I will be starting a new project in May (still under wraps) and I need your help. Basically, I need to know your deepest darkest questions about WordPress.
What advice did you wish someone gave you before starting out with WordPress? Where have you been hung up with WordPress? What frustrates you the most about WordPress?
Anything goes…
But please bear in mind, I probably won’t be answering your question directly or right away - this is for a future project - and anyone who asks a question may be entitled to a nice little “thank you” when it’s ready.
You can leave your thoughts in the comments, or if you don’t want them out in the open, you can drop me an e-mail.
Deadline for your questions, comments, concerns, or what have you… is Monday, May 1, 2006.
Thanks!
(Comments have been closed. If you would still like to submit questions, please use the link above - thank you.)
I wish I had known more about how to configure my blogs. Some of them are not Category/Post for the Permalink and I wish they were.
Also, how to trick out, hack and customize themes is a big ” I wish I knew ” for me.
# April 14th, 2006
Thanks for stopping by and helping out Mike
# April 15th, 2006
Mine would definitely be about how themes work. In particular what type of different ‘pages’ that WordPress has by default (e.g. single, main, comment, page etc.) I got a bit confused at first but once I got it, I started thinking whether or not there are more pages that I don’t know about.
# April 16th, 2006
Thank you for sharing Bina.
I know themes have confused a lot of people (including myself when they were first introduced), so that’s definitely getting added to the list.
~ Teli
# April 16th, 2006
Maybe this is blog specific, but I am still a bit confused on the whole trackback thing. How it works. Why it’s a good thing, etc.
# April 17th, 2006
I agree with Kelli. I’ve read your trackback post but until today am still not sure what trackback and pinging are. The difference, how to use it. I think it would be great if you could suggest a strategy on how to get the best results from pinging and trackbacking. In other words, not just what they are but how to use them to increase your site’s exposure and traffic etc.
# April 18th, 2006
I agree Trackbacks and this whole Technorati world and what it really means for your blog
# April 19th, 2006
Is it mandatory to create DB for wordpress installation?
Does wordpress allow us to edit the theme file, to tweak a little bit?
thanks,Eswar
# April 21st, 2006
Hello Eswar,
Yes a DB in MySQL must be created for Wordpress to work. Think of word press as just the control panel and the DB as the container of all the content.
Hope this helps
# April 23rd, 2006
I would love to know:
1) how I can use wordpress in the form of a CMS (content mangement system). Including how to secure a private members area, a download area, file sharing, etc, etc.
2) An inexpensive way to put RSS Feed such as Amazon and others into my blog with my affiliate ID
Thanks,
Summer
# April 25th, 2006
Teli, how about porting a WordPress database from one server to another - such as when changing hosts.
This was super easy to do with html pages, but can be a pain for a person to get their head around when moving a WordPress database (dropping tables and zipping files, etc.) to a new host (even when keeping the posts on the same domain name).
I know it’s not terribly difficult, but a step by step guide (instead of the bits and pieces of information on other sites) would be a handy reference for many people.
# April 26th, 2006
Thank you Steven, Summer, and Max.
So far I’m getting some really wonderful questions and definitely looking forward to more.
~ Teli
# April 26th, 2006
1. I would like to know how to create a team blog, where you can have contributors that don’t have access to the main login, but just to a specific category.
2. Where can I find good places to ping my blogs (I am thinking about specific niche blogs)?
Thank you Teli.
# April 26th, 2006
There should be separate categories for true plugins and what are really merely helper applications (which by no stretch of the imagination can they be considered )plugins.
I define plugin this way, you do four things and it works.
1. download
2. Unzip
3. FTP to the correct part of WordPress, ideally plugins.
4. go to Admin, then plugins, find plugin, activate
5. It works
Anything else is a “Helper Application” and should be labeled as such.
Frankly the Codex needs lots of work, things aren’t easy to find, etc. It would even be nice if in order to answer questions in there Support area you had to first demonstrate some competency in the area your posting about.
Cleaner Source Code, by which I mean what with all the gobbledygook one encounters when viewing it I’m amazed that anybody can “hand code” it still.
In regards to source code, a allied problem is when you download a theme, do the usual and instead of being to use it, you are told that a style sheet is missing(which it isn’t).That’s it for now, but I reserve the right to add more.
# April 27th, 2006
Well, my darkest WordPress question is fairly basic.
I’d like to know how to modify the look of the templates. Things like graphics, logo, fonts, color, etc.
I’ve used Frontpage in the past and found it pretty simple to just go straight to the page I wanted to change, use the WYSIWYG feature, tweak the html code a little, and I’m done.
But with wordpress, I always fumble around looking for the correct folder and the correct file that needs to be changed. I’m sure it’s all very simple if I would only dig into it a little bit. I guess I’m getting lazy in my old age.
Thanks for all your efforts, Teli.
Al
# April 30th, 2006
I’d like to know if there is a way to allow people to preview their comments before ’submitting’ them. It would be nice if that were part of the default wordpress installation. Most forums provide a preview feature, why not comment submission? Maybe a rich-text editor would be nice as well.
# April 30th, 2006
1) I would like to know how to personalize a wordpress blog such that when the user visits it using a coded link given to him, his name is embedded within the blog’s content.
2) If using a CSS editor e.g. Style Master can change the look of our wordpress blog easily. Anyone has experience with it? I believe it is quite similar to RapidFormatter in the Rapid Niche Website package, only cheaper.
Thanks for all your efforts, Teli.
# May 2nd, 2006
Thank you Adriana, Bob, Al, Jerry, and Adam for your questions and your participation.
All of these questions are excellent and if you’ve provided me with a valid e-mail address, I should be contacting you by the end of the week about the project :).
As of now, though, I will be closing comments on this entry so I can actually get started on it.
Thanks again everyone,
~ Teli
# May 2nd, 2006
Adam,
About your question regarding Style Master, yes, I use it on a regular basis (it’s also sporting one of my designs).
While I call it my CSS cheat sheet, it’s true potential is only as good as your knowledge of CSS. That said, it’s a great investment.
For the novice designer, it can provide a nice starting point. For the experienced CSS aficionado, it can streamline the work and help productivity.
My only complaint with it is that it uses the IE engine for previews, so I’m constantly previewing in Firefox.
Hope that helps,
~ Teli
# May 2nd, 2006