Author Archive

It has come to my attention that people attend conferences about blogging. The whole thing reminds me of journalism conventions and conferences, which are mostly about getting away from the wife for the purpose of doing things you don’t want you wife to know about. In addition to the fees necessary to attend... »

It’s that time again: Pledge Day. Any donations made go toward costs incurred, such as annual domain renewal, two site hosting accounts, professional support and high speed Internet. You can use the PayPal donate button on this page. You can use any major credit card OR a PayPal account. It is not necessary to HAVE a... »

This is a brief YouTube video that some really new users might find helpful. If you are considering participating inj the Blog Peoria Project, but worry about switching from a familiar format — like Blogger.com — to an unfamiliar platform, this should alleviate your worries. »

I have turned off the “captchas” feature that was supposed to stop all the spam blog creation. It wasn’t really working anyway. So I decided to instead just limit blog registrations to the following email domains: sbcglobal.net comcast.net gmail.com yahoo.com bradley.edu hotmail.com peoriapundit.com blogpeoria.com msn.com att.net aol.com »

I deactivated the Buddy Press plugin and all the site issues went away. So, I won’t be re-activating Buddy Press. And it’s just as well, since it wasn’t used much. »

This is a step I took to help be figure out what is causing the problem with members blogs switching themes, settings with other member blogs. I notice that it seems to have alleviated the problem. But I’ve been fooled before. I’ll leave them all off for a while. »

I’ve recently replaced every available user theme at the Blog Peoria Project, which cut the number of available themes almost in half. Some of you had to pick new themes, or you were shunted over to the default Blog Peoria theme. And some of BBP members have never changed their theme or even made any... »

PH Pundit blogs out of Peoria Heights. Now, all we need are Chillicothe Pundit, Dunlap Pundit, Bartonville Pundit, Hanna City Pundit, East Peoria Pundit, you get the picture. And my offer to help anyone migrate from Blogger to Blog Peoria stands. »

Sunday is the 10th anniversary of Blogger, the little company started by Pyra Labs that opened the floodgates for blogging and citizen journalism. This free service let people go to a Web site, write someone in an empty form field, his a “publish” button, and those words magically appeared on a Website. No hand-coding... »

Akismet doesn’t work. Too many spam comments find their way through. Too many legitimate comments find themselves sent to the spam filter. I long ago dumped Akismet on Peoria Pundit and my other blogs. I switched to a plugin called Wp Spam Filter. And all the problems with spam and false spam positives vanished.... »

I’ve gotten a few questions about how to do this. The following video is from WordPress.TV a great site go get videos full of helpful hints. »

As I promised, I tried to upgrade to the latest version of the WordPress Mu software that powers Blog Peoria. It failed. I caused date from one blog to be stored on others. Posts were lost and themes were switched. We had to revert back to the original version of WPMu and reinstall a database. All... »

The difference is mostly clerical. The maximum upload space allowed any member blogger is 300 MB, and it’s been like that for some time. I changed the TOS, which previously set it at 25 MB. I added a line saying that the space can be increased for a fee. I haven’t determined that fee... »

We won’t upgrade until it’s out of beta version, but this post says that will happen soon. »

Via Weblog Tools Collection: Beauty Two column, WordPress 2.8 ready theme with an options page and featured posts using SmoothGallery. Game RV Game RV is a compatible with WordPress 2.8 with Gravatars, threaded comments, widgets, etc. It has a right single sidebar. Facebook Look 2 Three column theme that looks and feels like Facebook. All three of the themes have been... »

I’ve added widgets to display Facebook and Twitter information in members; sidebars. Just drag them over to any sidebar your themes uses and sill out the appropriate account information. You DO know you have to be using Facebook or Twitter to use either one, right? »

I’m having issues with all pages at the front page to Blog Peoria. I’m not aware of any member site having problems. I’m having WPWebhost take a look at it. In the mean time, use the pundit.blogpeoria.com contact page. »

I couldn’t get many of BPP members to adopt Gravatars (Globally recognized avatars). But I am hoping more will make use of BuddyPress to upload their own avatars. They will show up in comments sections and in the global comment and global updated blogs widgets (which I also hope more members will start to use). Seriously... »

I’m not quite done tinkering with it yet, but the front page of the Blog Peoria Project has a new look. It’s a hack of the Edublogs Clean Lime theme. For the time being, members might see it in the list of themes available for member blogs. I wouldn’t use it, as it will... »

The notorious HipKat has migrated his blog from Blogger — where it was languishing with few readers — to the Blog Peoria Project. Now, his is part of the small but growing community of Peoria-area bloggers. HipKat also is active in the Peoria.com community. Cross posted from Peoria Pundit. »

It took some time, some trouble tickets and some cussin,’ but the move to the new host is complete. I am not now aware of any site that has issues with error messages or missing pictures. The issues were caused by what was described to me as a permissions issue on the Apache server and... »

