WordPress is a nonprofit open source blogging platform, which means that absolutely no one is paid to offer support (unless you actually hire a contractor, of course), so all help is offered through the Support Forums by volunteers and all documentation is provided through the Codex by volunteers. If you know what you’re doing, why not stop by to help out a bit? In fact, even if you’re just starting with WordPress, I bet there are a few folks that you could help. After all, that’s how I got my start. Helping out is easy to do, and there are some handy guides for new Support Forum volunteers and new Codex editors. Don’t worry about getting your answer wrong the first couple of times, someone will correct you and help you out, it’s all part of learning. In fact, helping someone else is often the best way to learn yourself.

I’m still out traveling, and one thing that comes with traveling are a lot of photos. Maybe you have a thousand-dollar camera, or you’re just using a mobile app to post a quick photo. Either way, here are four free WordPress themes that handle blogging just fine, but know how to get out of the way when you want to feature your photos. Adventure Journal is a powerful, feature-rich theme that lets you customize a wide variety of features from the comfort of your Dashboard. Matala is a colorful textured theme. Modularity Lite is a minimally styled photo theme with a homepage slideshow. Twenty Eleven is sophisticated, lightweight, and adaptable.

WordPress is an open source blogging platform, which (amongst other things) means that everything is built out in the open. You can freely follow along or even participate in development. If you’re curious about what’s going on under the hood, the best thing to follow is the WordPress Trac. This is where all of the magic happens, bugs and features are submitted, discussed, and acted upon all through this one site. Of course, if that’s a bit too much code and you’re looking for a more toned down highlight-oriented news and discussion blog, check out the official WordPress Development Updates. Here, you can follow along on major issues or changes. Think of it a sneak peak to the future of WordPress. Follow along and learn what makes your favorite blogging platform so great. Before you know it, you might be filing your first bug report, or even your first patch.

Hey Cookie is a simple, elegant grid-style theme for photographers and visual artists. Juicy Lemon is a light yellow theme with a lemon header. PageLines is a drag-and-drop platform for professional websites.

I’m doing a bit of traveling myself, and there are quite a few blogs out there devoted to just travel. Maybe you want to start a travel blog yourself. If you do, here are four free WordPress themes to get you started. Adventure Journal is a powerful, feature-rich theme that lets you customize a wide variety of features from the comfort of your Dashboard. Beach brings the warm feel of Thailand’s shores to your blog year round. Travel Blogger offers travelers a highly customizable, very easy to use travel blog theme that offers 2 gorgeous default skins. Travelogue is a fun, travelogue-styled theme.

New plugins Verse Links searches for Bible verse references within blog posts or comments and links them to a reference site of your choice. WP-Piwik adds a Piwik stats site to your dashboard. Updated plugins BackWPup allows you to backup your WordPress database, files, and more. Cleverness To-Do List integrates a customizable, multi-featured to-do list. Fast Secure Contact Form lets your visitors send you a quick e-mail message and blocks all common spammer tactics. Additionally, the plugin has a multi-form feature, optional extra fields, and an option to redirect visitors to any URL after the message is sent. OSM displays maps in your WordPress blog using the OpenLayers technology. Widget Logic Visual lets you control on which pages widgets appear using conditional tags.

We had previously mentioned the first printing of WPCandy Quarterly, a WordPress related quarterly print magazine from the folks at WPCandy, and now it looks like the first issue has begun shipping to folks who had pre-ordered it. This is quite possibly the first ever printed WordPress publication, at least I can’t find any others, so this is a rather monumental occasion. It sounds like there are plenty left after pre-orders, so you should still be able to order one if you missed out. The images in the shipment announcement post look great, so if you have received your copy, we’d love to hear what you think. Update: To clarify, I meant that this is quite possibly the first ever printed WordPress magazine publication.

Black Rose is a light brown theme with a black rose header. Cute Teddy is a pink theme with a cute teddy bear on the header. Minimalism is a very simple minimalist theme with few graphics used. Patchwork is a colorful theme with a fun quilted pattern. Sexy City is dark, rich and eye-catching. Sky Horse is a light blue theme with a good looking sky horse on the header.