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TypePad Takes On Disqus, WordPress With New Distributed Comment System

By Scott Gilbertson November 21st, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Software & Tools

typepad connect commentsSix Apart, makers of blogging platforms Movable Type and Typepad, have announced a new distributed blog comment system that offers a very simple way of integrating comments into any page.

Similar to services from Disqus and WordPress, the new TypePad Connect allows you embed comments in any page using JavaScript. Any user with a TypePad Connect profile can then comment on your page and you get a comment management dashboard that offers spam control, moderation and customization options.

Naturally any of your visitors that don’t have a Typepad account can still comment anonymously or use their own OpenID credentials to leave a comment. Other nice touches include the ability to post replies by e-mail and threaded comments (although the threading is only one level deep).

There are some custom code snippets available that make embedding Typepad comments in WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger, Tumblr and other platforms, a simple cut-and-paste affair. Not using one of those systems? Not to worry, there’s generic JavaScript code that works on any site.

For those commenters that choose to use a TypePad account there’s also a new profile page, which will be linked back to via each commenter’s photo avatar.

If you’re thinking that sounds a lot like Disqus you’re right. TypePad Connect offers many of the exact same features found in Disqus and similar distributed comments systems. In September, rival blog software maker WordPress acquired IntenseDebate, a platform for distributed comments complete with profiles, custom feeds and many features similar to Disqus and TypePad Connect. IntenseDebate will be rolled into the next version of WordPress, due soon, and is now available as a beta plug-in for WordPress users.

So which is better? In my limited testing I liked TypePad Connect and customizing the CSS to fit your site’s look and feel is easier than it is with Disqus. But Disqus offers some nice features like true WordPress integration (the ability to store posted comments in your WordPress database) and a very slick API for pulling out data and storing elsewhere.

In the end, if you’re already using Disqus or other services like WordPress’ new Intense Debate comment system, TypePad Connect probably won’t lure you away. But if you’ve never used either, give them both a look — both are very capable systems and offer some nice features that go far above and beyond what most blogging software offers out of the box.

Also be sure to check out the video on the new TypePad Connect site, which and shows the new commenting features in action.

See Also:


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WordPress 2.7 in 63 Seconds

By Adam DuVander November 7th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing

The blogistas behind WordPress have created a short movie that quickly introduces the new interactive interface coming in with the next release of the blogging software. Embedded above, the movie shows the drag and drop dashboard and a post screen that can also have components rearranged.

Web developers and advanced bloggers may feel like a comic book fan dissecting the latest Spider-Man trailer, pausing and re-watching their favorite portions.

The dashboard is perhaps the biggest change. In early versions of WordPress the dashboard was mainly used to show the latest WordPress development news. Recently the team added a more modular dashboard and now it is completely customizable on-the-fly. With WordPress 2.7 you can even compose a post and reply to comments from the dashboard.

Want to see it in action on your own blog? It’s still in beta, but you can download the snazzy new version here.

See also:


Tags: blogging, WordPress
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Top 5 Twitter Researching Tools

By Scott Loganbill October 17th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Software & Tools

I think we can all agree Twitter, and microblogging, is a real thing. It’s hip. It’s cool. All the kids are doing it. Who knew there would be so much activity in 140 characters?

In fact, Twitter has become a great tool for gathering information. From first hand accounts to general internet memes.

The best sign of Twitter’s popularity are the companies latching on to its success by building tools extending the services’ functionality. We’ve already gone over the top 8 tools for tweeting. Here are five of our favorite Twitter service-enhancing tools to help you navigate and make the most out of other people’s tweets.

  1. Tweetbeep.com — Give tweetbeep a keyword and the service will email you every time someone uses the word in a tweet. It’s Google Alerts for Twitter.
  2. Qwitter — When someone follows you on Twitter, you get an email to inflate your ego and give you a chance to follow them back. When someone quits following you on Twitter, the betrayal is hidden from you — that is, until you signs up for Qwitter. Qwitter will send you an email telling you who left you and for what offending tweet.
  3. Twitscoop — Twitscoop gives you a live tag cloud of what’s happening on Twitter. See words expand and shrink in real time. It’s particularly interesting to have on hand during big-time political events, like debates, when you’ll see “Joe The Plumber” grow irregularly large.
  4. Twellow — With so many big wigs, celebrities, friends and acquaintances on Twitter, sometimes it’s hard to know who to follow. Twellow allows you to search based on industry or topic and find people who are notable in the profession you have chosen. For example, you might be interested in Twellow’s web developer category.
  5. Twitter Search — Want to see what people are saying about a particular topic? Try Twitter’s search. Twitter search began as Summize before it was bought and integrated by Twitter in July of this year. It was a good match. Twitter’s search is particularly handy to gain the pulse of certain topics. For example, search for ‘earthquake’ after an earthquake and get live first-hand accounts — at least, by those still with an internet connection.

