Command-Tab

Sunday, December 18th, 2005 at 4:18 AM

A number of people have asked me how to go about creating a custom WordPress theme — should they create it from scratch? Modify an existing theme? Performancing.com has a great introduction to customizing WordPress and making your blog look how you want. While I didn’t follow it to make this site, I did use the same method of duplicating the default WP theme, then modifying it to suit my needs. Luckily, WordPress’ PHP template tags make editing much simpler by removing the majority of the necessary code and breaking each important bit of data into single tags. (When you’re done with that, check out part 2.)

(On an unrelated note, please forgive the lack of recent updates. Not too long ago, I finally got myself a full time job and have been rather busy with it. I’ll do my best to keep the tech coming!)

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 18th, 2005 at 4:18 am and is filed under WordPress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 12:59 AM

It’s been nearly two months since I installed Akismet, and it has cut my comment spam down to nothing. Now I can be cool like Dvorak and get “no spam.” As mentioned a few posts ago, WordPress.com is now open to everyone, so now anyone who wishes to use Akismet can get the necessary API key right now. It’s a breeze to install, and does a number on spam. What more could you ask of an anti-comment-spam plugin?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 12:59 am and is filed under Misc, WordPress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005 at 1:57 AM

Mentioned briefly in my post about the comment spam filter Akismet, WordPress.com is out of beta and open to anyone who wants to sign up. Not to be confused with the downloadable version at wordpress.org, WordPress.com is a free Blogger style site where you can create an account and instantly run a blog powered by (you guessed it) the WordPress publishing system.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005 at 1:57 am and is filed under WordPress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 12:52 AM

Akismet is a new comment spam defeating system designed by WordPress creator Matt Mullenweg. Instead of filtering all comments locally, each comment’s data is sent out to the Akismet servers and tested among spam for other sites to create a far more accurate judgment of it’s validity. The only prerequisite is a WordPress.com API key, which can be signed up for at their site. Installation couldn’t be simpler, too. Per their public request, I’ve disabled other comment spam plugins such as Bad Behavior (which may or may not fix RSS issues a few people are having). So far, I’m quite impressed with how easy it is to use. Time will tell if it really works. If you’re interested in using it on your own site, you can check out their FAQ, or go right ahead and download the Wordpress plugin.

Update
It’s been 15 days since I activated Akismet and disabled all my other comment spam plugins, and so far I’ve seen only one unmoderated spam comment, while Akismet has blocked 1477 others. Those are impressive results! Also, WordPress.com is out of beta for those interested in getting an API key.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 12:52 am and is filed under WordPress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.