DISQUS

I spent time reading the super cache site and blog. From all the assumptions made about how well readers should understand what is written there, I think this plugin is purposely intended for very technical users. It might not ever be made user friendly enough for the rest of us. wp-super cache 2.0 is out and in 3 days there are 175 comments on the post about it! I am not sure I really understand anything that is being said there. Makes you feel like a real novice at this stuff. On the other hand, I think plugins should be made accessible to the masses, not just a few select techies.

They also recommend installing another plugin, called xcache, along with super cache. xcache is a very technical, difficult to comprehend and install plugin also!

I read recently that the number one complaint about WP is slowness. Apparently it can not be addressed because it would involve a complete re-writing of the whole "core", (whatever that really is), to fix it.

Jeremy - You are using wp-cache on a 2.3.1 install of WP. I have seen that it is problematic on 2.3. Is it working well for you?

OK - I read the file. That is a very complicated install for a plugin!

I have a feeling from looking at the readme file that the plugin authors assume you have no previous customizations to the file and that you are fairly advanced in your technical abilities.

Also, it looks like the edits that are required in the root htaccess, (if I am deciphering that readme file correctly), to make the plugin work may not get along well with the customizations I already have there.

I'll have to give some real thought to whether I am up to dealing with installing this!

But anyway, thanks for posting about it!

-Will

This does seem to have made a big difference!

Jonathan - In your email you mentioned that WP Super Cache requires modification to our htaccess file. This is not a problem for me as I use a customized htaccess file already. But I don't see in the documentation page of the plugin anything that explains the modification needed. Does it do it automatically? Or do we need to do something manually? If automatically, I guess I would just need to be careful to re-edit my htaccess customizations back in after activating the plugin.

-Will

Another small fix to the plugin would be:

All the user input fields of the plugin should remember your configurations when you deactivate and then activate the plugin. As it is now, all data is cleared and every time you reactivate the plugin, you need to re-enter the data. Right now it is only two fields, but with additional, more advanced, options as Jonathan suggests, this will be more problematic.

-Will

Thanks for putting this up, Jonathan! I also use this plugin and love it. The changes you mention are the most pressing, but I think I can add a few for anyone who does take it over. I'll let Chris know.

Hope your haunted house is scaring a few folks!

-Will

Thanks Andy! It is a little scary but it is getting close to Halloween so I'll just deal with it. I am still on WP2.1.3 but as more and more of my plugins become compatible, I am probably soon to go through the process of upgrading to 2.3.

If I run into any trouble getting CQS set up to correctly display category posts, I'll run screaming back here.

Thanks again.

Andy might be busy or away, but does anyone else know the answer to my question in the last comment?

Thanks!

Hi Andy: Below is a copy of a help request I posted on the WordPress Support forums. I have since been told that your CQS plugin can fix my problem. Unfortunately, I guess I am not quite geeky enough to understand if this is correct from reading the above information. :-)

Can I indeed use your plugin to fix the category links in my sidebar?

Thanks - Will
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I have my number of posts to display on blog pages set to 6 so as to only show the full text of the latest 6 posts on my main WordPress blog page.

The problem is that is you hover over one of the categories in my side bar, the link title says "View all post filed under..." But when you click the link, just like on the main blog page, only the latest 6 posts are displayed, not all of them. The theme is using ?php wp_list_cats.

I can not figure out how to get the category links in my sidebar to display "all" posts in the category and not just the latest 6.

Jonathan - The spam comments I referred to were on MY site, and were on topic to the posts they were put on. What I am thinking is that the spam bots are getting good at seeing keywords or something and making their spam close to the topic of the post. I guess the idea is they are more likely to slip through.

Nice to hear they are improving the short-comings. It must be hard for authors of service like this to keep up. I notice spam comments getting better all the time. I got one yesterday that said:

"healthy recipe are great …
Many times, you’ll become surprised by the mountainous accumulation of healthy food for kids. info realizable…."

Another had this in the comment section: "Great discussion on the energy saving bulbs better always cheaper soon to be good"

Both only had one link, (one to porn, the other to a page with lots of obviously scraped content interdispersed with hundreds of links). They were also on topic, sort of, to the post they commented on, and to my blog in general, so they slipped by Akismet. I only saw them because I get notification and a copy of all comments to my email. On a busy site, they could have stayed posted.

I see a market for a service that allow you to search all comments on your blog for suspicious ones that may have slipped through.

I look forward to your analysis of how effective the Web plagiarism tools are.

-Will

I read Andy's article and that really seems out of line. I think a site like Yahoo should NEVER republish content of any amount without a link back to the ORIGINAL author. Even if the site Yahoo gets their story from neglected the link, Yahoo has an obligation, moral and ethical, if even maybe legal, to link to the original source. Yahoo can not claim innocence as they know only too well the value of something like this to the original author, and have the resources to get a link to the original writing.

I would think an attorney could have a field day with a suit claiming damages to a writer when their content, in any form. is published on Yahoo without attribution and a link?

The concept of this service really bothers me. I don't mind an excerpt of something I write with a link back to the article. But... I do not want a machine or human summarizing what I write with the intent that there is then no need to read the full article. I already try to write posts as succinctly as possible, who are they to decide how to cut it down even further. There definitely needs to be an opt out for this, but then most people would probably opt out and RSS Brief would fail.

I (think) Andy is right about the full content. I seem to remember that from a while ago. I tried to verify it just now, but the Technorati site is not loading the home page or favorites for me tonight.

Glad you track this stuff Jonathan. Sometimes when I read one of your posts my head starts to spin!

There are some sites that advertise free or royalty free photos. You do need to register and buy credits that amount to 1 -5 dollars for a download. I have seen it discussed that there is no ethical problem with taking these photos without paying. There seems to be a pervasive opinion that pictures are somehow less protected than content.

Sometimes though, the sites can just be confusing. I remember going to a site and downloading a few, as advertised, "free" pictures before realizing that at the bottom of the page there was a box to use credits to download the pictures.

And now I have moved up the list! Probably the only place in the world I am ahead of Lorelle!

OK, I'll stop now. I have been working all afternoon on issues where Firefox displays things perfectly, but IE does not like my code. I'm getting punchy. (And VERY mad at IE!)

And now here is a question in a comment... Are you using a plugin to get the notify box for followup comments?

btw: I have a hard time reading the particular captcha form you are now using. Anyone else have to try a couple of times to get it right?

And the race is on! LOL! This is a good idea to generate comments rather than direct 'contact" questions like I am in the habit of asking.

I know I often feel my questions are dumb, but now that I have my own blog, I understand that putting questions in comments is often better. It really helps future users of a site find an answer. I have had a question of two on other sites where I have been almost embarrassed to ask. After I post a comment with the question, others chime in saying they have the same issue, sometimes even thanking me for being able to articulate the question.

Go figure!!

Hi Jonathan! About #2 in prevention, "Block known archiving sites". It got me wondering what possible advantage there could be for any of our sites to be included on an archiving site, ever? Are you recommending step #2 only for dead sites? Or do you do it on current sites also?

Thanks -Will

Congratulations on your new outlet for your great advice!

Ironically, I was at those forums earlier today, (linked from another site), and tried to register since that is required in order to post. I tried a few times, including just requesting a new password. No luck. Maybe all the new traffic because of your presence has tied up their servers! ;)

on edit: Even more ironically, 2 minutes after posting this, and several hours after initially trying to register, I get a whole string of emails at once from the Rethinking Blogging site. Must have been backed up and finally jammed loose. I look forward to following the topics over there!