Web developers trying to control comment-spam, bandwidth-theft, and content-scraping must choose between two fundamentally different approaches: selectively deny target offenders (the “blacklist” method) or selectively allow desirable agents (the “opt-in”, or “whitelist” method). Currently popular according to various online forums and discussion boards is the blacklist method. The blacklist method requires the webmaster to create and maintain a working list of undesirable agents, usually blocking their access via htaccess or php. The downside of blacklisting is that it requires considerable […] Continue reading »
In our previous article on creating spamless email links via JavaScript, the presented method, although relatively simple to implement, is not the most effective solution available. Spambots, email harvesters, and other online scumbags relentlessly advance their scanning technology, perpetually rendering obsolete yesterday’s methods. Continue reading »
This post is hereby dedicated to the official logging of all unresolved and/or unexplained errors encountered during development or implementation of various plugins, extensions, themes, scripts, and/or anything else that results in bizarre and mysterious errors, bugs, or other anomalies. Further, we will also post any potential solutions, fixes, workarounds, or explanations for any errors logged in this post. This information is provided for reference purposes only — please share any related information you may have concerning any of the […] Continue reading »
In our never-ending battle against spammers, leeches, scrapers, and other online undesirables, we have implemented several powerful security measures to improve the operational integrity of our perpetual virtual existence. Here is a rundown of the new behind-the-scenes security features of Perishable Press. Continue reading »
Note to WordPress 2.0.5 users: Everything was working fine on this site before upgrading to WP 2.0.5. After upgrading, apparently, our feeds stopped validating and the BDP RSS Aggregator plugin refused to update our own feeds. After several hours investigating the situation, we determined that the Live Comment Preview plugin was interfering with our feeds validating, while the upgraded WordPress (2.0.5) was responsible for problems with the BDP plugin. Continue reading »
![[ WordPress Triple Loop ]](https://perishablepress.com/wp/wp-content/images/2006/misc-chunks/wordpress-triple-loop.jpg)
Two of the themes developed by Perishable Press, Apathy and Information, depend on three WordPress loops to operate as intended. For each of these themes, the three loops consist of two “side” loops and one main loop. The side loops each display posts from one specific category, while the main loop displays posts from every category not specified in the side loops. Continue reading »
What we have here is an excellent method for preventing a great deal of blog spam. With a few strategic lines placed in your .htaccess file, you can prevent spambots from dropping spam bombs by denying access to all requests that do not originate from your domain. Continue reading »
This brief tutorial explains two methods for adding RSS feed link icons to category listings. Let’s say that you have a list of category links, where each link targets a specific category view. Now let’s say that, next to each category link, you would like to provide a icon that links to that particular category’s syndicated feed. So, rather than cluttering up your page with two sets of category links — one for category views and another for category feeds […] Continue reading »
![[ AddMySite ]](https://perishablepress.com/wp/wp-content/images/2006/misc-chunks/addmysite.png)
The AddMySite (AMS) plugin for WordPress makes it easy for your visitors to add your site and feed to all of their favorite social-bookmarking services. Share instantly with awesome sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Twitter. With a few clicks, users can quickly bookmark or add your site to over 20 popular social bookmarking services. It’s like a dream come true for simple social-media sharing. Simple, fast, and easy :) Continue reading »
Gravatars have become a popular way of adding spice to the “comments” page of many WordPress-powered sites. So popular, in fact, that the gravatar server is often overloaded, bogged down with millions of gravatar requests every second. This immense server load effects user pages everywhere, resulting in slow loading times, unresolved server requests, and missing gravatars. Such broken presentations appear unprofessional, tarnish reputations, and may provoke confusion. This article provides essential solutions for an extreme gravatar makeover.. Continue reading »
Welcome to my growing collection of WordPress plugins. Most of these plugins are freely available at the WP Plugin Directory, and some are premium plugins available at Plugin Planet. My plugins strive for perfection, and feature excellent customer support. If you have any questions or feedback, reach me anytime via my contact form — I’m always glad to help. Continue reading »
![[ BlogStats PCC ]](https://perishablepress.com/wp/wp-content/images/plugins/_pcc.jpg)
Announcing the BlogStats PCC plugin for WordPress! BlogStats PCC is the easy way to display the total number of posts, comments, categories, as well as several other great statistics for your WordPress-powered website. With BlogStats PCC, you display only the information you want, where you want — inside or outside of the WordPress loop. Completely customizable, BlogStats PCC will display any combination of statistics you choose. This plugin is highly flexible, simple to use, open source, and completely free. Continue reading »
To execute WordPress functions in an external directory (i.e., outside of the WordPress install directory), it is necessary to include a call to wp-blog-header.php at the top of the external file. Continue reading »
CLB+ Thanks to some valuable feedback, several inconsistencies were discovered in our Category LiveBookmarks plugin for WordPress. If you are using CLB+ version 1.1.1, check carefully your feed links — you may discover that your feed links are being written twice in both the document head and (if applicable) the document body. Further, it was requested that the plugin produce a complete set of links for various WP page views, such as category views and archive views, rather than creating […] Continue reading »
CLB+ New version of Category LiveBookmarks Plus (CLB+) now available! CLB+ version 2.3.0b enables WordPress 2.3+ users to configure and customize the ultimate set of autodetection feeds, category feeds, category links, and feed links. Features include completely rewritten, optimized code, optional category post counts, and custom RSS-icon links for all category and/or feed links. Overall, the new version is faster and more flexible than ever! Let’s take a quick look.. Continue reading »
Welcome to WordPress Plugin Central! Here we will organize, review, and log any changes made to the plugins used here at Perishable Press. Our first task involves listing all of the plugins used as of May 29, 2006. Note: This list is updated with every plugin modification and is current as of the “Edited on” date in the “Post Metadata” section to the left of this post. Continue reading »
