Moving Into A New Home

All boxes are unpacked and the sofa has now been moved six or seven times. I have also recategorised all my books and put a picture frame over the unsightly hole in the wall. I have now moved from lostaddress.org over to here at lostaddress.wordpress.com – time to put my feet up, I think.

Obviously, I couldn’t bring over all my old stuff and so I had to leave it behind, but the new home is comfortable enough and I’ll probably stick around for a while longer….

More details can be found at the old home for this site, but hopefully my usual visitors will find me here. Or I’ll have some new ones, who knows?

CommentLuv v2.9

CommentLuv

As anyone who has ever commented on this site will know, one of the more visible plugins I use is CommentLuv. CommentLuv is designed to allow commenters to receive link backs to their own site without risking being known as a spammer by dumping in links without permission.

Since it’s first release, CommentLuv has gone from strength to strength and is installed on a huge number of sites. This is probably because the plugin is solid and easy to use, but also because Andy Bailey, the creator and developer of CommentLuv, is directly involved in the support and promotion of the plugin and is keen to help other bloggers get a leg up.

Andy Bailey wishes to make the next release a big event. To that end, there is a video embedded below these words. Please watch it and follow the link and see what comes next.

WordPress v3.0 Released

Image via CrunchBase

Hey gang. This post will show how much I love (or even luv (this will become apparent later)) you all. WordPress version 3.0 – codename Thelonius – is released and available. Blog owners should go now to their dashboard and, if the upgrade isn’t flagged up, click the relevant button to upgrade in seconds.

So, have you noticed anything different with the blog itself? No, me either. Everything went absolutely swimmingly – all plugins were fine and working and the theme is absolutely solid. So, for me, this was absolutely and utterly painless. Hopefully your own upgrade will be too.

I did make two smallish changes. Firstly I have turned off IntenseDebate. The only reason I had it, really, was for threaded commenting and WordPress does this natively these days so we don’t miss out by not having it. One thing I did forget is that Gravatars are a bit messed up with native commenting, so I’ll be looking at a fix for that… all fixed now, so no problem!

Now I have switched to the native commenting, I have re-enabled CommentLuv, a plugin I have used for ages and will always recommend to bloggers. Now that is native, I have more control over it. Comluv has been tested prior to WordPress 3.0 being released and it works like a charm. (This bit should hopefully explain the “luv” comment at the start of the post).

So that’s that. Hopefully you are seeing the blog in all it’s glory and with no issues. Please let me know if anything is broken, not working or doing something odd.

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WordPress RC3

Image via CrunchBase

This is a kind of big deal. The next version of WordPress.org, version 3, is nearing release.  In fact, the release candidate 3 (RC3) is ready to be downloaded for people to test out.

This site is still on v2.92, but I will be upgrading when 3 is released. So, what do we blog owners need to do:

• Check out the new features in 3.0 – there are some major changes to the dashboard coming up
• Check that the plugins you use are compatible (or at least won’t break anything major) and look for compatible alternatives where necessary
• Check that your theme is still compatible after the switch
• Warn your readers that the upgrade is nearing and get them to tell you if things break
• Start reading the Alpha/Beta sub-forum of the WordPress.org Support Forum to see if your problems have been found and fixed already
• Be prepared to have to delve deep to fix odd little errors that may crop up
• Contact your host (where applicable) to find out when (or if) they plan to make the upgrade happen
• Write about your experience on your blog!

I recall a lot of people having issues that could have been avoided when the last major release took place, so try not to get caught out.

Related articles by Zemanta

• WordPress 3.0 RC3 Available for Download (shoutmeloud.com)
• WordPress 3.0 RC (wordpressguru.eu)
• WordPress 3.0 Release Candidate Available for Testing (ostatic.com)
• How to Upgrade WPMU 2.9.2 to WordPress 3.0 in 5 Easy Steps (pressography.com)
• Is your WordPress version up to date? (wordpressguru.eu)

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Zemanta Revisited

Image via CrunchBase

Way back in 2008, I wrote a brief post about Zemanta.  I think it’s about time I updated it.

I use Zemanta every time I write a post. The artwork normally to the top left of any post is usually picked from a selection suggested by Zemanta. The tags I pick are, again, from a selection suggested by Zemanta. And that little “reblog” icon at the bottom right of every post? Yep, that’s from Zemanta too.  Zemanta is a very useful tool in a blooger’s tool kit and I hope that this will persuade you to try it out on your own site.

Let’s take a look at what it does. From the Zemanta Learn page:

Zemanta is a tool that looks over your shoulder while you blog and gives you tips and advice, suggests related content and pictures and makes sure your posts get promoted as they deserve to be. We at Zemanta are thinking hard to help make blogging easier for you. We’re engineering better creative tools to help you get the most out of your blogging time.

New Pair of Pants

Image by mr.beaver via Flickr

Hi Funsters!

The ever marvellous SriniG, author of my normal blog wear Fluid Blue, has created this theme – it’s called F2 and is built off the Fluid Blue base.

I’m giving it a go: trying it on, looking in the mirror and pulling at the seams.  Already, I prefer how it handles the blockquotes.  If anything seems broken or looks odd because of this change, please let me know.

It may well get changes made to it as I get more comfortable – accessorised, if you will.

Thanks to SriniG

As well, because it’s that kind of day, I have installed the WordPress Mobile Pack.  See it here also.  This add on, created by James G Pearce, Andrea Trasatti and Terence Eden, shows a different theme to people browsing via their phones.  There are also special themes for Nokia users.  Hopefully all these changes will allow you to view the marvelous better.