WordPress.org

This post has the potential to be as long as the scarf I made Matt for his birthday. Knowing that, I’ll try to keep it short and to the point. Opportunity knocked last week and I decided to answer. No, I’m not leaving WordPress or Automattic; get your mind out of the gutter. The owner of a small restaurant here on Tybee (Charly’s) is retiring and selling his place, and I plunked down $10,000 as a deposit to buy it!

I want to turn it into a bakery/internet cafe/WordPressy community gathering space. Bake in the morning to force some non-computer time, then do my usual WP stuff in the lulls. I wrote a 20-page business plan full of stats and projections, and some smart money types tell me it looks good. But wait! I’ve spent all my money in the last few years on things like raising my brother’s kids, buying braces for same, helping my mom buy her house down here, and stuff like that. I am broke! I can’t afford to buy this place and turn it into the vision of awesomeness I see in my head, despite the below-market price and my plan to take a loan out against my 401k. So: crowdfunding!

The project — the Jitterbug Bakery — was accepted to Kickstarter yesterday, and on Monday once I finish their project setup, I’ll launch a fundraising campaign there. I also set up a WordPress site with a paypal plugin for the non-Kickstarter types, which would mean less lost to fees. If you want to help me make this thing a reality, I’d love it if you’d pitch in (rewards range from my brownies and Jitterbug swag to website setups and reviews), but will in no way hold it against you if you don’t.

The building in question: the future Jitterbug

If I don’t raise enough money in a month to meet the closing costs on March 31, I’ll take up a private investor’s offer to buy the building and lease it to me with an option to buy, so I can put the money that I have raised into the business costs rather than the building. (Did you know a decent refurbished espresso setup costs up to $15k? And I don’t even drink coffee!) But if you’re reading this, you probably know I’m independent and stubborn to a fault, and I’d really rather just buy the building rather than call in such a big favor. It’s a little crazy to try and raise $250k this way in a month, but I’ll never know if I don’t try, right?

So if you ever thought to yourself, “I wish I could buy Jane a [drink, dinner, iPad, car] to show her how much I appreciate all she does,” here’s your chance! I’ll provide the drinks and dinner if you come visit the Jitterbug, I don’t like iPads, and I have a car I like. I put up a site at BuyJaneABakery.com that is pretty much just what it sounds like. It has all the info on what I (we, if you include my mom and Morgan!) want to create for my local community. The Contribute page has a donation widget at the bottom. Yes, a bit hidden. The Personal Fundraising plugin I wanted to use was pretty and awesome but more trouble than it was worth. If you’re a Kickstarter type of person, I’ll update this post by Monday when the project goes live there.

If you ever really loved me, help me buy a bakery!

Did you know that WordPress for Android runs on both phones and tablets? Sometimes a little extra screen space can help you draft that longer blog post. If you have a Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, or another Android tablet you’ll find the WordPress app in the Android Market.

Now for the Nook Color/Tablet and Kindle Fire, too!

We’re happy to announce that WordPress for Android is now available for the Nook Color/Tablet and Kindle Fire. The 7″ screen on these tablets make an excellent home for the all-new Dashboard UI that we added in WordPress for Android 2.0.

We paid special attention to the post editor on theses devices, enhancing the layout to make it super simple to edit your post content in either landscape or portrait orientation. You’ll find everything there that you’d want in a WordPress app, including support for editing post content, adding media, viewing your stats, comment notifications, and more.

The app is available today in the Amazon Appstore and Nook Store.

Feedback

How do you like the tablet WordPress app? Let us know in the comments section below, or ping us on Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay up to date with the latest happenings around WordPress for Android.

Aqua is a crisp, clean, and bright theme with small touches of aqua as an accent.

Gridly is a clean, minimal, and responsive theme with a simple options panel.

I noticed Sarah working on a crossword puzzle from the local ad circular that comes in the mail. At first glance I thought that section was labeled “WordPress” instead of “Word pressed”.

WPLift has a cool post highlighting the different default themes that WordPress has had since its inception. According to the post, since WordPress was first created, the publishing platform has had a total of five default themes with Twenty Twelve being the sixth, slated to arrive with WordPress 3.4. It was a nice stroll down memory lane and a bit surprising that the amount of default themes was so low. However, it seemed like forever when Kubrick was the default theme for WordPress.

So the question is, how many of you remember using the first WordPress Default theme for your site?

Related posts:

1. Value, Default Themes, MaxBlogPress And Canonical Plugins
2. Matt Mullenweg To Be In Charge Of The 2012 Default Theme
3. WordPress Themes In 2009

WPCandy Quarterly, a WordPress related quarterly print magazine from the folks at WPCandy, is just about to be mailed out to the lucky readers who either pre-ordered or subscribed. To my knowledge, or at least about half an hour of searching, this may very well be the first ever printed WordPress magazine publication.

