In the past few weeks, the Twitter crowd has seen a popular URL shortener disappear, then reappear. However, the initial disappearance has left many wondering what would really happen if Tr.im disappeared and all those URLs broke? This has lead to a sharp increase in the amount of DIY URL shorteners where you don’t have…
The first in quite possibly a series of plugins I’ll be reviewing for the WLTC competition in order to get a better handle on them when judging is the Act As Group plugin. Act as a group enables communication to happen on the backend which is useful specifically for multi-author blogs. Once installed, the first…
I really need to start doing more of these if I’m ever going to improve. This screencast features a review of the Advanced Exporter plugin for WordPress and WPMU by Ron Rennick. This plugin adds the type of functionality I’ve been expecting out of the WordPress exporter ever since I learned about the process. With…
John Kolbert who authors a few different WordPress plugins has released an update to Absolute Privacy. The new update now allows XML-RPC protocols such as the iPhone App and also prevents subscribers from reaching any of the administration pages. Absolute Privacy provides a wealth of options for those wanting to really turn their blog into…
QuickOnlineTips.com has a list of what they believe to be the best nine security plugins to use with WordPress. Some of the usual suspects have made the list such as WP Security Scan. I’m not sure if it’s good to mention this or not, but I don’t use any of those plugins on the list.…
One of my all time favorite plugins, Ajax Edit Comments recently undergone a minor update. AEC now enables the ability to disable the plugin on WordPress pages. By default, this is enabled. Considering I don’t have comments turned on for any pages on WPTavern.com with the exception of the Trivia page, this is a non…
A few days ago, Justin Tadlock put a link out on Twitter to a screenshot of a plugin he was developing that dealt with user management. Apparently, this type of plugin is in high demand and due to the amount of interest he’s received, he is going ahead with development but he needs our help.…
Kaspar’s has announced on his blog that he has finally added his Widget Context plugin to the WordPress plugin repository. Previously, you had to visit his site to check for updates to the plugin. Now, that will all be handled through the respository. Widget Context enables users to specify where and when widgets are displayed…
One question I’ve heard pop up more than once at local WordPress Meetups and at WordCamps is whether WordPress can be used as a CMS or not. My basic response to them is that WordPress IS a CMS but if it doesn’t have something you need out of the box, chances are good that a…
Looking for a way to showcase your tweets on your WordPress powered site? This post by Technobuzz.net should do the trick as they list 52 different WordPress plugins aimed at accomplishing this feat. As for WPTavern.com, I’ve stuck with using the HTML embed code from Twitter.com and shoved it into a text widget. This is…
Ryan McCue has released a cool bookmarklet which when used on the WordPress Plugin Repository, will take you directly to the code browser for that plugin. The bookmarklet works on subpages of the plugin page as well as the installation or FAQ pages. If you’re using FireFox, drag the link for the bookmarklet to your…
Community member Andrea passed this along on Twitter the other day. It’s called the WordPress plugin compatibility checker. The sites to scan the WordPress repository on a regular basis to show plugin authors if their plugin meets the guidelines for compliance. Amongst the data collected so far, it has been discovered that a few false…
Andrew Rickmann has a slick post published on his Fun With WordPress blog where he explains how to create your own URL shortener using WordPress. You’ll need a short domain, some htaccess editing skills and a bit of php skills to create your own but Andrew walks you through the process and then explains what…
A few days ago, I reported on a piece published by Andy Peatling regarding why BuddyPress themes were future proof and how the themes provided functions where you could perform most backend tasks on the frontend. This perked my interests because I’d love to see the same thing implemented on the WordPress side of things.…
Mark Ghosh over at WeblogToolsCollection.com has announced the next installment of the sites coveted WordPress plugin competition. If you’re not familiar with it, check out the winners from 2008 which brought us WP Comment Remix, Manageable, and WP Easy Uploader. Last year, I was lucky enough to be one of the judges and I got…