Monthly Archives: November 2009

Have you tried BuddyPress?

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Image representing BuddyPress as depicted in C...

Have you ever wanted to add a social network to your WordPress installation? Well, if you’re interesting there’s a super plugin called BuddyPress you might want to try out. It’s designed for WordPress MU and allows different users to interact with each other, send messages to one another, use forums and all the other things you’d expect from a social network.

The great thing about the fact that it runs on WordPress is that you can take advantage of all the plugins that WordPress brings to the table. Whether it’s anti-spam, or online backup or a graphic plugin, WordPress has a whole bunch to choose from. Try it out if you get the opportunity.

WordPress is a winner

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It’s great to see that WordPress has had an amazing run at the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. It came first in the Overall Award and 2nd in the Best Open Source PHP CMS Category. Drupal won the Best Open Source PHP CMS Category award, but then it does have a pretty avid following (you know, like the guys who spend more on car accessories than on the car itself). You can read more about it down on the WordPress blog

Personally I’ve used WordPress extensively and poked around with Joomla and Drupal. I would consider WordPress superior in every way, but part of that is because of my comfort around it. Still, it’s nice to see it winning award.

Core Contributors to WordPress

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Here’s a great photo:

It’s a group of people who are hugely responsible for the way WordPress looks and works today. These people have been critical to shaping WordPress and it’s thanks to their determination and hard work that we have this amazing blogging engine that is as lean and mean as it is today (with no appetite suppressants in sight).

The photo was taken at WordCamp NYC, which from what I hear was a great event. Anyway, thanks guys for making WordPress our pride and joy, as I’m sure it is yours.

Check out the Freshtweet theme

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Have you noticed the new theme running down at my main blog? It’s called Freshtweet and has some really awesome features. My favourite is the dynamic menu on the left that exposes a set of functionality controlled by whatever widgets you place there. But the sidebar is dynamic in that it opens up to show the topmost widget and a user can select which other one they want to see.

So, for example, if you look at the site you’ll see the TweetRoll widget running on top. However, if I log into the blog, the first thing I see is my admin menu. Now that’s just genius, showing the user the thing they most likely want to see. Now if only LCD tvs could do that, rather than showing you what someone random THINKS you want to see.

Check out Freshtweet

Found any bugs yet?

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Well, the November bug hunt has finally kicked off and if you were thinking of taking part then there’s not much time left. Unfortunately I just don’t have the bandwidth to take part, the twins have really sucked away any free time I had and I have a huge pile of things that are in my to do list.

I am looking forward to the new version of WordPress (2.9) being released soon, and thanks to the one-click upgrade it should be relatively easy to roll it out to my blogs. No more uploading or looking for disk mounts. Just one click and away we go.

Go find some bugs

Learning WordPress: Visit a WordCamp

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One of the best way to develop your WordPress skills is to meet and share ideas with other WordPress fans. And there’s no better way to do this than to take some time out and visit a WordCamp. There are 6 happening before the end of the year which are the following:

  • WordCamp Pheonix
  • Wordcamp Victoria
  • Wordcamp Bangkok
  • Wordcamp new York City
  • Wordcamp Peru
  • Wordcamp Orlando

If one of those is anywhere near you, then take the opportunity and go and meet some fellow WordPress afficianadoes. I’ve never managed to attend one of them, but I do plan to one day. There are a number of conferences and exhibitions around the UK, ones on parties, ones on modern furniture, and there’s even a Wordcamp UK. Guess which one I’ll go to if I get a choice …

Read more about the upcoming Wordcamps here

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Get on a bug hunt

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If you have time to spare in the next couple of weeks, you might be able to contribute in one of the upcoming bug hunts. They’re an important step in the WordPress release cycle, where a final push is made to identify and resolve some final bugs before the next version of WordPress is unleashes on the world.

There’s more information down on the WordPress blog and if you can help, it’s a better way to thank your fellow WordPress users than sending christmas cards to everyone you know.

Who would have known that a bug hunt could be so much fun!