WordPress Plugin to Whisper Comments to the Blog Administrator

Lord Chaos’s Whisper WordPress Plugin is something new and interesting for full version WordPress users. It allows readers to comment privately on a public WordPress blog, directing their comments directly to the blog administrator or specific logged in member. According to the feature list, private comments would be seen by the “intended user” and Admin, […]

A Day in the Life of a Paranoid Website Administrator

Let me introduce you to a typical day in a paranoid website administrator. In WordPress v1.2, after several months of spam free use, the comment spammers slammed my site. I tried all kinds of spam catching tools that worked, but my paranoia grew. Like most site administrators, I hated those time wasting monsters. With WordPress […]

Vulnerability in phpMyAdmin Requires Immediate Patch

A critical CSRF Vulnerability in phpMyAdmin Database administration tool has been found and a patch is available for all computers and servers running the MySQL database. Does this include you? If you are using WordPress, yes it does. Contact your web host to ensure phpMyAdmin is updated immediately. If you are self-hosted and manage your […]

Blame WordPress For the World’s Problems

Let’s call this person “wise” using air quotes to give you a description of where they come from in life. This “wise” person confronted to me at a public event to announce that WordPress was evil and must be destroyed. “After all,” he informed me soundly. “While WordPress says it supports freedom of speech, it […]

WordPress School: Pageviews

A student trying to explain how WordPress Themes worked to another student used the following metaphor: Think of WordPress Themes like a poker hand. They are all cards but the value of the playing hand changes with each deal. She was right. There are 52 cards in a deck, four suits (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades), […]

WordPress School: Text Editors

Coming very soon, I’m dedicating a couple weeks to learning about web browsers and HTML and CSS in preparation for moving into the site design and customization aspects of Lorelle’s WordPress School free online course. To help you prepare, today’s tutorial and assignment is to introduce you to text editors. In WordPress, there is a […]

WordPress School: WordPress Login

The word login is a strange word with an odd spelling, yet it is the gateway to our online world. We have to login to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, even our computers now require logins for security purposes. WordPress also has a login – many, in fact. Today’s assignment and tutorial in Lorelle’s WordPress School […]

WordPress School: Post Slug

In the tutorial on creating links in your WordPress content, I mentioned that I’d love to do an entire college course dedicated solely to the power of the hyperlink – it is that fascinating and influential in all things web. So far we’ve talked about links that connect related content on your site together, citation […]

Legal

Table of Contents What are they saying about Lorelle VanFossen and Lorelle on WordPress Who is Lorelle? Feeds and Subscriptions Claims to Fame Legal Policies Copyright and Translation Policies Comment Policy Guest blogging and contributions Advertising, Marketing, and Reviews Disclosure Privacy Web Accessibility Liability The following are the policies, licenses, and legal issues associated with […]

WordPress School: Addresses and URLs

Someday someone will write a book about the complexities of website addresses, permalinks, pretty permalinks, nonces, preview links, conditional links, and all of the other linky link links that WordPress uses. Until that authoritative text book is written, you are stuck with my weak explanations. As you move through the various assignments in In Lorelle’s […]

WordPress School: Site Master Plan

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. Tony Robbins A website is an intangible, a virtual nothing in which we create something tangible to human perception. When it boils right down to it, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little created nothing with WordPress. WordPress isn’t a physical object you can […]

Research on the WordPress, Web Development, and Web Design Job Market

In 2012 and 2013, I did extensive research for the grant program to develop and rewrite the Web Developer degree program at Clark College. This research included an analysis of current and future job opportunities for students graduating with that degree with a solid understanding of WordPress. Now that the program has completed its first […]

Find, Search, Replace, and Delete in the WordPress Database

The following was originally published on WordCast and authored by Lorelle VanFossen. It is reprinted here as a reference guide. You’ve moved your WordPress installation from one server to another. You’ve changed domain names. You’ve moved images around on your server and now they don’t load. You’ve changed your WordPress installation and now images show […]

Blog Exercises: Making Notifications and Alerts Work for You

In the blog exercise on eliminating noisy distractions from your computer, mobile phone, and other areas around your working environment, I wanted you to remove the things that interfere with your blogging time and space, with your creative energies. I wanted you to identify what is getting in your way that you might not be […]

Blog Exercises: Comments on the Contact Page

Do you have comments on your Contact Page? It’s a simple question. Have you checked lately? A well-formed contact page features a welcoming introduction and encouragement to contact the site administrator or owner, typically you. If you have a store-front, it often contains an address, phone number, driving directions, and map or link to a […]