I get my information about WordPress development from the same resources you do, but as a volunteer for WordPress, I have learned a lot of the ins and outs of how WordPress works and what it can, and can’t, do.
So what do you want to know? Do you want to know more about the various features wordpress.com or the full version of WordPress? About the differences between the versions and how to decide which one to choose? Do you want to know more about WordPress Themes, how to tweak them or create your own? Or just how to go about choosing a WordPress Theme? What about all those amazing WordPress Plugins? What do they do and how can they help you make your WordPress site even better?
What kind of help and tips do you need to know? Having trouble understanding what you can and can’t do with wordpress.com? What about adding photographs, music, podcasting, and videos? Need more help understanding the CSS and XHTML behind WordPress Themes? Or understanding more about PHP codes?
What do you want to know about WordPress?
This is as much your WordPress site as it is mine. I will write about what I know, the things I learned along the way, and what I learn from the experts who are developing WordPress every day. I work with a lot of the volunteers on WordPress and they have helped me so much and I have learned plenty from them. I will do my best to share what they have taught me with you.
Your comments, recommendations, suggestions, and questions will help me add content here, but it will also help the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress users, since I help with documentation there. We are always looking for suggestions for articles and what help users really need to get WordPress installed, working, and customized on their website. Your help will also help spread the wealth for all WordPress users.
But I need to know what you what to know about WordPress. Anyone can comment here, ask questions, make suggestions, and request articles. I will do the best I can to fill as many requests as possible.
I’m a huge fan of WordPress, and I think you will be too, once you understand how it works and what it can do for you. For those who have already uncovered many of the benefits, please help me share that enthusiasm and creativity with others.
Okay, info-commericial over? What do you want to know about WordPress and how can I help?
site search tags: blog administration, wordpress, blog, wordpress tips, wordpress themes, wordpress help
Lorelle on WordPress 
9 Comments
Ok, I am also a WP fan since little bit long time. Just one thing i want to know about wordpress.com dashboard. What is the criteria for “Top WordPress Blogs Today” and “Top Posts from around WordPress.com”. I tried to look for this in MANY wordpress blogs but to no benefit. If you can please tell me I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks alot 🙂
So would I. The information I’m getting is that the top wordpress.com blogs are based upon traffic but they are going to tweak with this to maybe make it include more criteria. Stay tuned and I’ll be writing about this as soon as I know more.
Remember, only YOU and other wordpress.com users can see this information, which creates a sense of competition among the wordpress.com community. That gives a whole new flavor to how this community blogging thing works. I like it.
You are right about the competition. I see how people are curious to get themselves on top blogs (including myself). I believe this spirit will prevent the community from fading off.
Hi Lorelle,
I’m curious how you got techorati tags and site search tags to display with your posts. I’m used to using Jerome’s Keywords plugin, as well as some plugins from Denis de Bernardy to tag and display related keywords and their cosmost on my regular WP blogs, but with the streamlined interface that wordpress.com provides, plugins aren’t an option — so how do you get that nifty extra functionality on a wordpress.com hosted blog?
Also, I’m mighty busy on my Shop for Relief site to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but at some point I’m going to have to publish a review of WordPress.com on How to Blog as promised, and before doing so it’d be great to know what phase of development it’s currently in, what additional features and/or themes will be included upon launch, and an estimated launch time when the general public will be able to sign up to get their own WordPress.com blogs (and will the service continue to be free?)
Thanks for any help/info you can provide 🙂
Adding Technorati Tags to wordpress.com will help you learn how I add them to my posts manually. I just save them in a text file and copy and paste and edit them into the bottom of my posts. For my main site, which is the full version of WordPress, I am using Ultimate Tag Warrior WordPress Plugin and Boneill’s WordPress Tag Plugin both at the same time, though I will probably decide on choose only one in the future. Ultimate Tag Warrior has a bit of a high learning curve but it is amazing powerful and the author is really dedicated to making it a very powerful, feature-stuffed plugin.
As for a review of WordPress 1.6, which is still a few months away, you can check out the following articles:
The Latest News on WordPress 1.6 Status
WordPress Versions – How Many and What’s the Difference
Attention WordPress Theme Designers – Designing for WordPressMU
What can you do with wordpress.com
As for what phase the development is in, the WordPress developers are working overtime to just get WordPress 1.6 out of alpha stage. “The shot heard round the world” will be when WordPress 1.6 moves to Beta. And then you can get your own and start working on it.
But I’ll give you a little hint. While the hype will be big, the powerful features that already power WordPress will be the same as with WordPress 1.5 only much, much better. There will be improvements in the handling of media and user levels, if you use them, but expect everything to be even faster and more powerful.
If you want to see a list of the features as they are working on them, and what recommendations and suggestions people have requested for future versions, see WordPress Codex Version 1.6. I love looking at all the things people want WordPress to do.
And Matt has continued to state loudly that wordpress.com will continue to be free. I’m sure that some method of generating income will come of it, but a quote from Matt says, if you got it for free, it will continue to be free. So far, his alturism has lead to one of the hottest and amazingly powerful blogging and borderline CMS tools on the web – all for free.
Which reminds me, if you are using WordPress and enjoying it, consider giving a little something back so it will continue. And help spread the news about how much you enjoy working with it. A little publicity and good news never hurts. 😉
By the way, Emily, I love what you are doing with How to Blog. I monitor it frequently and you are doing great stuff! Keep up the fabulous work. You have a fan here!
Thanks for the speedy and informative response, Lorelle 🙂
Actually, I have a wordpress.com blog that I just started at blogging.wordpress.com in which I plan to create a WordPress specific version of How to Blog (and thanks for the feedback, it’s greatly appreciated!) So I’ve been playing around with WPMU in what I now know is an alpha version — and I’m very excited about what is to come.
And that’s wonderful to hear that Matt plans for wordpress.com to remain free – it’s truly an amazing tool.
i do not know nothing about the blogging. i just have a blog with wp.com and posted a general comment.
1) What i want to know how to use the templet to make it the way i want it to look like?
2) How to upload my picture as it won’t read my file off my documents
3) How can my web site be visible to the other bloggers?
Guidance shall be highly appreciated.
Our current website is based upon a very simple platform that has been useful but has limitations. I have been talking to a web design company who have been proposing a site for us based on the Word Press platform. Is it standard practice for design companies to use pre-existing platforms such as this and then charge to design within the framework or would someone with a little more web savvy than I take the platform and work on it myself?
Yes. It is actually the most common way of using WordPress today, fortunately and unfortunately. WordPress is the soup du jour and your best publishing platform to choose. After all, if the NY Times, Forbes, People Magazine, CNN, and millions more have chosen it and invested their entire business in WordPress, shouldn’t you do the same? As for how much you value your time and desire to learn how to use WordPress under the hood beyond the basics of content management, that’s up to you. If you want to go with an excerpt on the design and functionality, do so, If you wish to take the time to learn, that’s an option, or combine the two.
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