WordPress Themes: Start With a Solid Framework

Why I Created a WordPress Theme Framework by Justin Tadlock is a good look at the reasons why WordPress Theme designers and developers should work with a framework when designing a WordPress Theme. A strong Theme framework creates a solid canvas upon which to build your WordPress Themes. If you are or considering building WordPress […]

Building a Tourist Community Website With WordPress: Multilingual Contents and Translations

By Amir Helzer of ICanLocalize With your help beginning in the first post on how to build a tourist community website with WordPress, I’ve been so honored by your collaboration and help to improve my community’s new tourist site, Baripedia, representing my town, Bariloche in Argentina. With your guidance, you helped me determine which WordPress […]

WordPress 2.7 Release News and Links

Below is an updated list of articles I’ve found about WordPress 2.7 features and issues to prepare you for the exciting upcoming version of WordPress due out any moment. But first, this announcement. WordPress 2.6.5 Released: A security release of WordPress has come out and you are highly recommended to upgrade now, rather than wait […]

Designing WordPress Themes For the Slowing Web

Jonathan Bailey of the Blog Herald wrote about Surfing the Slow Web, a summary of his recent experience trying to connect to the Internet as an evacuee from Hurricane Gustav. While most web designers are pushing the limits of heavy handed design towards high bandwidth, the world still doesn’t work that fast or wide. According […]

WordCamp 2008 San Francisco – Great Fun. Pictures Don’t Lie.

WordCamp 2008 brought WordPress fans from around the world to San Francisco. I am always stunned by the lengths so many people take to travel so far for WordPress. Their passion and dedication is to be applauded as every one brings their unique perspective to a WordPress event and the WordPress Community. And they bring […]

Blog Challenge: Describe Your Software – Then and Now

Last week’s blog challenge was Describe Your Computer Setup – Then and Now. This week, I am challenging you to blog about your blog software, then and now. I’ve used just about all types of computer technology, from the early days of data storage on gigantic floppy disks to magnetic cards to “640K is enough […]

Strip Down Your Blog: CSS Naked Day

Get ready to go naked. On April 9th, 2008, hundreds, possibly thousands, of blogs and websites will go naked in honor of CSS Naked Day. Join fellow WordPress bloggers in honoring web designers and WordPress Theme builders by going naked. This is the third year of the annual CSS Naked Day which honors web design […]

Weekly Digest: Lorelle in San Francisco Talking Blogging and WordPress, Offerring Blog Resources, Beating a Plagiarist, and More

This week finds me in San Francisco starting a spring and summer of public appearances and conferences. I’m getting really geared up for WordCamp Dallas on March 29-30, 2008, and Successful and Outstanding Bloggers Conference in Chicago in May. I hear both of these are filling up fast, so get your registration in immediately. I […]

Weekly Digest: Catching Up, Speaking San Francisco, Future Post Mixup, Talking to Blogger Talks, and More

Yikes, it’s been a rough few weeks. Along with some nasty business stuff, which is actually normal in my line of work, I was supposed to be on my first real, non-working vacation in 14 years, which turned into a workation. What should have been normal was much less fun than usual as my husband […]

Blog Challenge: Testing Your Blog’s Accessibility

I’ve talked a lot over the years about how important it is to design your website or blog to be accessible. There is a growing number of bloggers and blog readers who are reading your blog right now with a screen reader which reads your blog to them, or some other magnification or screen customization […]

Are You Deaf?

No, this is not an accusation but an invitation. As many of you know, when it comes to web accessibility standards, I’m in your face. Recently, Monika Thon-Soun of Webdesign-in.de and Texto.de reminded me that the web and blogosphere is filling up with sights and sounds that the visually and hearing impaired can’t access, or […]

WordCamp Hamburg, Germany

I asked my friend, Ian of Letters Home To You living in Hamburg, Germany, to report on this past weekend’s WordCamp Hamburg. Unfortunately, he could only report on the first day of the two day event. Call it a mash-up of users, developers, code freaks and the rest of us, people like me who could […]

Weekly Digest: Lorelle at WordCamp Israel – Not Much Else. You?

Shalom from Israel! I’m in Tel Aviv for WordCamp Israel on October 25, 2007, which was a resounding success, and catching up with good friends and good food. This is the Weekly Digest from Lorelle on WordPress. To subscribe to the Weekly Digest category of Lorelle on WordPress, you can subscribe by the Weekly Digest […]

When Akismet Goes Bad: What to do when Akismet starts spamming your own comments

The reason why I created Akismet Auntie Spam helper script was because I seem to have a problem few other people do — every couple of months Akismet decides that my own comments and trackbacks are spam. This is unforgivable and a fatal usability flaw in Akismet’s design. Comments and trackbacks from the blog admin should skip the spam check process. I challenge anyone who argues differently to have to deal with always having to double check if their own comments are marked as spam. The delay between posting a comment and it appearing in Akismet almost always assures that you will miss one or there will be an inordinate delay in responding to your commenters.

But enough of the ranting about my problems with Akismet. Here are two things you can do to help when Akismet is marking your own comments as spam.

Weekly Digest: Celebrating Two Years of Lorelle on WordPress.com With Guest Bloggers and Memories

Instead of my normal weekly digest, I’m going to do two things this week. First, I want to celebrate all of the wonderful guest bloggers who have honored this blog over the past month with their fabulous posts about blogging, and those who will be making a repeat performance or joining us for the first […]