Blog CookBook

Hackers Target Wordpress Users

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:42:34 +0000

There are several reports of hackers launching a very "charming" site that offers an alternative version of the wordpress code (ie. you really do not want their version!)

The site appears to be offline at present, but you can read more about it on CrunchGear

Moral of the story - be careful what you type into your address bar!

Dealing With Comment Spam

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:47:01 +0000

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Comment spam is one of those problems that isn't likely to disappear anytime soon.

It's a pity, but it's just one of those things you have to deal with.

So how can you deal with it?

The most obvious methods would be to configure and use plugins like Akismet or TypePad Antispam.

Both systems are available for most of the common blogging platforms and can even be used with other web based software such as VBulletin.

Unfortunately neither system is perfect.

In some cases you will find that you still get a lot of junk that makes its way into your moderation queue or worse still, valid comments get marked as spam and you simply don't see them.

If your blog is under constant attack by automated comment spam bots two things can easily happen:

Your site can become sluggish, as the amount of traffic hitting the comment form will have a negative impact
You will still have to check the suspected spam queue, so if it's particularly large you will probably overlook valid comments

Other methods that people like to employ involve checking the UserAgent of the commenter ie. checking to see if it is really a human or not. Of course that also adds to the overhead.

One method that I've found extremely helpful is to simply close comments on entries after a certain period has elapsed. So instead of leaving comments on posts open indefinitely I might choose to close them 30, 60 or 120 days later. It may not be ideal, but it certainly helps mitigate the nasty side-effects of spammers.

What do you do?

Zemanta Are Looking For Feedback

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:58:35 +0000

Zemanta is one of those little browser addons that is incredibly useful and addictive.

I started using it a few months ago on one or two of my personal blogs, but I'm now using it on some of the company ones as well (where appropriate - obviously).

The plugin is compatible with Firefox (and derivatives) and Internet Explorer, while integration with several of the more popular blogging systems is provided.

They're currently running a survey seeking feedback from users. Unlike a lot of surveys they've kept it short and sweet.

MTOS Live

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:12:00 +0000

The SixApart team's long awaited open source project has finally launched.

More news as it becomes available

Analysing Your Feedburner Statistics

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 09:38:34 +0000

Darren Rowse mentioned a very interesting online tool for FeedBurner users the other day - Feed Analysis

While FeedBurner's internal reporting can give you your basic subscriber data the Feed Analysis tool does some interesting things with it, such as showing how many new subscribers you've gained during a month, which days are your weakest / strongest and how many subscriber you might end up with.

If you've got 5 minutes to spare it's fun to play with it!

Are Trackbacks Worth The Hassle?

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:41:28 +0000

Once upon a time, when the web was a nicer place, trackbacks seemed to serve a useful purpose.

They're described as:

a framework for peer-to-peer communication and notifications between web sites. The central idea behind TrackBack is the idea of a TrackBack ping, a request saying, essentially, "resource A is related/linked to resource B." A TrackBack "resource" is represented by a TrackBack Ping URL, which is just a standard URI.
Using TrackBack, sites can communicate about related resources. For example, if Weblogger A wishes to notify Weblogger B that he has written something interesting/related/shocking, A sends a TrackBack ping to B. This accomplishes two things:

Weblogger B can automatically list all sites that have referenced a particular post on his site, allowing visitors to his site to read all related posts around the web, including Weblogger A's.
The ping provides a firm, explicit link between his entry and yours, as opposed to an implicit link (like a referrer log) that depends upon outside action (someone clicking on the link). (From the technical spec)

Unfortunately the level of "noise" these days renders trackbacks all but useless.

At any given time I have over two thousand unpublished trackbacks that have been automatically marked as spam.
If I actually get a valid trackback I'm probably going to delete it accidentally since it would be completely lost in the noise.

It's a pity. It would be nice to be able to use trackbacks to see what other people were saying or to let them know what you were saying about them, but at this stage it has become so abused that the only sane option seems to be disabling them completely.

What are other people doing?

Are you allowing trackbacks? (as opposed to pingbacks - which is a different implementation)

Managing Comments Properly

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:19:58 +0000

If your blog accepts comments then you need to manage them properly.

What do I mean?

At the most basic comment management means actually moderating the comments so that they get published in a timely fashion.

If you don't publish the comments quickly enough you will upset / annoy people or they'll simply lose interest.

Wordpress 2.3 Released

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:07:19 +0000

The Wordpress team have announced the release of Wordpress 2.3 - codename Dexter.

The full announcement details the newest features, bugfixs and enhancements

The new "call home" feature has come under stern criticism from many users and privacy advocates

Wordpress Releases Yet Another Security Update

Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:38:16 +0000

The Wordpress development team have released version 2.2.3, which is described as a security release:

Since this is a security release, we suggest you upgrade immediately. Two of the fixes are high priority.

Full information on their blog.

Wordpress 2.3 Beta 1 Released

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:23:00 +0000

Wordpress have made available a beta of the next version of the popular blogging platform.

According to a post on their site from Matt Mullenweg the new version, which is not ready for production use, will have a number of improvements, though exact details were not forthcoming.

Keeping Up To Date With MovableType

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:30:00 +0000

Following on the launch of the latest version of Movable Type I've setup a new site to track new plugin releases, tips, tricks and extensions to make the most of one of the more powerful blogging and content management solutions on the market at present.

Movable Type 4 Plugins

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:07:18 +0000

If you are thinking of upgrading to Movable Type 4 or simply want to see what it has to offer, then this list of compatible and available plugins is a must.

Wordpress Release Yet Another Security Update

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 07:59:04 +0000

The Wordpress team have released two more security update releases The updates are described as "minor", however a look at the bugs list shows that the update actually addresses a highly dangerous cross-scripting vulnerability.

Movable Type 4 - Release Imminent

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 11:07:25 +0000

It looks like Movable Type 4 should be released to the public in a couple of weeks time. Earlier this week the developers made RC1 (release candidate 1) available to the public.

Movable Type Template Tag Reference

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:17:35 +0000

If you are working with Movable Type templates then MT Tags is a must. It's an incredible resource listing all possible tags that you can use in your Movable Type templates.