A lot of us dread to upgrade our software because of messages just like this

your attempt to edit this post has failed

Most often it is due to an incompatibility with a plugin. It appears that is the problem here as well. The very popular plugin Twitter Tools is the most likely culprit. If you see this message when you first try to save or publish a post in WordPress 2.9, the first thing you want to do is to de-activate the Twitter Tools plugin. That cleared up the problem for me.

A few people have reported this error with the All in One SEO plugin as well but it has not caused a problem on any of the 12 blogs that I manage. If you continue to have problems, deactivate ALL of your plugins. Then try to save a new post. If that works, reactivate your plug-ins until you find the source of your trouble.

What happened to WordPress 2.9 checking for plug-in compatibility? Well WordPress 2.9 does and lots of people have had no problems with the Twitter Tool plug in on their WordPress 2.9 blog. Alex King, the developer of Twitter Tools is hard with the WordPress developers trying to isolate the cause. I can tell you that this is one of the most difficult times to debug, when something works for most set ups but not for a small group of others.

Should I upgrade?

WordPress 2.9 is a feature upgrade. It is not a security upgrade, which should ALWAYS be installed as soon as possible. You could wait a week or so for some of the dust to settle before upgrading. Many people will make that choice if it is a feature vs security upgrade, as it is in this situation. You can wait and take one of the blogging classes that start after the new year to have my assistance and guidance when you upgrade. Check out Blogging Basics and Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune to see which class is the best fit for you.

Here is your opportunity to let your classmates know which plug ins or specialized widgets that you tried out this week. I am playing this week with modifying a theme that would be appropriate for a variety of LVS classes. As I tweak the theme, I am also working with different plug-ins. Right now Askimet is activated on this blog as well as All in One SEO, Twitter Tools, Polls and Database back up. I will add comments to this posting as I add more. I am a firm believer that a plug in must have a function, a “Gee Whiz that is cool!” isn’t enough to get included on my blog. It has to serve a purpose and accentuate the blog. It can be easy to overwhelm your audience with lots of “shiny: things in your side bar or under your posts. You don’t want anything that will detract them from your blog content.
When posting your comment, be sure to tell us the name of the plug-in or widget(s) that you used. Also remember to put the URL of your blog in the web site field. That way readers will be able to click on the link on your name to see your blog in action.

Plug-ins personalize your blog making it as unique as you are. Chris from CDCStudios has tested all of these and incorporates them into his blog as well as his clients.

DISQUS

Drop in replacement comment management system that allows threaded comments for more integrated discussions. It also has a ranking system and serves a frontline spam catcher to take a load off of Askimet. Out of all of the plug-ins that were new to me, these is by far the most intriguing to me.

Twitter Tools

Auto-tweet new blog posts, sidebar widget for your tweets, archive your tweets and tweet from your blog.

OpenID

A single digital identity for 30,000+ web sites. So if you use OpenID that is one less log in that your users have to remember if they are OpenID users. I HATE having a gazillion log ins. I do have an OpenID but only two of the sites that I use regularly have adopted this as of yet.

Clean Archives Reloaded

All of your posts in one place, shows number of comments and helps with SEO.

WP 2.5 Gallery Lightbox

No special short codes are needed to add this tnifty lightbox to your blog pages.

Super Cache

Creates cached version of your site that speeds up your site because there are less database queries. Logged in users don’t see cached pages, they will always see the current page. This is handy if you got comments pouring in. This is probably one of the most update plug-ins available to WordPress.

WP-Contact Form

Get your feedback securely and prevent spam to your email. It has drop down subject lists and prevents the need for a special email account. It is basically a secure php mailer that resides as it’s own page in your blog.

Mint

This is self hosted but it isn’t free. It does cost $30 per domain. It provides live stats tracking in a customizable dashboard. It has a number of plug-ins like an integration between feedburner and this. Stats update in about 3 minutes after visit. The high degree of customization and flexibility make this stats plug-in stand out among stats plug-ins.

YARPP

Uses a unique scoring system to automatically find relevant related posts. This can be added to each post or use it as a sidebar widget. You do need at least a handful of posts before this is going to show helpful information.

iPhone Webclip Manager

Simple custom bookmark icons for the iPhone. it doesn’t change even if your theme does so your readers keep the convention of your icon constant and easy to find on the iPhone.

WP-DBManager

Automatic backups and can backup to server or email. It will also do optimization to speed up your site. This is probably one of the easiest plugins to use and important. If you want to try a theme from a site other than WordPress, use this plug-in. Unfortunately some hackers are distributing themes that will delete your database tables!