The first issue will feature articles from 11 well-known contributors, and due to demand from the pre-orders, 2,000 copies are making their way through the printers as you read this. A lot of thought went into the design of this magazine, and you can see a video blazing through the various drafts below.

It’s not too late to reserve your copy, so if you want to be a part of this historical launch, you should place your order soon before they’re shipped.

Chris of LiftUX reached out to me the other day and wanted me to let everyone know that they are hiring for the position of Senior WordPress/PHP developer. The developer would also be helping to build out themes and plugins for UpThemes.

Related posts:

1. WordPress Developers That Are Hiring
2. WordPress Developer Chats Should Focus On Core
3. Want To Work For Crowd Favorite?

Many people within the WordPress community are anxiously awaiting the first issue of the WPCandy Quarterly to show up in their mailbox. According to Ryan, that day is soon approaching as the first batches are currently being printed. However, since there is still some time before we’ll be holding the physical copy, Ryan has explained how he went about developing the first issue. Based on the video Ryan published showcasing the various designs that articles have gone through, it looks like the magazine will have an impressive display around the content of each article, giving it that magazine feel.

Related posts:

1. WPCandy Set To Publish First WP Centric Print Magazine
2. How Ryan Imel Created The WP Quarterly Page
3. WPCandy Is Back In Business

New plugins

Google AdSense and Google Analytics Remover will prevent AdSense ads and Analytics tracking code from displaying when you are logged in.

Updated plugins

Custom Field Suite allows you to visually manage custom fields.

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.

John James Jacoby of BuddyPress.org has announced that the BuddyPress Codex has received a much needed refresh. Here is the kicker, the BuddyPress Codex is powered by a WordPress installation where all registered users are an editor. Users can share information as in a traditional wiki but everything is housed on individual pages. Interestingly enough, this very idea was proposed a couple of times during the past few years for the WordPress Codex but it never gained much traction.

Head on over to the NEW BuddyPress Codex and check it out. It will be interesting to see how this approach scales.

Related posts:

1. BuddyPress To The Rescue For Ning Users
2. BuddyPress 1.5.2 Released
3. Handful Of Codex Stats

First off, congratulations to Joshua Strebel and to his wife as they are now first-time parents. Secondly, Joshua has put together a pretty transparent view as to how he created Page.ly, a WordPress specific hosting service. So far, the guide is five parts long but I advise you to start out with part 1, Identifying the opportunity.

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If you’re a fan of WordPress, you probably know about the WordPress Codex, the massive community-editable source of WordPress documentation.

Just yesterday, the BuddyPress core team gave a massive update to the BuddyPress Codex, making it easier than ever to learn how to use the #1 social networking platform plugin for WordPress.

Even though the new BuddyPress Codex may function like a traditional Wiki, it’s actually built on top of WordPress and BuddyPress. After all, why not show off some of the cool things you can do with a platform while you learn how to use it?

Blush is a soft, warm, feminine theme in tones of rose and cream.

Boozurk is a clear theme with a lot of features.

The Frances Wright is a clean and elegant theme.

We all know how critically important the WordPress.org Codex is. Countless laborious hours have gone into making it the de-facto resource for all things WordPress.org related. It serves as an online encyclopedia of WordPress functions, actions, best practices, and examples on how extend WordPress far beyond its initial reach.

You may not know it but we’ve had a codex here at BuddyPress.org since the early days. It’s mostly made life really difficult and forced everyone into the forums or to other sites for help.

Today, I’m really happy to report that the core team has spent some time this weekend to finally refresh the BuddyPress Codex.

The BuddyPress Codex is a WordPress installation where everyone is an editor. You are free to contribute your knowledge into it exactly the way a traditional Wiki works, all using WordPress pages and a few custom taxonomies specific to the BuddyPress project.

In addition, we’ve added a few small social integrations to show off who created and edited each page, and we’re keeping track of all those edits through the BuddyPress Activity component so you can show off your contributions back to the community.

We really think you’ll like the changes, and hope you’ll let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of responsive themes. Knowing that your WordPress blog will look just as good on a tiny mobile screen as it does on a huge desktop screen is one of the most important factors of design to me, especially in today’s age where mobile device usage is growing so rapidly.

Sadly, there aren’t many responsive themes out there, but Responsive Plugin aims to change that. Once released, Responsive Plugin will make any theme scale perfectly on any screen size. There is no definitive release date, but it is definitely coming out sooner rather than later, and you can find a signup form at the bottom of the site if you want to follow the action.

WordPress community site VoodooPress has recently turned one year old. To celebrate, they are giving away VoodooPress branded T-Shirts. They come at the cost of providing the site some social love by clicking on any of the social media icons on the site. Small price to pay for a chance at a T-Shirt. Congrats to the VoodooPress team and I hope the second year is better than the first!

