The Article Writer

If you weren’t logged on to your computer that much over the weekend, you may have missed a notice on your WordPress administrative panel stating, A new version of WordPress is available! Please update now.

Yes, the long-awaited — even dreaded — WP v. 2.5 is out and I have some good news for you: WordPress and friends are offering a lot of hand-holding to see you through this update. Before I continue, I am offering special thanks to Deborah Petersen of the Life In The Fast Lane blog for forwarding some important material to me which I am sharing with you today. Thanks, Deb!

Download The Preflight Plugin

Before we proceed, I must tell you that I already upgraded my SEO blog on Sunday afternoon to WP 2.5. I had no problems whatsoever with the upgrade, completely everything within five minutes. Yep, it was that easy.

Still, if you have an older blog, particularly one with an older theme and a bunch of plug-ins, I recommend that you upload the Wordpress Upgrade Preflight Check plugin before proceeding. This appropriately named plugin will examine your current theme and plugins for compatibility issues relating to upgrading to WP 2.3 (a modified version to help you upgrade to 2.5 will soon be released). Even though the plugin hasn’t been updated yet, I still found problems with an older theme blog that I know must be addressed. Once installed, click on the Options tab on your administrative panel and you’ll see the report.

BlogHerald Reports

BlogHerald’s Lorelle Von Fossen wrote an excellent primer in early March outlining what to expect with the update — read it, study it, and take your time doing your upgrade especially if you are concerned that problems could be lurking. Always, back up your database before upgrading and keep copies on hand. Do not rely on your web host’s copy even if they store them for you.

Lost Art of Blogging Reports

You can also find out detailed upgrade information by visiting Lost Art of Blogging and read what Tibu Puiu has to say about this update. I haven’t read it yet, but it is a very thorough review of WP 2.5.

You Can Wait On It

Although your administrative panel is telling you to update NOW, I don’t see any harm in waiting a few days, especially if you want to gauge the feedback which will soon be all over the internet. Mondays are the absolute worst days for me to do these types of updates as I’m gearing up for the week, needing to meet important writing deadlines. There are seven other WordPress blogs I must also update so you can see I’m not too eager to set aside my precious time to tackle them all at once.

Still, with one blog upgrade behind me, it wasn’t the crisis I had expected that it could be.  Kudos to everyone in WP-land for taking the sting out what amounts to a significant change in the way we use WordPress.

Yesterday, I began using Entrecard — you know, that online business card thingamajig you can drop on various sites and get a day of free advertising (if accepted by the blog manager). I set up four blogs with it and before I knew it four different email inboxes were being heavily bombarded with requests (betcha didn’t know I operated so many different email accounts, did you?)

Anyway, I quickly had to sort through scads of requests, some of which had absolutely nothing to do with what the respective blogs are all about. Yes, your bakery business looks great — I could almost eat your virtual Entrecard — but I’m not sure I have a place for you on my blogs.

The requests came fast and furious as I imagine that there were boatloads of Entrecard users who were just waiting for me to sign up and place the widget on my blogs. Talk about feeling wanted! But, I know there is another side to Entrecard — to get some free advertising and to push up traffic numbers (namely Alexa) on blogs.

Honestly, I’ve barely explored the whole Entrecard culture, preferring people to drop by and visit me before I do likewise. My cards are plain — you think I’m going to pay someone to create cards for me? Not a chance! And, I haven’t found a site that I absolutely, positively want to advertise on. Give me time, I’m sure that moment will arrive.

Some People Are Just Plain Weird

What is it about the internet that attracts weird people? Okay, that answer is anonymity.  If you’re a social misfit when it comes to meeting real people face to face, why not create a virtual version of yourself and enter a world that you have created?

I don’t have to suggest this — lots of people are doing just that. MySpace seems to be the biggest proponent of online weirdness — gee, you think I’m really interested in friending someone whose sole goal in life is to friend as many people as possible on every single social media outlet out there? All right, I admit it: I can’t stand the competition!

The worst place, of course, is YouTube where anyone can get their fifteen minutes of fame (or shame). I call the site Soap Operas For Sociopaths as not a few people have gotten their fame postmortem. Yes, inflict you tragedy on the masses, commit suicide, and you’ll live in infamy forevermore. Oh, by the way, there is a God.

Off To Entrecard Land

I’m off to Entrecard Land as I’m readying a fifth blog for this madness.  Drop on by — literally — and I’ll see if I can hook you up. Just try to stay on message as you’ll have a better chance of being approved.

I’m loathe to switch themes these days, especially with WordPress 2.5’s release being imminent. Some of the themes associated with my many blogs are not likely to pass muster with the next update while others are tired-looking and could use a change.

However, If I were to make updates right now, I might have to quickly make another round of changes once WP 2.5 is online — I really don’t need that kind of extra work right now!

For long time readers of this blog, you’re familiar with the Aquarium theme now featured. I like this theme, but I have moved away from it a few times only to return.

My last theme exchange was necessary because a piece of code I inserted rendered the theme virtually unusable, but I fixed that problem and decided to ditch the most recent theme, Regulus, because one of my regular readers (who has a vision problem) had trouble with it.

When making changes to any theme, I must remember to take a look at how it looks with Internet Explorer as I use Firefox. In addition, I have computer screens with different resolutions and some themes look fine under all conditions, while others do not. I’ve had a rude awakening or two when I discovered a theme that didn’t look quite right with I.E., sometimes many days after installing it.

Usually, if there is a problem with a particular theme, I’ll get a “heads up” from a reader, but that isn’t always the case. Some day I hope to actually pay someone to develop a custom theme for this blog, but that’ll have to wait until after my first royalty check arrives.

Then again, I need to start writing a book!