See Also:


Tags: Twitter
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PollDaddy Switches Into Automattic

By Adam DuVander October 15th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing

PollDaddy pollPollDaddy, the widget maker that lets bloggers add polls and surveys to their site, is now part of WordPress company Automattic. Founder Matt Mullenweg described looking around the web at similar products and compared PollDaddy to Wordpress itself:

“Two guys in Ireland with a quirky company name were cleaning up with some of the largest and most respected websites using their service on a daily basis. They weren’t the biggest, but they had the high end of the market. It seemed to be the WordPress of the polling space.”

PollDaddy burst onto the scene over two years ago. We first covered the tool at Widgets Live in 2006.

Automattic wasted no time integrating PollDaddy. It added a PollDaddy plugin with the company as author. Even bigger, it added an option for polls on Wordpress.com, the company’s hosted solution.

See also:


Tags: blogging, WordPress
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Blog Action Day: Use the Web to Fight Poverty

By Scott Loganbill October 15th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Events, Other

You may not know October 15 is Blog Action Day, a day when bloggers join hands to discuss a singular topic. This year, the topic is poverty.

To lend a hand to the cause, I wrote up how the web can help end poverty on Wired’s How-To wiki. It talks about how you can lend a hand through community action, contributing microloans to entrepreneurs in need and helping children and adults break out of the circle of poverty.

Opposite of its acronym (BAD), Blog Action Day is actually a good idea. Though if it wasn’t backed by the United Nations, I probably would’ve confused it with any number of online “send to ten of your friends” pyramid scheme emails. In San Francisco, it’s an issue I see every day and feel pretty strongly about. It’s also a tough issue to tackle — one that can only benefit from strong debate.

It’s not too late to join in. If you’ve got a blog, write up some thoughts and share your ideas. If you don’t, contribute to the wiki page or add your voice to comments below.


Tags: , blog action day
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Scouting the Blogs of Internet Icons

By Adam DuVander October 8th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing

One of the best things about blogs is that anyone can create one, easily. That gives us tremendous access to the thoughts of many. Say what you will about the quality of most blogs, but I still think we’re better off.

A pleasant outcome of blogs being attainable for all is that some internet icons have started blogs. This post will attempt to chronicle them. I’ve undoubtedly missed some. Let me know in the comments and I’ll add it in.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee - inventor of the web
Berners-Lee hasn’t posted since March, but when he says something, people listen. Might as well subscribe in your RSS reader.

Linus Torvalds - inventor of Linux
Torvalds just started blogging because he wanted a place to keep family pictures (seriously).

Jonathan Schwartz - Sun CEO
Schwartz’s blog is often mentioned as an ideal CEO blog: free of marketing-speak and frequently updated.

Marc Andreessen - Netscape founder, creator of first graphical web browser
On a temporary hiatus, but when Andreessen is on, he pumps out content. Often more business-focused than you might imagine for a geek.

Guido van Rossum - creator of Python
It’s a new blog and appears to be for both technical and philosophical writing. His first post was so wordy, Blogspot caught it as spam.

Steve Wozniak - Apple co-founder
It was almost two years ago when Woz said his blog was coming soon. I’m sure he’ll post soon.

See also:


Tags: blogs
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Simple Ways to Back Up Your Tumblr Blog

By Scott Gilbertson October 8th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Platforms & APIs

tumblrWe’re big fans of the Tumblr blogging platform and we especially love its simplicity — when it comes to Tumblr, not having features is a feature. However, that logic falls apart a little bit when it comes to backing up your blog.

Unlike WordPress, Movable Type and other popular blog tools, Tumblr doesn’t have an easy export tool. In fact, it doesn’t offer any exporting or backup tools.

Tumblr does, however, offer an API which means you can backup your posts by writing your own scripts, or, if you’re looking for something simpler you can use Tumble-log Backup, a webapp that will backup all your Tumblr posts into a single HTML file.

Using Tumble-log Backup couldn’t be simpler — just enter your Tumblr username and choose how many and which type of posts to backup. Then save the resulting HTML file to disk. Some Lifehacker users reported problems saving the file in Firefox, but I didn’t have any trouble.

