WordPress News: 650,000 WP 2.7 Downloads, BuddyPress, Theme Threat, Schwag, and More

going to a WordCamp near you? And if the weather permits, and electricity holds, we’ve got more WordPress news for you!

WordPress News

Get Ready for WordPress 2.8: Already work is ongoing for WordPress 2.8 and WordPress wants your feedback. In “Prioritizing Features for WordPress 2.8,” Jane Wells invites people to take a poll on what are the top priorities WordPress developers should be putting their energy into. Currently, they are focused on WordPress Widget management, automatic Theme updates and installs, and performance improvements. The poll features the most popular features requests from the Ideas forum and more that the WordPress developers want to work on. Vote by noon on December 31 to have your say in what you want to see in WordPress 2.8.

Half-Million Downloads of WordPress 2.7 and Growing: Last week, there were 500,000 WordPress 2.7 Downloads and Miroslav Glavic caught the rollover of the counter. As I write this, there are now 654,434 downloads, moving fast for 1 million. Bets are on Twitter as to when one million downloads will be counted on the counter. There is now the WordPress Download Counter which adds a counter to your blog’s sidebar featuring the number of official WordPress version downloads from the WordPress Download Counter for WordPress fan blogs.

Friendster Moves Millions of Blogs from Typepad to WordPressMU: Matt Mullenweg and the WordPress Publisher Blog have switched “millions of blogs from Typepad to WordPress” to WordPressMU.

WordPress Theme Intruder Reported: A lot of people are reporting notifications from their web hosts regarding the remv.php file creating malicious behavior on your WordPress blog. Jason Cosper offers a good step-by-step tutorial and Ronald Davies has a video tutorial on how to remove this malicious file from your WordPress Theme folder. After removal of the file from your server via FTP, update your site immediately to WordPress 2.7. For more information, see these discussions on the WordPress Support Forums: Blog hacked, host said to upgrade and WTF is remv.php in wp-content/themes folder.

BuddyPress Released First Beta: The first beta, BuddyPress 1.0b1 Components, of the eagerly anticipated new social media integrated WordPress Theme for WordPressMU sites is out and bug testing is ongoing. Feedback is appreciated. Bava Tuesdays offers “Integrating WPMu, BuddyPress, and bbPress” as a guide to help those interested in using the WordPressMU version of WordPress with the new BuddyPress social media Theme and bbPress forums.

Exploring WordPress 2.7 Theme and Administration Panels: Mastering Your WordPress 2.7 Theme and Admin Area: Tips and Tricks features a variety of techniques for the new WordPress 2.7 interface including enhanced comment display, post sticky, post classes, logout links, keyboard shortcuts for comments and browsing, the new comments panel, Plugin administration, Dashboard modules, Quick Edit options, bulk edit posts, and more.

Haven’t You Upgraded to WordPress 2.7 Yet? For information on upgrading to WordPress 2.7, see WordPress 2.7 Release News and Links. If you are worried about whether or not WordPress 2.7 will work with your server, Themes or Plugins, see:

WordPress 2.7 Core Update Host Compatibility WordPress 2.7 Plugin Compatibility WordPress 2.7 Theme Compatibility

WordPress Buttons, Stickers and Tattoos: Maya Desai of Automattic is offering WordPress Schwag for anyone who wants it. It’s for a limited time only. Check out the WordPress logo tattoos!

The Ghosts of WordPress Past: Ozh released “A Journey Through Five Years of WordPress Interface” and Peter Westwood brought back memories with “Useless graphs (What went before),” each showing us their view on the history of WordPress.

Fake WordPress Malicious Site: I’ve heard that some people aren’t getting the news, so spread it. Look out for a fake WordPress site. Wordpresz.org looks like the WordPress site but isn’t. The version of WordPress you download has malicious code in the download that opens a backdoor to your blog. If you upgraded WordPress to 2.6.4, you are running a fake version. There is no WordPress 2.6.4. The latest version is WordPress 2.7, and in the 2.6 line, it is 2.6.5, skipping 2.6.4 due to this threat.

Don’t Let WordPress in Your Domain Name: Do you use “wordpress” in your blog’s domain name? This is in violation of the WordPress trademark. If you find a site using WordPress in their domain name, remind them of the trademark rules so they won’t be asked later to remove it.

The WordPress Podcast: Episode 48: WordPress 2.6.5 released, Mark Jaquith on 2.7, WordPress Direct controversy is the latest episode by Charles Stricklin and Jonathan Bailey and features those topics and interview, as well as security issues, Project Icon, and more.

