has updated the popular WordPress Super Cache Plugin due to a strange bug. Please update your Plugin immediately.

Do You Need Help with WordPress? I’m finding a lot of people still asking for help with their WordPress and WordPress.com blog by blogging their request. This is really dumb, folks. You don’t know who is reading or how qualified they may be to help you. Or you might never get the help you need. Please, go to the for help with the full version of WordPress and the WordPress.com Forums for help with WordPress.com blogs. Get the help you need directly from those who can help you.

WordPress.com Banned Again: According to Brazil: Bloggers united against WordPress.com ban by Global Voices, WordPress.com blogs are or soon will be banned due to a judge in Brazil ruling against a WordPress.com blogger that featured a YouTube video of a couple having sex on their blog. This is not the first time, nor the last, that international courts have made a sweeping judgment against WordPress.com due to the actions of an individual blogger. This ban blocks not only blogs in that language, but all WordPress.com blogs, which is currently approaching 3 million.

Celso Bessa Post-its on WordPress.com wrote an open letter to Automattic and WordPress.com Team asking WordPress.com to provide instructions on banning an individual blog rather than the whole of WordPress.com, which makes sense. I’ve written more on the subject in WordPress.com Banned Again: Why Aren’t You Concerned?.

Where Do You Find WordPress Goodies? The Daily blog Tips wrote “The Best Sources of Content for WordPress Users”, a listing of their favorite sources for WordPress news and information. What’s yours?

WP Weekly Podcast: The WordPress Weekly live show with Jeffro2pt0 will feature me, Lorelle, on Friday, April 18, 2008, at 9 PM EST discussing WordPress, WordPress 2.5, WordCamps, and blogging.

How WordPress and Automattic Makes Money From WordPress.com: In an interesting article, Changing Way explores how Automattic makes money with WordPress.com, as well as how Automattic makes money in general, in an interesting analysis of the “give-it-away” economic model Matt Mullenweg and his team is using to revolutionize the web.

Do You Want to Help with WordPress Development and Community? If you would like to help with the , the official online user manual for WordPress users, we need you. If you would like to contribute to WordPress as a volunteer in the WordPress Support Forums, testing, coding, and more, see Contributing to WordPress. If you would like to help improve WordPress by reporting bugs, please report them via the WordPress Bug Report form. Your help is needed to ensure WordPress works.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress Wednesday News report which covered WordPress Wednesday News: WordPress 2.5, Security Issues, Plugins Updated, WordPress vs WordPressMU, and More.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordPress Events CalendarWordCamp Worldwide: While WordCamp Europe in Milan is going for a UN-style WordCamp, European WordCamps are popping up all over including WordCamp Paris on May 3, 2008 (WordCamp Paris BarCamp site), and WordCamp UK (wiki). Australia is also working on a WordCamp.

WordCamp UK: WordCamp UK is currently considering July 19-20, 2008, in Birmingham as the time and place for the event.

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar as found on the WordPress Roadmap and the WordPress Meetup Group Listings (subject to change):

WordPress Security News

WordPress SecurityWordPress Security Prevention and Scares: Matt Mullenweg spoke out recently on the recent bogus “SecurityFocus SQL Injection” fear spreading across the web. He also offered some sensible tips and information for those worried about the “increasing security threats” to WordPress, which he likens to “running into a crowded theatre and yell ‘fire’ and the less basis there is in fact the more people link to them. It’s not uncommon to see crying-wolf reports like the above several times in a week…” His recommendations: Update WordPress. Use common sense. Use strong passwords. Be aware.

WordPress 2.5 Security Risk? A vulnerability in WordPress 2.5 called the Secret_Key Vulnerability has been reported but is considered minor. Please update your password to a stronger version if your password is too simple.

WordPress Security Whitepaper Updated: Blog Security has updated its popular WordPress Whitepaper which reports on security issues and problems with WordPress.

How Do I Know if My WordPress Blog is Vulnerable and Has Been Attacked? Your WordPress blog is vulnerable if it is not versions 2.5, 2.3.3, 2.1.3, or 2.0.11. Upgrade now. See the WordPress Release Archive for past versions. For more information, see last week’s WordPress Wednesday News.

WordPress Plugins and Themes News

WordPress Plugins DatabaseWordPress Plugins Updated Furiously: Any WordPress Plugin that features an Administration Panel subpanel or interaction requires updating to work with the new interface. WordPress Plugins are being updated all over the place, so I can’t include all of them here. Please check in with your favorite WordPress Plugin’s author’s blog for the latest news on whether or not your favorite will continue to work or requires updating before you upgrade your blog to WordPress 2.5.

14 Days Plus of Non-Stop WordPress Plugins: Scott Reilly of Coffee2Code has outdone himself with his 14 Days of WordPress Plugins. Author of many popular WordPress Plugins, including the powerful Customizable Post Listings WordPress Plugin, here are a few of the new Plugins created or improved in the past couple weeks:

Make Your WordPress Plugins Work with Automatic Updates: Ozh offers “4 Checkpoints to Make Sure Plugin Update Notices in WordPress Will Work”, an article to help WordPress Plugin authors ensure their Plugins will work with the new Automatic Plugin Update feature in WordPress 2.5.

Javascript and WordPress Plugins: Ozh has written “Load Javascript With Your WordPress Plugin”, a good technical article on adding Javascript correctly to a WordPress Plugin.

New Contact Relationship Management WordPress Theme: Like WPDesigner’s Membership Directory WordPress Theme and Design Canopy’s Contact Manager WordPress Theme, Slipfire offers WP-CRM, a WordPress Theme which uses Theme elements and Plugins to create a CRM (Contact Relationship Management) Theme for a WordPress blog. It allows addition of contacts from the blog itself, not just through the Administration Panels, profile photos, notes, clickable email and website links, integration with Google maps, auto-dial via cell phones, and more.

