Site updates and information archive
Forum Added
I just added a forum, so that WPPA users can ask questions about it. Since I'v released WPPA, I get allot of support mail, and sadly, most of the time I don't have the time to answer it. Hopefully this will be the answer. - September 24th, 2008
I just added a forum, so that WPPA users can ask questions about it. Since I'v released WPPA, I get allot of support mail, and sadly, most of the time I don't have the time to answer it. Hopefully this will be the answer. - September 24th, 2008
Yet another round of tweaks and improvements
In the last week or so, I've been slowly tweaking this site, spending allot of time on the subtle, little details. The navigation menu has been streamlined, and I added 2 types of 'asides' Reading and Site Update. I may be adding more in the future, and have a feeling that this might emerge into a successful plugin one day. If you have any ideas for improving this site, let me know in comments. - January 29th, 2008
In the last week or so, I've been slowly tweaking this site, spending allot of time on the subtle, little details. The navigation menu has been streamlined, and I added 2 types of 'asides' Reading and Site Update. I may be adding more in the future, and have a feeling that this might emerge into a successful plugin one day. If you have any ideas for improving this site, let me know in comments. - January 29th, 2008
DesignerLinks.net gets a second life
About 2 years ago, I launched DesignerLinks.net, which is a web directory dedicated to sites and articles about web design. I forst created it as my first attempt at creating anything with a MySQL database, as basic as it is. Basically users can submit links, and those need to be approved my an admin. Everything was perfect, I even added an AJAX rating system. Then cam the spam... It flooded the system so bad that I didn't have enough time in the day to manually sift through it. About a year ago, I closed the site for new submissions. Well, today I spent the day fixing up the site, and I'm happy to announce: DesignerLinks has reopened for listing. I have also added an RSS feed for the site. - January 8th, 2008
About 2 years ago, I launched DesignerLinks.net, which is a web directory dedicated to sites and articles about web design. I forst created it as my first attempt at creating anything with a MySQL database, as basic as it is. Basically users can submit links, and those need to be approved my an admin. Everything was perfect, I even added an AJAX rating system. Then cam the spam... It flooded the system so bad that I didn't have enough time in the day to manually sift through it. About a year ago, I closed the site for new submissions. Well, today I spent the day fixing up the site, and I'm happy to announce: DesignerLinks has reopened for listing. I have also added an RSS feed for the site. - January 8th, 2008
New WordPress Theme: Faulkner
After a not releasing any new theme for a long time now, I'm proud to present my newest addition to the collection: Faulkner. It is based on an amazing html template by the same name created by DemusDesign and posted at Open Designs. The theme is available for dowload from my WordPress Themes Page. - September 10th, 2007
After a not releasing any new theme for a long time now, I'm proud to present my newest addition to the collection: Faulkner. It is based on an amazing html template by the same name created by DemusDesign and posted at Open Designs. The theme is available for dowload from my WordPress Themes Page. - September 10th, 2007
Russian mafia tactics now used by spammers
As all of you that have a blog must know, comment spam is a huge issue. Some blogs can get thousands(!!!) of comment spam a day. Akismet catches about %95 of the comment spam on this blog. All the other comments are held for moderation unless the comment author has a previously approved comment. I was going through the comment queue this morning, and found the following comment:
As all of you that have a blog must know, comment spam is a huge issue. Some blogs can get thousands(!!!) of comment spam a day. Akismet catches about %95 of the comment spam on this blog. All the other comments are held for moderation unless the comment author has a previously approved comment. I was going through the comment queue this morning, and found the following comment:
hello , my name is Richard and I know you get a lot of spammy comments , I can help you with this problem . I know a lot of spammers and I will ask them not to post on your site. It will reduce the volume of spam by 30-50% .In return Id like to ask you to put a link to my site on the index page of your site. The link will be small and your visitors will hardly notice it , its just done for higher rankings in search engines. Contact me icq 454528835 or write me tedirectory(at)yahoo.com , i will give you my site url and you will give me yours if you are interested. thank youThe email address used was a .ru address, and the site url was www.com, much like allot of spam i've been getting lately. I will not post his IP address in case he was using a shared ip or something like that, But it is stored fro proof. So basically this guy is asking for a protection fee (a link to him) in order to stop spamming me. If I had the time, I'd try to get him into allot of trouble. But I don't. Please feel free to spam him back. - September 7th, 2007
WPPA Updates
Since version 1.0 of WPPA was released back in June, I've got many emails and comments with feedback, support issues and feature recommendations. First of all, I would like to apologize for not responding to all emails and comments regarding WPPA. I created WPPA in my spare time (which I don't have much of) and providing support for WPPA would be a full time job. However, I do read all emails, and will take all your suggestions and issues into consideration when working on the next version of WPPA. The next version of WPPA will also have many feature enhancements developed by Aaron D. Campbell. Thanks allot, Aaron! I would also like to thank the few of you who donated to support the development of this plugin. Thanks a million. Knowing my work is appreciated helps with continued development. If anyone else would like to show their appreciation, please consider buying me a beer (or three). I hope to have good news about the next version soon! - August 27th, 2007
