This is a short one. A gripe about a few of the more annoying things when searching the WordPress plugin repository…

1. The search is truly pathetic. I’ve commented on my lack of enthusiasm for anything Automattic does beyond WordPress before and how they seem to love doing things half-assed, but you would think they could get it together enough to make the repository a useful resource, ya no?
2. Screenshots are resized (poorly) to fit in their fixed-width layout and no full-size examples exist.
3. bbpress is functionally challenged at best, but the integration into the repository is abysmal and rarely returns all the related topics to a given plugin
4. On the subject of WordPress/plugin compatibility… You’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky? Well do you, punk? …seriously.

The solutions are simple enough…

1. Implement a more advanced method of search. Inclusions, occlusions, per field search operators — you know, thinks we would search by. Here’s a novel idea, allow me to list the plugins that are computable with WordPress 2.6 only (see #4).
2. Include a link to each full-size image if it was resized. Better yet, use a lightbox. Problem solved.
3. Create a new forum category for each plugin. Link to aforementioned category from plugin page. Better yet, list the discussion topics in their own tab on plugin page. Common sense. Imagine that.
4. Rhetorical question: Why is it WordPress.org can’t cross reference the hooks that it has altered in subsequent updates with those found in the files of a plugin and tell you how if an old plugin is still compatible? Answer: Laziness. There’s nothing technically difficult about it, it’s just time consuming.

A major problem I have is that they spend time on things like displaying the stats when there are these nagging issues that have gone unchecked for so long. Do you care how many times per day a plugin has been downloaded more than it’s compatibility with your version of WordPress? I think not.

Hell, I’d be willing to take on the project myself if one or two people wanted to join me. Any takers?

This is most likely the last - or one of the last - posts I will make before the Greg-J.com redesign. I love this theme, but the site no longer reflects my interests or represents my thoughts the best way it could.

Before redesigning it though, I wanted to share the design with everyone in a way that would let me be creative. I’ve developed a WordPress theme called WP CODA. There isn’t much to say about the theme I haven’t already posted about on the demo. It uses WordPress Pages instead of Posts, but other than that - it’s pretty self explanatory. I hope you enjoy it.

Visit Bustatheme.com to download WP CODA.

CSS-TRICKS.com is another feed in my Snackr roll, and a visit there never disappoints. Recently they finished up a 3 part series on designing a wordpress theme and rounded it off with a download to the theme pictured above. I like the idea of the theme and its straight forward approach, so I thought I’d share the find.

Visit ChrisCoyier.net to see the theme in action. Download it here.

This is the second time I’ve written this article so it’ll be much shorter now. Damn you back button!

I’ve been using vBulletin to create a webmaster social network at MySpacePros.com for the past month now and while it has all the features I need, I can’t imagine using vB for a social network that wasn’t aimed towards webmasters. As awesome as it is, it’s a beast to work with. What would I use then? WordPress. Or more specifically, BuddyPress. Take that last sentence with a grain of salt though, because I’ve never actually seen it in action. This is all just speculation.

Given automattic’s track record with offshoot products, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that while well-implemented, these new features are going to be light. Let’s take a quick look at those features. Again…

Extended Profiles
This should be “Extensible Profiles” as you need to do all the leg work. It works much like the Custom Fields option in wordpress. Well, exactly like it actually.

Personal Blog
Opening the door to use WordPress as a competitor to wordpress.com, users will get their own blog at either “/membername/blog/” or “/membername.domain.com/blog”. Finally!

Private Messaging
An internal mail system between users is pretty mandatory.

Friends
The friends aspect is tied into the Extended Profiles so you can match make based on those fields. Very Cool.

Groups
The most notable part of the Groups feature is the (option?) ability to tie it into bbpress and give each group their own discussion forum. Keep something in mind though: When you do this, it will kill a lot of forum activity - which is why I haven’t and probably won’t do it on MySpacePros.

The Wire
Apparently The Wire is the name for the bastard child of a 3-way between twitter, myspace’s profile comments and facebook’s The Wall…

Albums
One of the best ways to get traffic from Google.

Status Updates
I.e: Mood. Not important enough to make a bullet in my opinion.

It may seem like I’m being hard on BuddyPress, but I’m not. They’re just a couple years late to the party and they didn’t dress for the occasion. I’m sure it’ll provide a good foundation for the community to improve on, but at least it’s something.