Just imagine how powerful one would be if they wielded a GPL voodoo doll.

Related posts:

1. Andrew Nacin – One Year Later
2. It’s That Time Of Year Again
3. WPTavern Celebrates Thank A Plugin Author Day!

The WordPress book, Digging Into WordPress has been updated to cover WordPress 3.2 and 3.3. This marks the 9th edition of the book as noted by Jeff Starr. Those of you who are owners of any previous version of the book will receive this update for free.

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Program For Digging Into WordPress Closes
2. Guest Review Of The Book: WordPress & Ajax
3. New WordPress Book – WordPress 3 Site Blueprints

Ipstenu once again has a great article that covers some situations in which MultiSite is not the best tool for the job. If you’re thinking that you need to use MultiSite to accomplish a certain task, make sure that task is not on her list.

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Congratulations goes out to Luke McDonald as one of the themes produced by Press75.com has been selected to be part of the WordPress.com commercial theme store. The theme is priced at $50.00 and is called Debut. It’s mobile ready right out of the box along with having post format support. Speaking of post formats, Debut is especially interesting because when users select the Audio post format, it expands into a multi-track playlist. You can see the theme in action via the WordPress.com theme showcase.

Related posts:

1. So Many Commercial Themes – So Many Theme Sorters
2. Alex King Releases Post Formats Admin UI Code
3. Review Of The RichBiz Commercial Theme

New plugins

Quick Notice Bar will help you to display a sticky message in your site’s header.

RePress allows you to circumvent internet censorship by proxying traffic to websites that have been blocked by repressive regimes.

Widget Logic Visual lets you control on which pages widgets appear using conditional tags.

WP Really Simple Health allows you to view memory utilization, server uptime, and CPU load on the new admin toolbar.

Updated plugins

Tallyopia Analytics provides analytics that you can embed into your site using shortcodes or view in your admin dashboard.

Ultimate TinyMCE beefs up your visual editor with a plethora of advanced options.

We’re very happy to announce that version 1.5 of WordPress for Windows Phone is now available. This update focuses on speed and reliability – here’s what’s changed:

• Stats: We’ve moved the stats section to its own page in the app which greatly improved the loading time for the blog panorama. While we were at it we fixed some bugs and improved the styling of the charts. The result is a much smoother experience for keeping up with your site’s stats. Just tap the new stats button in the actions pane to view your stats.
• Post scheduling: The ability to schedule posts was a missing piece in the app. Now you can easily set a future publish date for your posts right from the app.
• Comments: The comments list has been updated and now features a simple way to select multiple comments for bulk moderation.
• Infinite scrolling: Your posts, pages, and comments now keep loading as you scroll down the list. No need to tap an extra button, it’s quick and easy.
• Media uploading: The uploading reliability has been greatly improved. Now the app uploads your media in bite-size chunks, and automatically retries if you lose your connection. This has been tested a great deal and works well in most everyday situations.

In addition to the improvements and bug fixes, version 1.5 of WordPress for Windows Phone has also seen some minor UI enhancements and updates, as well as a number of crash fixes. All in all, we’re very happy with this release, which should make it even easier for you to blog from that fancy Windows Phone of yours.

We’re not resting just yet though. What would you like to see added to or improved on in the app? Comment on this post or shout out on Twitter and let us know your thoughts.

Huge thanks to everyone involved in this release: Dan Roundhill, Danilo Ercoli, Robert Collins, Max Cutler.

LIFE magazine has relaunched, powered by WordPress.com VIP. I’m a huge fan of the magazine’s history and the work of photographers like John Dominis.

Dusk To Dawn is a dark theme that melds old-style organic ornaments with modern design and typography.

Grisaille is a classic and simple two-column design adjusted for mobile browsing.

Stark has 2 columns with a left sidebar, is of fluid width, has both an upper menu and a vertical menu, and is high contrast with vivid red, black and white.

DBS Interactive which is an interactive agency has released their version of a WordPress 3.0+ theme reference guide. The guide is a reworked version of the information you would find in the Codex around template tags. So if the Codex presentation of this data is not your cup of tea, perhaps this reference guide will be easier to follow.

Related posts:

1. Simple Guide To Adding Theme Options
2. Good Guide On Avoiding Theme/Plugin Lock-In
3. Idiot’s Guide To WordPress

Themefuse has a generally good checklist on things to do when a WordPress powered website crashes. While the article doesn’t contain any drastically new information, it’s still a good list of things to do to get your site back up and running as soon as possible if a crash were to occur.