Since version 1.0 of WPPA was released back in June, I've got many emails and comments with feedback, support issues and feature recommendations. First of all, I would like to apologize for not responding to all emails and comments regarding WPPA. I created WPPA in my spare time (which I don't have much of) and providing support for WPPA would be a full time job. However, I do read all emails, and will take all your suggestions and issues into consideration when working on the next version of WPPA. The next version of WPPA will also have many feature enhancements developed by Aaron D. Campbell. Thanks allot, Aaron! I would also like to thank the few of you who donated to support the development of this plugin. Thanks a million. Knowing my work is appreciated helps with continued development. If anyone else would like to show their appreciation, please consider buying me a beer (or three). I hope to have good news about the next version soon! - August 27th, 2007
Akismet caught 100k spam on This ‘N That
Yes, since installed a few months ago akismet caught 102,564 spam comments on this blog. I understand that the spammers send so many, hoping that a few will find their way to the blog, and it probably happens on other blogs. I hold all first time comments in moderation, just because I'm too sick and tired of comment spam. But my question is, and I'd be glad for an answer, is why do they even bother spamming WordPress blogs? My understanding is that they use comment spam to create higher search engine ratings for sites. The problem is that WordPress automatically inserts rel="nofollow" to all links in comments, telling search engines not to follow any links in comments. So why are they still spamming us? - June 22nd, 2007
Yes, since installed a few months ago akismet caught 102,564 spam comments on this blog. I understand that the spammers send so many, hoping that a few will find their way to the blog, and it probably happens on other blogs. I hold all first time comments in moderation, just because I'm too sick and tired of comment spam. But my question is, and I'd be glad for an answer, is why do they even bother spamming WordPress blogs? My understanding is that they use comment spam to create higher search engine ratings for sites. The problem is that WordPress automatically inserts rel="nofollow" to all links in comments, telling search engines not to follow any links in comments. So why are they still spamming us? - June 22nd, 2007
WPPA 1.0
After promising myself for for the last year or so that i'd do it, It's finally here. WPPA (WP Photo Album) is a simple to use, and fully customizable plugin for managing photo albums within a WordPress powered site or blog. Version 1.0 of has been rewritten from scratch, sharing only the name with previous versions. WPPA Features easy album and photo management, on-the-fly thumbnail resizing, a theme system similar to the WordPress theme system, and much more. So, why don't you check it out? Click here to see the plugin in action, on the photo section of this site. - June 4th, 2007
After promising myself for for the last year or so that i'd do it, It's finally here. WPPA (WP Photo Album) is a simple to use, and fully customizable plugin for managing photo albums within a WordPress powered site or blog. Version 1.0 of has been rewritten from scratch, sharing only the name with previous versions. WPPA Features easy album and photo management, on-the-fly thumbnail resizing, a theme system similar to the WordPress theme system, and much more. So, why don't you check it out? Click here to see the plugin in action, on the photo section of this site. - June 4th, 2007
To much smart spam
Comment span used to be very obvious, full of links. Now there's the "smart" spam which usually contains some simple generic comment like "nice site!" and one link in the comment author's url to some spam site. even the best spam catches, such as Akismet, don't catch those, and it's really getting annoying. So, as of today, All first time comments are hold for moderation. If you already have an approved comment on this blog, your comment will appear immediately. I really hope this works, cause I'd hate holding all comments in moderation. - March 20th, 2007
Comment span used to be very obvious, full of links. Now there's the "smart" spam which usually contains some simple generic comment like "nice site!" and one link in the comment author's url to some spam site. even the best spam catches, such as Akismet, don't catch those, and it's really getting annoying. So, as of today, All first time comments are hold for moderation. If you already have an approved comment on this blog, your comment will appear immediately. I really hope this works, cause I'd hate holding all comments in moderation. - March 20th, 2007
New business site
About a week ago, I've launched the new site for my web services business, www.w3lift.com. I've finally worked out most of the quirks, and now I'm announcing it officially. My old site won't be removed right now, because it has great search engine rankings. Hopefully the new site will eventually do even better. I hope you like the design, because now I'm also offering full design services for blogs and small sites. Take a look. - December 4th, 2006
About a week ago, I've launched the new site for my web services business, www.w3lift.com. I've finally worked out most of the quirks, and now I'm announcing it officially. My old site won't be removed right now, because it has great search engine rankings. Hopefully the new site will eventually do even better. I hope you like the design, because now I'm also offering full design services for blogs and small sites. Take a look. - December 4th, 2006
Design Updated
After following Google analytics reports for a while, I got rid of the right sidebar, which was barely getting clicked, and optimized the navigation menu. While I was at it, I changed the color theme and fixed various things. I hope you like the changes :) - October 30th, 2006
After following Google analytics reports for a while, I got rid of the right sidebar, which was barely getting clicked, and optimized the navigation menu. While I was at it, I changed the color theme and fixed various things. I hope you like the changes :) - October 30th, 2006