The Blog Peoria Project is a place where central Illinois residents can blog in a networked environment. There is no charge to use or read any Blog Peoria blog. And while some sites accept advertising, the costs of operating on a VPS (a virtual private server) with paid techical support are not currently being... »

I am very, very excited about two new widgets that every single Blog Peoria Project member blogger can use. Global Recent Posts widget works like the “recent posts” widget many of you already use. But it displays recent posts from every single Blog Peoria Project blog. Global Recent Comments widget does the same thing... »

The Blog Peoria Network now supports uploadable user avatars and blog avatars. What are they? An uploaded user avatar appears when you make a comment on any other Blog Peoria Project member blog. An uploaded blog avatar can be placed on your blog’s sidebar by using a widget. Upload a user avatar by clicking... »

I just banned access to anyone from IP Address 81.94.26.191. Someone from this IP has been dumping a bunch of spam blogs onto blogpeoria.com and it had to come to an end. It is the only IP address being banned right now. Any complaints should be directed at me. Somehow, I don’t think they... »

This is the first in a series of videos that will show how to use your Word Press blog. This one is an introductory video that is designed to give new users an overview in how to use their spiffy new blog. As I download and post more of them, we’ll get into how to... »

If you previously were using the WordPress Mu Default Theme you may have already noticed some changes. The WPMu Default was, in fact, the default theme on this site. Today, I changed the default theme to a slightly modified version of “White as Milk,” which I think is a prettier theme and more more... »

We got hit with close to 800 spam user and blog registrations overnight. I spent an hour this morning cleaning them out. I banned the email domain being used by the spammer. But I am leaving new registrations disabled for the next few days just to be safe. »

I have been remiss in my duties. Blogs having birthdays this month include: * 1: Peoria Rocks! (2007) * 2: NameThisPeoriaLandmark (2006) * 17: Polly Peoria (2005) Send me an email if you blog isn’t listed here. »

I deleted BuddyPress today. It was a fine idea. But it lacked in execution. The plugins were buggy and support was not as professional as I have come to expect from the WordPress Mu community. I also expect all member sites to load quicker. »

The fifth Tuesday of each month is traditionally set aside for Blogger Bash, because there’s usually not much going in the way of public meetings and hearings and such. These are social events, with some drinking and goings-on, but not big blow-outs. There was a fifth Tuesday in December, but there wasn’t a bash because... »

What is the use of having all this spiffy new BuddyPress functionality if your theme doesn’t display the admin bar? Or won’t properly display the content from the BuddyPress widgets, like the list of recently updated blogs? Answer: Not much use at all. So, I spent four hours pouring over all the themes, eliminating the ones... »

UPDATE: The upgrade is completed without any major problems. The following is an update I sent out via email to Blog Peoria members: If you’re getting this update, it’s because you have signed up for a blog, make frequent comments on or have registered with the Blog Peoria Project. Sometime this evening, I’m going to be upgrading... »

Via Dan Blank: Focus on just one or two blogs. Speak to CRITICAL needs of your audience. Create a team, not just a blog. Content of the highest quality is content that HELPS. Create a schedule and content types. Create a marketing plan. Involve your audience. Set goals and measure your performance. Have a strategy. These tips... »

The  Blog Peoria Project is open for business. New and existing users can create their own blogs. I decided to reopen in advance of the imminent WPMu 2.7 upgrade. After the ungrade and the installation of BuddyPress, I’ll do a mass mailing to encourage new signups and migrations from Blog*spot. »

My nephew Neil Johnson wanted to revive his blog, Good Evening, Godless Sodomites, so naturally he came to The Blog Peoria Project for help. Soon, we’ll be exporting his posts from BlogSpot and onto BlogPeoria. He’s gonna be blogging about sports, and he’sgoing to be making some comments about Woodruff High School as well. »

I’m using a different theme on the Blog Peoria homepage. There was a glitch somewhere that was causing individual posts to not load properly, putting a huge strain on the servers. Right now, I’m using a variation of the default Kubrick-style theme. You will notice embedded YouTube videos to the right. Right now, all relate... »

From the Inquisitr: Hyperlocal Websites will Boom in 2009 as Community Newspapers Fold Community newspapers will fold in 2009 as owners are no longer able to turn a profit, or sustain losses any longer. The killer will be costs: even a small town newspaper could have a staff of 6 or 10 or more (usually... »

There are times when your cannot see your blog. This happens, usually, when a corrupted file or plugin causes nothing but error messages to appear. Sometimes, the theme you have been using gets deleted and you will see nothing but a white page. And by “gets deleted,” I mean “I deleted it” or “I lost... »

Due to a security flaw in this version of WPMu. Users willbe ableto createtheir own blogs soon after the WPMu 2.7 upgrade, sometime in January. I will be happy to start a blog for anyone who wishes. »