It has only been two months since Microsoft announced their intention to shut down their popular Windows Live Spaces blogging platform and offered an easy migration route to WordPress.com.  Since then, WordPress.com has seen a marked increase in signups, and not all of them are coming from Windows Live Spaces. Before the Windows Live Spaces migration was announced, WordPress.com held steady at about 400,000 signups per month.  This number has now more than doubled to about 900,000 per month.  With such a steep increase in signups and several new features, WordPress.com is on track to end the year with a bang. Upgrading from Windows Live Spaces is a simple four-step process.  Of course, this is a rather large-scale migration, and there have been plenty of questions along the way.  Some of the more frequently asked questions have been answered in this support document, and a few were covered in more […]

Just moments ago, WordPress 3.0.2 was released to the public. This version is a mandatory security upgrade. According to the release notes: This maintenance release fixes a moderate security issue that could allow a malicious Author-level user to gain further access to the site, addresses a handful of bugs, and provides some additional security enhancements. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen one of these types of releases. However, thanks to automatic upgrades built in, upgrading is a pretty easy thing to do.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to not only interview Chip Bennett regarding the new WordPress Theme Review team but I also had a chance to speak with Edward Caissie who is a member of the team. You can listen to the full interview and associated discussion on episode 106 of WordPress Weekly. However, one of the things that came out of that show was the need for community volunteers to help out in the reviewing process. After speaking with Edward, he accepted my request to write a guest blog post explaining how people can contribute to the theme review team. The following was written by Edward Caissie, member of the newly established theme review team. How do I get involved with the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT)? It’s really rather simple. Just follow these steps below. Subscribe to the Theme Review mailing list. Make sure you have a […]

Sight is a powerful WordPress theme, best suited for Magazines and Blogs. The theme was designed in modern minimalistic style with Golden Grid usage. Simply Works Core is meant to work both as a framework to build child themes on, as well as a stand alone clean theme for a blog site. thememagic is a crisp and clean business theme.

Over the course of time, I imagine that most of the needs and wants of end users change. For example, after performing a fresh install of WordPress, you realize that you need a way to conduct polls, have the poll data reflected in the post, etc. Then, a year later, you find out that polls are no longer a necessary item to have on the site so you decide to remove the plugin. However, you notice that after you deactivate the plugin, the data disappears along with it. This is precisely what happens with the WP-Polls plugin. Once the plugin has been deactivated (not removed) instead of the polling data shown within the post, it’s replaced with the poll ID shortcode which is used to display the poll. This one example has me wondering how many users out there are experiencing something similar with a WordPress plugin? In the example […]

Two weeks ago, we asked to hear about your favorite WordPress themes. We had over 125 responses, but even with such a variety of responses, only 5 came out as the clear favorites. Without further delay, here are your top 5 themes. Swift is the fastest loading, SEO optimized, server friendly WordPress theme. This theme is mainly for blogs running on low server resources and for those who like clean and simple designs. [directory listing] Hybrid is a user-friendly, search-engine optimized theme framework, featuring 15 custom page templates and 8 widget-ready areas, allowing you to create any type of site you want. [directory listing] Twenty Ten is stylish, customizable, simple, and readable — make it yours with a custom menu, header image, and background. Twenty Ten supports six widgetized areas (two in the sidebar, four in the footer) and featured images (thumbnails for gallery posts and custom header images for […]

New plugins cTabs lets you add a tabbed content area directly in your post or page, without having to edit your templates. Generate Shortlinks uses bit.ly, ur.ly, and is.gd to create handy shortlinks to share your posts. Social Profiles Sidebar Widget adds a sidebar widget for social profiles in you blog. Supports several sets of icons and three different icon sizes. Updated plugins Cache Images gives users the option to sideload images that are hosted on other domains to their own site. eShop is an accessible shopping cart plugin for WordPress, packed with various features. Mingle Forum allows you to easily and quickly put a Forum on your WordPress site/blog. WordPress SEO is an all in one solution to search engine optimize your WordPress blog: SEO titles, meta descriptions, XML sitemaps and much more.

The WordPress 3.1 Beta has been released for your weekend testing enjoyment. This first beta release is certainly more stable than the alpha releases, but you might want to avoid using it on a regular live site at this time. If you’re itching to try 3.1, be sure to check out all the new features, including Post Formats. If you’re upgrading an existing blog, please backup your files and database first, for when you need to make a hasty retreat. Stop by the Alpha/Beta section of the support forums for help with any problems that you meet. Have you tried the WordPress 3.1 Beta yet? What do you think so far?