Akismet vs. Hotpop
A brief history: A few years back, when I got my iBook, I looked for a free POP3 mail service, so I can check out Apple Mail, So I registered for a free account with Hotpop. It was horrible, sometimes it takes days to receive a message. After a short while, Gmail was announced, so I moved to gmail, which allows POP3 access, and some time later, I got my own POP mail with my domain, but even so, I used the hotpop account for my Gravatar account, meaning that I used that email on all my blog comments. The Problem: Some time ago, I noticed that all my blog comments, both on my blog and other blogs, is getting marked by Akismet as spam. At first I thought my email or name got blacklisted somehow, but after some testing, any comment with a @hotpop.com email gets filtered, so it's not me. If it's not my email in particular that's blacklisted, I'm not going to put to much energy in getting it removed, so I guess I just need to start using a different email for blog comments. - October 30th, 2006
A brief history: A few years back, when I got my iBook, I looked for a free POP3 mail service, so I can check out Apple Mail, So I registered for a free account with Hotpop. It was horrible, sometimes it takes days to receive a message. After a short while, Gmail was announced, so I moved to gmail, which allows POP3 access, and some time later, I got my own POP mail with my domain, but even so, I used the hotpop account for my Gravatar account, meaning that I used that email on all my blog comments. The Problem: Some time ago, I noticed that all my blog comments, both on my blog and other blogs, is getting marked by Akismet as spam. At first I thought my email or name got blacklisted somehow, but after some testing, any comment with a @hotpop.com email gets filtered, so it's not me. If it's not my email in particular that's blacklisted, I'm not going to put to much energy in getting it removed, so I guess I just need to start using a different email for blog comments. - October 30th, 2006
Gravatars Killing Comments?
I've noticed that ever since changing hosts, the comments on this site take ages to load. It was so bad that even I didn't read the comments on this site through the posts, Instead I read them through the WordPress admin. I salute all you brave people that left comments on this site, waiting forever for the comments to load. I thought the problem was with my installation of WordPress, or the database, And I never got around to taking a better look. Yesterday I noticed that the first comment on every post loads immediately, then gets stuck trying to load the Gravatar. I guess it takes time for a gravatar to load for the first time, but I just can't get the cache to work. I'll give it another try later. In the meantime, no gravatars for me. - October 11th, 2006
I've noticed that ever since changing hosts, the comments on this site take ages to load. It was so bad that even I didn't read the comments on this site through the posts, Instead I read them through the WordPress admin. I salute all you brave people that left comments on this site, waiting forever for the comments to load. I thought the problem was with my installation of WordPress, or the database, And I never got around to taking a better look. Yesterday I noticed that the first comment on every post loads immediately, then gets stuck trying to load the Gravatar. I guess it takes time for a gravatar to load for the first time, but I just can't get the cache to work. I'll give it another try later. In the meantime, no gravatars for me. - October 11th, 2006
ThemesPress.com
Ok, After doing custom WordPress themes for a while, and about two months of working on this project, today I launched ThemesPress.com, An automated WordPress theme generator. All you need is a HTML/CSS design, and a few minutes, and you've got a fully functional WordPress theme, priced at only $10, which is pretty reasonably priced, I think.
Ok, After doing custom WordPress themes for a while, and about two months of working on this project, today I launched ThemesPress.com, An automated WordPress theme generator. All you need is a HTML/CSS design, and a few minutes, and you've got a fully functional WordPress theme, priced at only $10, which is pretty reasonably priced, I think.
ThemesPress.com is an almost fully automated system to convert HTML and CSS based designs into WordPress themes. The service, which costs $10 per theme, gives ordinary bloggers the ability to give their site the power of WordPress without having to know or even bother with PHP. The whole process can take just minutes. The user will be able to store works-in-progress on the ThemesPress site for up to 90 days without buying, and can continuously update and preview their themes until purchase. Once purchased, the user will be able to continue to change the CSS and page settings. ThemesPress just made custom WordPress design accessible to any blogger who has no more than basic HTML knowledge. And, it is fast, simple and priced for everyone's budget.Try it out now. - October 3rd, 2006
Updated all public WP themes
I just finished updating all my public WordPress themes I Fixed all the errors, browser bugs and display issues, plus, I widgetized them all, so they now work with the widgets plugin. Sadly enough, I had to remove the amazing Nautica 2.2 theme, because of copyright issues with the original html theme, hopefully it wil get sorted and I'll be able to put it back. In the meantime, I added another theme based on an OWD design: 'Blue Blog Template' by LanVacation. Take a look » I Will also be uploading my themes to the WordPress theme viewer pretty soon :) - August 4th, 2006
I just finished updating all my public WordPress themes I Fixed all the errors, browser bugs and display issues, plus, I widgetized them all, so they now work with the widgets plugin. Sadly enough, I had to remove the amazing Nautica 2.2 theme, because of copyright issues with the original html theme, hopefully it wil get sorted and I'll be able to put it back. In the meantime, I added another theme based on an OWD design: 'Blue Blog Template' by LanVacation. Take a look » I Will also be uploading my themes to the WordPress theme viewer pretty soon :) - August 4th, 2006