WP Automatic Upgrade

Backs up all of your core files as it runs. Puts your site into maintenance mode while upgrade is progressing. It is all done with from the dashboard. If it is a security patch, it will do it automatically after a set amount of time to keep your site secure. Chris loves this, says it is the most important plugin he is presenting today. Others, including Lorelle, lament how it just plain does NOT work on some web servers and some others it is a bit buggy. This is especially true if the original install was a one button install versus a FTP install.

Sociable

This plugin allows you to choose from 67 different social media sites, try to keep the list under 10. More than that and the list is overwhelming to your users. This list is added to the end of your posts and make it easier for your users to promote your posts. Chris likes this better than Share This because the pop ups on Share this can be wonky on mobile devices.

Honorable Mention:

• Calais Autotagger - Help creating tags for your new posts
• Calais Archive Tagger - Help for creating tags on your archived posts
• Fluency Admin (theme) -Change the look of your admin panel
• iWphone (theme)-Optimize your blog for iPhones!
• Treasurelicious - What do you treasure?

The keynote address at WordCamp Portland is all about How WordPress has changed your life?

The Fairy Blog Mother aka Lorelle VanFossen, preached about the glories of WordPress.

WordPress lets you concentrate on expression, it allows you to actually blog without a ton of tweaking but  plenty of things to  tweak. Let’s talk themes and plug-ins! Crowd favorites here at WordCamp Portland included the DB backup, Askimet, Super cache, Related Posts, Maintenance mode.

In addition, WordPress helps the community by super fast blogs to address diasters such as Katrina and Gustav to a neighborhood responding to a catastrophic arson. The blog, in response to the arson, was up in less than an hour and raised money to aid the survivors.

Lorelle also gave lots of examples about the power of the WordPress community. Blogging community is not just about what you know but also who you know. This ranges from personal friendships to particpating in WordPress forums and networks, WordPress meetups and WordCamps like this one.

Matt’s WordPress philosophy is

• You give away your BEST work
• You  just give it away
• The universe will reward.

Well although Matt doesn’t sell the WordPress software it supports him quite well. How many others are making income as a side effect of providing free consulting, themes and plug-ins? Quite a few hands rose in the audience.

Many testamonials, presented here live or videotaped previously at BlogWorld, talked about how bloggers had found income, respect and a voice. The one that touched me the most was Glenda Watson Hyatt, a woman with cerebral palsy  who blogs with her left thumb. Practically non-verbal due to her disability, her life revolved around email. That changed when someone told her that WordPress was so easy that she could blog, even though she is limited to typing with just her left thumb. Known as the Left Thumb Blogger, she told her story about how people react to her so differently when they know her through her blog first. They already know that she is an intelligent woman with a lot to offer, who happens to have some disabilities. Her Do It Myself Blog and her story reminded me that I too can have a voice in the blogosphere even if I don’t have much of a physical voice any more.

WordPress 2.5 followed the typical software style and came out almost a month late. WordPress broke the age old tradition of late launchs when they released WordPress 2.6 almost a month early. This release fixes 194 bugs from version 2.5! Sign up for the blogging class to learn about this new version.

So what’s new?

• Track and restore blog post revisions like a wiki or complex word processing program.
• Word count on posts.
• Better image control for WYSIWYG
• Captions for images without plug-ins.
• Press This bookmarklet makes blogging while you surf, fast and easy. 
• Theme Preview allows you to preview themes for your blogs without a plug-in.
• Plug-ins are grouped by active and deactivated to greatly improve plug-in organization.
• See at a glance if your plug-ins need updating with a bubble like you have with comments.
• Default and configurable avatars.
• Google Gears will speed up the loading of your blog on your computer. This will make it faster for you to admin your blog. Not much in terms of bells and whistles on this yet. Expect more functions in future Wordpress versions, yes WordPress is on 6 month version upgrade roadmap!

Well, you can also check out the video of new features.

Here is your opportunity to let your classmates know which plug ins or specialized widgets that you tried out this week. I am playing this week with modifying a theme that would be appropriate for a variety of LVS classes. As I tweak the theme, I am also working with different plug-ins. Right now Askimet is activated on this blog. The Theme Test Drive is also activated behind the scenes. For your viewing pleasure, I have Top commentators activated and on visible on the side bar. I will add comments to this posting as I add more. I am a firm believer that a plug in must have a function, a “Gee Whiz that is cool!” isn’t enough to get included on my blog. It has to serve a purpose and accentuate the blog. It can be easy to overwhelm your audience with lots of “shiny: things in your side bar or under your posts. You don’t want anything that will detract them from your blog content.
When posting your comment, be sure to tell us the name of the plug-in or widget(s) that you used. Also remember to put the URL of your blog in the web site field. That way readers will be able to click on the link on your name to see your blog in action.