Tumble-log Backup makes a decent backup tool for most people, but if you’d like to save your Tumblr blog in a more portable format, like say JSON, you can do so with a simple shell command, like this:

curl http://luxagraf.tumblr.com/api/read/json?debug=1 > tumble.bak

In this case my Tumblr name is luxagraf, so just swap that part of the URL with your Tumblr name and you’ll get a nice JSON back up of all your posts.

The downside to both of these approaches is that you don’t get the associated media — images, movie files, etc — that you’ve posted. For that you can use wget to mirror the site. Enter this in the shell and it should grab nearly everything you need:

wget -r -p --no-parent http://username.tumblr.com

The flags tell wget to download recursively, grab all associated media and ignore everything above the sub-domain that is your Tumblr account.

So there you go, several ways to have your Tumblr and back it up too. For more tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Tumblr, check out our tutorial: Get Started With Tumblr.

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Make Your Blog an OpenID Provider

By Adam DuVander October 2nd, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Platforms & APIs, Software & Tools

OpenID options
There’s a brand new plugin for Wordpress that now fully supports the power of OpenID. Will Norris and Chris Messina have released version 3 of the OpenID plugin for Wordpress, which lets you turn your blog into an OpenID provider. To take full advantage of the plugin, you’ll also need the XRDS-Simple plugin, a service discover framework.

As with previous versions, users can login with an OpenID to leave a comment. This is especially useful for blogs that require registration that ordinarily would keep users from leaving comments. OpenID is even a good option for sites that allow anonymous comments, as it gives users a way to legitimize their comment, possibly avoiding administrator moderation.

Norris has a full post on the new plugin. The new features that excite me are the ability to be an OpenID provider. This is often the only way large companies support OpenID, but it’s been difficult for Joe Blogger to be able to do the same. With the latest plugin, you can use the base domain as your OpenID. You can also allow other bloggers or commenters on your blog to have their own OpenIDs, something like example.com/author/username.

Another great feature, if you’re only using the plugin for yourself, is a simple way to delegate to another OpenID service. At the bottom of your user profile (Users menu in the admin, then Your Profile), is the option for OpenID delegation.

OpenID delegation

Here you can choose another OpenID provider to handle authentication, while still using your own domain as your OpenID identifier. This gives you the power to change providers in the future, and appear the same to others. That’s about as open as it gets.

See also:


Tags: OpenID, plugin, WordPress
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Wordpress Presentations from WordCamPDX

By Adam DuVander September 29th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Events

Lorelle, the Fairy BlogmotherWordCamp wrapped up in Portland over the weekend and all signs point to it being a success. Apparently the #wordcampdx hash tag made the front page of Twitter, if that’s any indication. Perhaps a better measure is the huge list of presentation wrap-ups, including slides, notes, videos, and more.

Be sure to check out the 10+ proven plugins. Chris O’Rourke skims off the cream of the crop of Wordpress plugins. You can even preview one of the recommended plugins right on the page. The slides are displayed with the Gallery Lightbox plugin.

Another one to check out is designing themes with free tools. You may have your development environment all figured out, but you might find something new in Eric Amundson’s talk.

Webmonkey was proud to be a sponsor and I enjoyed tracking its progress online. It looks like it was quite the event. Congrats to the organizers. Next year, we’ll have to go. Maybe you should, too.

[Photo by Rabbi David]

See also:


Tags: blog, blogging, WordPress
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WordCamp Rocks PDX This Weekend

By Michael Calore September 26th, 2008 Categories: Blog Publishing, Events

WordCamp, the conference for WordPress users and developers, is taking place in Portland, Oregon this Saturday, September 27th. The event, which is dedicated to all things related to the open-source publishing platform, kicks off bright and early on Saturday — 8:30am, it’s a full day — at CubeSpace.

If you want to follow along at home, just look for the tag wordcampdx (note the spelling) on Flickr and on blog posts and as a #hashtag on Twitter. The WordCamp crew is asking everyone to bring cameras and laptops, and to post photos and videos as often as possible. So, if you’re stuck in Texas or Sri Lanka or Bangor, you can follow what will surely be a flurry of online activity.

Webmonkey is one of the official sponsors, too. So if you’re attending, be sure to pick up a T-shirt, a hat or a sticker and fly your monkey flag high. Better yet, take a photo of yourself wearing it!

A full schedule of talks and sessions is available at WordCampPortland.org/agenda.


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