Are You Willing To Go Naked For One Day For Akismet?

Are you willing to let your blog go naked for one day? No, it isn’t time for CSS Naked Day. Mark on Akismet was intrigued by the announcement by Jesper Rønn-Jensen to turn off all comment spam protection on December 15, and now challenges all Akismet users to turn off Akismet for a day. It’s […]

How to Stop Content Theft: The Best Tips

One of my heroes, Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today, whom I’ve written much about and love his work on the Blog Herald, has simplified the issue of content theft into two brilliant and understandable articles. 5 Content Theft Myths and Why They Are False deals with the myths that often keep us from responding and […]

Blog Struggles: Blogger’s Depression

It happens to everyone, including bloggers. You work and work, filled with enthusiasm, eager to embrace each day. Then something happens. For a blogger, it’s little things. A mistake found in a post months after publishing. You are embarrassed but no big deal. Then someone says something a bit sarcastic towards you, and not your […]

Weekly Digest: Lorelle Recovers From WordCamp Israel, Sicks, Tackles WordPress.com Marketplace, Content Thieves, and Kicks Blogging Ass

I’m back in the states after an amazingly successful WordCamp Israel conference, and catching up with good friends and good food, arriving back in time for another keynote presentation in Seattle, then crashing down into sick. Cold/Flu/Cough/Yuck. On the good side, there are a lot of fun and exciting things happening in my life and […]

Spinning Spammers Steal Our Blog Content

Last week, an article I wrote for the Blog Herald, Blogging Outside of Your Community By Not Blogging in Your Native Tongue, caught the attention of more than just the readers. It caught the attention of the staff of the Blog Herald by attracting a very unusual trackback from a new kind of copyright violating […]

Blog Struggles: Taking The Moral High Blogging Ground

Oh, the stories I could tell. I wish I could tell you about all the times when my instinct was to take the low road, to accuse, to play Devil’s advocate, to leap to conclusions, to express unfounded opinions, and to lower my standards. Oh, the times, the many times. A constant struggle of mine […]

Protect Yourself Online With Common Sense

Social Networking Safety Tips by DygiScape is a thought-provoking look at staying safe while participating in social networking services. It’s no question that social networking Web sites are growing rapidly everyday. This growing trend of sharing yourself more and more online; safety is often overlooked. Setting forth some safety guidelines will benefit the users of […]

Point and Counterpoint in Mistakes Beginner Bloggers Make

In an interesting “debate” or rather “continuation of the conversation”, two bloggers take on the concept of the 7 Blogging Beginner Mistakes and how to avoid them. It began with Puiu from the Lost Art of Blogging on 7 Blogging Beginner Mistakes And How to Avoid Them, which made some very good points, much of […]

The Art of Smilies in WordPress Blogs

I recently ran across a blog that was stuffed with . You know, those yellow smiling faces that grin, wink, blink and snarl at you from many blog posts? They are called emoticons by their proper term, but also known as smilies or smileys. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t, but they certainly help […]

Weekly Digest: End of Two Months of Guest Bloggers, More WordPress Tips, and Heading to Reno, Israel, and Seattle

This weekend is the last of the two month celebration of the two year anniversary of WordPress.com and this blog. For the past two months, I’ve opened this blog up to guest bloggers from around the blogosphere, sharing their thoughts and expertise on blogging and WordPress tips and techniques. It has been amazing. I’ve learned […]

Fighting Comment Spam: WordPress Comments Mass Edit Mode

Every once in a while, the comment spammers win. Just a little. They use new techniques, new IP addresses, some method that slips by Akismet and other comment spam fighting tools. Your Comments Panel overflows with comment spam. After marking 10 or 20 as comment spam, your natural inclination is to fire off an angry […]

Attack of the Mean Commenter: Blocking Commenters and Comments on Your WordPress Blog

By now, you all should know that you have total control over your blog’s comments, right? You can choose to allow only registered users to comment, delete any comment you want, edit any comment, and do the same for trackbacks. While it helps to have a good comments policy, you still have total control over […]

WordPress: It Takes a Village

Ozh of Planet Ozh has created the WordPress Bug Fixers Heat Map, a tag cloud of the volunteers and staff of Automattic who dedicate so much of their time and energy to making WordPress work and evolve. I looked at this list and my throat started to close up. Tears welled. I wanted to reach […]

Protecting Your WordPress Blog

I’ve written extensively about the choices you have in responding to negative comments and bloggers. You can respond or ignore, but never retaliate. However, a few months ago, Darren Rowse of Problogger was the victim of a spammer and hacker and it made me want to jump up and hit back, as I’m sure it […]

Terms of Use and Universal Comment Link Philosophy

By John Pozadzides Are you like me? Do you rant and rave against SPAMmers? Do you keep a loaded sidearm at the ready in case you encounter one? If so… please seek help, you’re taking this too far! But I digress. You see, for the last several days my blog was being absolutely accosted by […]