Maria Langer: Celebrating Eight Years Blogging

We make jokes about Renaissance men, but I’d like to introduce you to a Renaissance woman in the truest sense of the reference. Maria Langer is a lot of things, in addition to a dear friend. Even before we were on a first name basis, she was a mentor and inspiration to me. In honor […]

Blog Resources for English Language and Blog Writing

I blog in English and it behooves me to get it write – okay, at least once in a while. The challenges I face as a writer are not just generating ideas but finding the write way to convey those ideas. I frequently need to check the spelling or definition of words I come up […]

WordPress Help in Your Language

WordPress in Your Language from the WordPress Codex, the online manual for WordPress, offers extensive information on WordPress source files, Themes, translation files, and support. I recently highlighted some of the amazing variety of languages available for WordPress users and I thought I’d take a look around at the various international support and help sites […]

Blogging in More Than One Language

Do you blog in more than one language? One of the problems for multi-language bloggers is the issue of switching between languages as they blog. To ease the frustration, there is a powerful WordPress Plugin called Gengo available. Gengo is for blogging in multiple languages. It does not translate posts and users see nothing on […]

Language Contest on WordPress.com

WordPress developers are opening the door to foreign languages even more by highlighting them in the WordPress Blogs of the Day list with a new “Language Filters” most popular languages featured on WordPress.com list. The WordPress Blogs of the Day (BOTD) is the source of the top blogs on WordPress.com lists found on the front […]

Translation – How Do You Know Which Language is Which to Translate

I have a question, or maybe even a challenge for you. I recently found a trackback on my site in a non-English language and I wanted to read it. This happens more frequently than you may imagine, but most of the time I am familiar enough with the language, like Spanish or French, to get […]

Writing With Culture – The Insidious Pull of Pop Language

Writers Write’s “The Insidious Pull of Pop Language” talks about the invasion of pop culture words and phrases and their impact on writing. William Grimes of The New York Times discusses Leslie’ Savan’s new book, Slam Dunks and No-Brainers: Language in Your Life, the Media, Business, Politics, and, Like, Whatever (Knopf). Savan is horrified by […]

Computer Models – How New Words Become Part of the Language

In an interesting post, New Scientist’s Mark Buchanan reports on “How New Words Become Part of the Language”. Since words are an important part of blogging, understanding where words come from, how they developed, and how they are used, and to use them appropriately, is critical to a successful blog. When unwanted email first came […]

Website Development – International Standards and Languages

While the majority of web pages are in English, moves by the UN and other international groups are working hard to change that. As more and more people speaking a variety of languages gain access to the Internet, foreign language and international issues will become more and more critical to the web page designer. There […]

WordPress in Your Language

Did you know that WordPress comes in at least 36 languages? WordPress is available in most of the popular languages, but it is also in Basque, Serbian, Welsh, Hebrew, Icelandic, Korean, Indonesian, Catalan, and Turkish. WordPress may be available in your language, and you can find help and installation information in the WordPress Codex on […]

WordPress Anniversary: Comment Spam Lessons

It’s hard to believe that I’ve learned much from comment spammers over the years. I’ve learned that they are among the most hated folks in the world, yet you have to respect them as well. As I look back on ten years of blogging with WordPress on this 10th Anniversary year, I realized that comment […]

Blog Exercises: List Your Resources

In “Blog Exercises: What Are Your Reference Articles” your blog exercise was to identify your reference articles from within your site and list them on a Page or in a post as a reference list. Today’s blog exercise is to identify and publish your resources beyond your site, the reference material and sources you count […]

Blog Exercises: Fall in Love with Words

There are certain clues that tell you how much a restaurant will cost. If the word “cuisine” appears in the advertising, it will be expensive. If they use the word “food,” it will be moderately priced. However, if the sign says “eats,” even though you’ll save money on food, your medical bills may be quite […]

Blog Exercises: Comments Policy

We started with the Bloggers Code of Ethics in our blog exercises on site policies, starting you off on the right foot by knowing where you will draw your lines in the sand when it comes to your rights and responsibilities as a blogger. In this Blog Exercise, we are going to tackle the next […]

Blog Exercises: Stand Up For Freedom of Speech

There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven you can’t say on television. What a ratio that is! 399,993 to 7. They must really be baaaad. They must be OUTRAGEOUS to be separated from a group that large. “All of you words over here, you seven…baaaad words.” That’s what they told […]