Related posts:

1. 5 Tips To Create A Great Site About WordPress
2. Four Common Sense Ways To Improve Security On Your WordPress Powered Site
3. 14 Things To Consider When Choosing A Webhost For Your WordPress Powered Site

Are you a WordPress blogger? Do you enjoy having thousands of safe themes to choose from in the official directory? Did you know that a small group of volunteers goes through every single line of code in every submitted theme to make sure that they work properly on a basic installation and are free from malicious code? Chances are, you didn’t know that last bit, but now you do.

The Theme Review Team could use your help, especially if you know your way around a theme or two. At this time, there are typically many more theme submissions than active reviewers, so if you’re looking for a great way to help out the entire WordPress community, join the Theme Review Team today! If you’re a theme developer, but don’t have the free time to volunteer, you can at least help the team out by ensuring that your theme meets the guidelines before submitting it.

Joost de Valk was one of the first to start the trend and now, he’s on pace to reverse it. Joost announced that he has decided to remove the dashboard widget which shows the most recent posts on his site from his SEO plugin.

Joost provided some interesting statistics that show where most of his visitors are coming from. As it turns out, the dashboard news are did provide additional traffic but very little in the way of conversions which is one of the reasons for the removal. Looking at the reactions of those that use the plugin, some applaud Joost for this action while others wanted the ability to choose whether to hide or display the news widget. While not mentioned, I think it’s a little humorous as well that within the Plugin UI Guide published by WPCandy recently, they featured the Dashboard News Widget of Joost De Valks SEO Plugin as what not to do.

While I want to see the results of the poll question I asked, I’ll pose a few more questions for you to answer. When is it ok to have a dashboard widget such as the one that used to be within the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast? Is the dashboard considered sacred real estate reserved for only the most important information?

Personally, I like the trend of removing dashboard widgets generated by plugins. In this case, I think less is more.

Related posts:

1. Changing Feeds In The WordPress Dashboard
2. Is It Time To Refocus The Dashboard For News?
3. Chances Of WPTavern Getting Into Dashboard?

The Theme Review Team tried something new this past weekend. Members of the review team that could make it, spent all day in IRC to review themes stuck in the Priority 2 queue which lists themes that have been stuck in the review process for more than two weeks. While the goal was to clear the queue, the last time I checked the number of themes was around 81. Some of the themes have been in the review process for over 6 weeks. Browsing through the queue, I even noticed two themes submitted by Automattic. One was called Duotone which has been in the queue for 5 weeks with Bouquet coming in at 6 weeks. Just goes to show that Automattic doesn’t receive preferential treatment when it comes to the review process.

If you would like to see themes get through the review process faster, please consider joining the theme review team. As a theme author, you can also help make the review process go faster by ensuring that your theme meets the following guidelines.

Related posts:

1. Name Your Dream Theme Team
2. WPWeekly Episode 106 – The Theme Review Team
3. DevPress Plans To Launch Plugin/Theme Review Service

New plugins

No Soup allows you to block users from a specific IP or range(s) of IPs and redirect them to another site.

WhatElse is a widget that lets you manually add related content to every post or page.

Updated plugins

Joemobi allows you to create native Android and BlackBerry applications from your WordPress site.

Social Login for WordPress lets your users log in and comment via their accounts with popular ID providers such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yahoo, Live, and over 15 more.

In what I believe to be an excellent use of the WordPress Foundation, Jane Wells has shared news that the foundation plans on footing the bill for Meetup.com Organizer dues that need to be paid by the founder of the meetup group. Considering the amount of these dues range from $12-19/month it’s not exactly cheap.

We’re setting up an official WordPress account on Meetup.com right now, and over the next couple of weeks will be working with existing meetup group organizers, people who want to start a new meetup group, and the helpful folks at Meetup.com to put this program in place. WordPress meetup groups that choose to have their group become part of the WordPress account will no longer pay organizer dues for that group, as the WordPress Foundation will be footing the bill.

This is exciting for several reasons. First, it means local organizers who are giving something back to the project by way of their time won’t also have shell out $12-19/month for the privilege. That alone is a big step. Second, it will open the door to more events and leaders within a community, since leadership and event planning won’t need to be tied to “owning” the meetup group. Third, more active meetup groups means more WordCamps, yay!

This is great news considering how many people use Meetup.com to control all aspects of their local WordPress meetups. Reading through the post, it looks like there are no strings attached but I wonder if by joining the official WordPress Meetup Group if at some point in the future, there will be some sort of Meetup guidelines published that those users will need to follow. If there are any guidelines that will need to be followed, I would hope that they are no where near as stringent as the WordCamp guidelines.

If you’re already a Meetup.com WordPress group organizer or looking to get started, be sure to take the survey so it gives the foundation a good starting point.

Related posts:

1. New Forum For WordPress Meetup Organizers
2. My Experience In Running A WordPress Meetup