WordPress’ new Flash based Image Loader is definitely getting the most amount of press. It works for most people and for those that it does, they love it (raises own hand). Unfortunately it doesn’t work for all. The crux of the problem seems to be related to how the multitude of web servers are set up  and creating stable code for all of those variations. There are also some browser issues. Throw in a user error or two and you can have a mess. It has worked really well for me but for some IE pickiness and some issues with one blog on a different server. So I can raise my hand or maybe a clenched fist is the more accurate visual for this side of the fence as well.  Although I go into detail about images in the lesson, I wanted to provide you with a stand alone troubleshooting guide.  If you are having difficulty using the new Flash based uploader, try these suggestions. I have divided this into portions: one for those working with a WP Hosted blog and one for self hosted WP blogs.

WP Hosted Blogs

• Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed. You can get it at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
• Try clearing the cache for the page. Click Ctrl F5.
• Close all browsers down. Restart your browser and make sure you have only one browser window or tab open. Word Press support even suggests doing this twice and clearing out the tempory internet files folder.
• Try using a different browser. Internet Explorer tends to have more problems than Firefox. 
• This uses javascript, make sure it is enabled in your browser’s security settings.

 

Self hosted WP Blogs

• Make sure that you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed. You can get it at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
• Try clearing the cache for the page. Click Ctrl F5.
• Close all browsers down. Restart your browser and make sure you have only one browser window or tab open. Word Press support even suggests doing this twice and clearing out the tempory internet files folder.
• Try using a different browser. Internet Explorer tends to have more problems than Firefox. 
• This uses javascript, make sure it is enabled in your browser’s security settings.
• If you installed using the FTP method, make sure that you got ALL of the files installed and they are in the correct directories. You might want to reinstall your wp-admin folder.
• Try switching back to the default Kubrick theme to make sure your theme is not causing the problem.
• Create an .htaccess file or add to your existing one the following code:
  <IfModule mod_security.c>
  <Files async-upload.php>
  SecFilterEngine Off
  SecFilterScanPOST Off
  </Files>
  </IfModule>
• Make sure all of your plug-ins are up to date
• Try disabling all of your plug-ins then activate them one at a time to see if one of them is the culprit.
• Try the No Flash Uploader available at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/no-flash-uploader/#post-5496 This disables the flash uploader and allows the other one to work. Note: The author of this plug in advises to really try the suggestions to solve the issue and to use this plug in as a last resort. He is a big fan of the flash uploader and basically created this out of pity for those for whom it does not work.

If you experience difficulty with the flash loader and you whip it into shape, please post what you did here. It would also be nice if you would be willing to post your web host. I am hoping that this post will serve as repository of fixes and solutions for not only this class, but the classes that follow.

Sometimes it seems that everytime we turn around, we are confronted with a new software upgrade. Sometimes the new version of software offers us innovation and efficiency, but most times the upgrade seems like nothing much more than a new coat of paint.  I am excited to say that this time Wordpress has given us a well organized administrative interface that streamlines the process AND gives us new features like the new media library.

I have installed the upgrade for some of my customers and they are loving the new administrative interface. The sections they use most often, like new post and managing comments, are at their fingertips. Wordpress components that are used less frequently are tucked off to the side until needed. They are also really excited about the new media functions, especially those that want to implement podcasts into their blogs.

Although I also appreciate the new organization of the Wordpress interface, it is the new upgrade functions that is putting the smile on my face. This upgrade function allows the Wordpress blog owner to upgrade most of their plug-ins from within Wordpress.  On the plug-in page, Wordpress notifies the blog owner when one of their plug-ins has a new verion or needs an upgrade. Click the link and Wala! It is installed.  No more looking up the home pages for all of your plug-ins just in the off chance that it needs an upgrade then doing the required download from that site and upload to your blog. Let’s face it, most bloggers don’t bother to check up on their plug ins until they break. Unfortunately, that can mean they are missing out on security fixes. It is so easy now, there is no reason to not have the most secure and up to date versions of your plug-ins.

It has only been a week since Wordpress 2.5  was finally released. I must admit I was skeptical after watching the upgrade release be delayed time and time again, but so far it has been stable and has worked without a glitch with my themes and plug-ins.