Wp-Stats not counting!

I’ve had WP-Stats (WordPress.com stats) since i started this blog. When i moved it to the new domain and changed the theme my stats stoped counting. The line was flat! So, at the beggining i thought that the users haven’t learnt about the change yet. I kept it like that for almost 24 hours till i got my first comment! So, i had a comment and the line was still flat. Something was fishy. I started fiddling around with the settings of the plugin along with my homepage on WordPress. But, still nothing. The line was always flat. I decided to go around and find another plugin. I still had analytics but WP-Stats really had many more info i needed. I did this for over two months testing out many statistic plugins. But, they either lucked the info i needed or they took too much space on my hosting. A few days back i decided to go back to WP-Stats and figure out what was the problem. The line kept staying flat. I checked the WordPress fora and here it is! The solution is easy, actually that easy that you will feel stupid Check your footer.php file and make sure that wp_footer() function is called within the script. If you want to make sure that it counts correctly, after changing your footer file, besides the obvious “check your stats”, you can see your homepage source code and try to find this snippet:

If you have this code you are fine. Hey, do not forget, check for the code when you are logged out since WordPress does not count visits when you are logged in! From now on, keep this in mind, when you change your theme check your footer.php file

IRC for hardcores or… masochists!

Now here is another post on the “hardcore or masochist” series. It’s been a long time since the last similar post but it’s been a long time since i ever got to explore a protocol. This was a pretty easy one to explore since it is built for chatting. It all started out two decedes ago, back in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen. More info on the history and structure of IRC can be found on Wikipedia.

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Another dashboard redesign

For a couple of weeks now the blogosphere has been clogged up with posts about the new WordPress version coming out in November. Seeing the survey about the new dashboard redesign and reading Lorelle’s blog post where she mentions the post about the final features for 2.7 i kinda started thinking… The orange-ish new interface on the admin dashboard has been introduced, not long back, in 2.5. That change gave a fresh new look to a place where a blogger spends much time. Moreover, the grouping of the functionalities slightly changed. Grouped differently they were, in my oppinion, in a better place to find by a novice user. I know long term users might have been disapointed of the new rearrangement but i think it was a good deal.

Now, after about six months, the dashboard is about to change again. The developers suggest that the new arrangement will be even better and grouped even better. I know they did usability tests, took users’ oppinions and, combined, they came up with the new changes. But here is a thought…

Take Microsoft for example. They recently changed their Office suite layout after years of using the old one. The majority of the users where much dissapointed since they could not find their way around, that easy, any more. I know that the target audience of that product is much different than WordPress (Office is for novice computer users whilst the majority of WordPress users are at least very attached to the pc), even so, i think that, the never ending changes are going to be bad at some point. Here’s why. When the new dashboard came out i spent quite a few time fiddling around, trying to see what is where and, believe me, i am an experienced computer user (i am a programmer for crying out loud!). Imagine just a casual blogger, how much time he has to spend. Don’t get me wrong here. I am all for the changes, evolution is progress, but there has to be a balance. Speed of changing vs quality of service is quite a thin line.

One would say “hey you know something smart ass? you can keep 2.6 or even change your platform”. If you are thinking of it then you got me all wrong. Please read again and try to see how i mean things

All in all, i am really looking forward to the new version. I think it’s going to be a great success for many reasons, mainly because i think this is a version that really checked the users’ pulse out. But i kind of hope it’s the end of the major changes for now. Let’s keep it like that for quite some time and see how it goes.

Go WordPress!

What do you guys think? Is it a premature move or a must at this point? Is it going to hurt or help evolve even more?

Using custom fields to mark a post as “hot”

For a long time now a thing that troubles many webmasters puzzled me too. I have a few articles that bring in what you would call “instant visitors”, meaning visitors that get what they want and they are out of here. Those come either from search engines or bookmarking sites (digg, stumbleupon etc). I was surprised to see that when querying for “file not accessible bin”, which is a common problem when trying to mount a bin image in daemon tools, brings this blog first on the list. I can see through the stats that i get quite some traffic from a few posts like that but i hardly get even a comment.

Now the suggestion from all bloggers is “try to lure that reader in”. Others suggest poping up a window with a subscribe or something. Others suggest to put on a “if you like this post subscribe to my feed” etc. What i wanted is actually grab the visitors attention when he first comes in. If he gets the info he wants your blog tab will be closed in a glimpse of an eye.

I had my eyes open for a plugin or something out there suggesting something remotely close to this but no luck so far. I was too lazy to code a plugin myself. The other day i was thinking about it and it came to me. I can use custom fields to do that! So here is what i came up with…

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The WordPress 2.7 survey

If you are using wordpress then you must have seen on the dashboard feeds that there is a wordpress 2.7 survey the developpers would appreciate us take. I really think you should take the survey since it’s actually there to help the developpers see what we want. They are asking about menu grouping and labeling on the newly designed dashboard. So, what are you still waiting for? It will only take about 5 minutes. Go ahead!