Pre-Publish Reminders Updated: The Pre-Publish Reminder WordPress Plugin has been updated for WordPress 2.5. It offers a checklist of things you may need to do on your blog post before you hit the Publish button.

WordPress Functions Updated: The WordPress Function Reference page in the , the online manual for WordPress Users, continues to be updated with information and references on all the functions within WordPress, especially for WordPress 2.5. Volunteers are needed to help fill in all the missing blanks, so if you would like to help, read Contributing to WordPress and join the fun.

Breaking the Language Barrier: Duane Story is working to help break the language barrier with a WordPress Plugin. Duane Storey offers the WordPress Without Borders WordPress Plugin, a new translation program that takes advantage of Google AJAX languages API to dynamically translate post content between languages, supposedly on the fly. This is an exciting Plugin and is discussed further in WordPress Without Borders and WordPress Without Borders, Round Two.

WP Contact Forum Updated: The popular Ryan Duff’s WP Contact Form has been updated by Peter Westwood to work with the most recent versions of WordPress including 2.5. Peter will be adding new features and taking advantage of the powerful features and functions in WordPress 2.5 to boost this much loved Plugin.

Plugin Styles Guides: We now have two WordPress 2.5 Plugin Style Guides to help WordPress Plugin authors. Epicalex – WordPress 2.5 Plugin Style Guide and Joost De Valk – WordPress 2.5 Plugin Settings Pages Style Guide.

Making Plugins Easier to Make: The WordPress Plugin Maker WordPress Plugin is an interesting twist on a twist. There have been other Plugins and tools to help Plugin authors write WordPress Plugins, and this Plugin claims to be one of the easiest to work with. It is designed for those who “love Cut and Paste and hate FTP” and want to make a WordPress Plugin fast.

See Also

Tracking WordPress Compatibility: It’s often difficult to track what Plugin and Theme is compatible with which WordPress version. In the are two “master” pages that list all the various compatibilities: WordPress Theme Compatibilities and WordPress Plugin Compatibilities. No matter which version you are using, and in preparation for the next version of WordPress, add these to your WordPress resource list to check before you upgrade.

Plugin and Theme Compatibility Issues for Authors and Designers: If you have a WordPress Plugin or Theme, see Migrating Plugins and Themes for tips on updating your Plugin or Theme for the latest version of WordPress. Once updated, make sure to include it on the WordPress Compatibility lists so users will know which version is updated and ready to work with the latest WordPress.

Interesting WordPress Plugins: The following are some interesting WordPress Plugins I’ve uncovered over the past few weeks:

Finding WordPress Plugins: For more WordPress Plugins see the official WordPress Plugin Directory, the WordPress Plugins Database, and Weblog Tools Collection Plugin and Theme announcements.

WordPress Techniques and Tips

Some interesting WordPress articles and tips I’ve collected recently include:

Want to Write a WordPress Tip and See It Here? If you would like your WordPress tip and technique included in this list, see Tips For Writing Good WordPress Tips and Writing and Publishing Code In Your WordPress Blog Posts. When its ready, contact me at lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com.

WordPress Help: If you are looking for help on using WordPress, begin by visiting the , the online manual for WordPress Users, then searching the or WordPress.com Forums, depending upon your version.

WordPress.com News

WordPress.com W logoNew Search Feature for WordPress.com: WordPress.com has announced a new Search WordPress.com feature allowing visitors and users to search through their almost 3 million blogs. The search feature searches by most recent or most relevant posts on WordPress.com. Posts are indexed within 30 minutes of publishing. The search feature is powered by Flaptor’s Hounder, a new open source project working with Automattic.

WordPress Community News

WordPress Community graphicUsing WordPress in Your Blog’s Name: It’s about respect. Please use WordPress names right because WordPress is a trademark and you are not allowed to use WordPress in your blog’s domain name or URL unless you have permission of and . Also, remember, it’s spelled “WordPress” not “Wordpress”. Oh, and Plugin is Plugin, not plug-in (what you put into a wall electrical socket).

Found a Bug in WordPress? If you find a bug in WordPress, report it by following the instructions in Reporting Bugs on the , the online manual for WordPress Users.

Vote for WordPress Ideas: There is still time to get your vote in for ideas on upcoming versions of WordPress in the The section. Why not take advantage of it and add your voice to the vote.

Shop WordPress: You can now buy t-shirts, hoodies or mugs with the WordPress logo on them in the WordPress Shop.

Looking for a WordPress Expert? If you are looking for a WordPress expert, try the WordPress Consultants list the WordPress Jobs listings, and the WP-Pro mailing list.

WordPress Installed For Free: Installing WordPress for Free (aka Install4Free WordPress) is a free, volunteer-driven service is limited to personal blogs only, and they help only with installations, not upgrades.

Even More WordPress News?

Past WordPress Wednesday News Reports

WordPress News Sources

If You Are Reading This: If you are reading this blog post NOT on the or from within your feed reader, it is being used against the copyright policy of the copyright owners. Please report it immediately so action may be taken to break some heads and feed scraping blogs.


Each Wednesday on is WordPress Wednesday, featuring the news around the WordPress Community. If you have a WordPress news item or tip to suggest, please contact me at this special email address: lorelleonwordpress@gmail.com

Picture of Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen

The author of Lorelle on WordPress and the fast-selling book, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging, as well as several other blogs, Lorelle VanFossen has been blogging for over 15 years, covering blogging, WordPress, travel, nature and travel photography, web design, web theory and development extensively as web technologies developed.

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