WordCast Podcast: The last two episodes of the year are WordCast 39: Longer than a list of Madonna’s ex-boyfriends and WordCast 40: And a happy new year!. In the first episode, Jonathan Bailey joins the crew to talk about WordPress 2.7, global Gravatars integrated into WordPress.com, and more WordPress news.

WordPress Weekly Podcast: Last week’s episode with Matt Mullenweg has been mostly transcribed. This week’s episode, WordPress Gone Social - BuddyPress, featured Andy Pealty of the BuddyPress project for WordPressMU, and more WordPress news and tips.

Last Week’s WordPress Wednesday News: Can’t get enough WordPress news and tips? There is so much news coming out about the latest version, so you can catch up with the past news in last week’s WordPress News: WordPress 2.7 Awesome, WordPress.com 5 Million, Plugins Updated, and WordCamp News.

WordPress on Your Calendar

WordPress Meetup or WordCamp Near You? If you are putting together a WordPress event, please email me so I can publicize it here. If there is a WordCamp near you, go. If you are interested in setting up a WordCamp, stay tuned for news and information on to bring a WordCamp event near you.

Here are some WordPress-related dates and events to put on your calendar.

The Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress December Meetup - December 27, 2008 Toronto WordPress December Meetup - December 27, 2008 Atlanta WordPress Users Group December Meetup - December 27, 2009 Gulf Coast WordPress/Blogger Meetup - January 1, 2009 Toronto WordPress Meetup - January 3, 2009 Atlanta WordPress 2.7 Party - Installing and Upgrading - January 6, 2009 The New Jersey WordPress January Meetup - January 7, 2009 WordCamp Las Vegas 2009 - Las Vegas, Nevada - January 10-11, 2009 Happy Hour after WordCamp Las Vegas - January 10, 2009 Los Angeles WordPress Users Group - January 11, 2009 South Florida WordPress Meetup Group - Pompano Beach - Search Engine Optimization for WordPress - January 15, 2009 WordCamp Indonesia 2009 - Jakarta, Indonesia - January 17-18, 2009 New York WordPress Meetup Group - WordPress as a CMS: The Strategy of Content Publishing - January 20, 2009 WordCamp Whistler 2009 - Whistler, BC, Canada - January 24, 2009 (Facebook) Chicago WordPress January Meetup - January 24, 2009 The Dallas/Ft. Worth Area WordPress January Meetup - Texas - January 24, 2009 WordCamp Higher Ed North East - Worcester, Massachusetts - February 2, 2009 WordCamp Education Vancouver 2009 - Vancouver, BC - February 19, 2009 2009 Northern Voice - Vancouver, BC - February 20-21, 2009 WordCamp Miami 2009 - Miami, Florida - February 22, 2009 WordCamp NOLA 2009 - New Orleans, Louisiana - March 18-19, 2008 (Twitter) WordCamp Denver 2009 - February 28, 2009 (Facebook) WordCamp Jena Germany - February 14, 2009 WordCamp Columbus - Ohio - May 16, 2009 WordCamp Mid-Atlantic - Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia - May 16, 2009 WordCamp Milan 2009 - Milan, Italy - May 22-23, 2009 WordCamp San Francisco 2009 - May 30, 2009 WordCamp Chicago - June 6-7, 2009 WordCamp Dallas 2009 - Dallas, Texas - June 27-28, 2009

Upcoming WordCamps not scheduled or confirmed:

WordCamp Indy (Indianapolis) WordCamp Augusta WordCamp Seattle (WordCamp Seattle Twitter) WordCamp Argentina WordCamp Perú WordCamp New Zealand

Upcoming WordCamp and WordPress Event News

WordCamp Las Vegas on a Roll: WordCamp Las Vegas is the first WordCamp of the new year and the line up of speakers is great. There is a WordCamp Las Vegas Live Stream you can register for to watch the event live. WordCamp Las Vegas now has banners and badges available to help promote the event. WordCamp Las Vegas is also merging with the Las Vegas WordPress Meetup Group and Vegas Tweetup for a “meetup-mashup” the evening after the WordCamp event at 5:30PM on January 10, 2009, and calling it the Happy Hour after WordCamp Las Vegas.

WordCamp Whistler - Geeks Ski! WordCamp Whistler January 24, 2009, will be announcing that they’ve sealed a deal with a hotel and facility with a great discount rate. Register now to ensure you get the discount. They are also seeking sponsors for this incredible WordCamp, a mix of skiing, photography, and WordPress. It is set in one of the most beautiful ski resorts in the world. There is now a Facebook event set for those wanting to sign up, as well as a WordCamp Whistler Barcamp Page or their new official site, WordCamp Whistler.

Learn the Lessons of Content Publishing: New York WordPress Meetup Group will meetin on January 20, 2009, with the meeting topic to be “WordPress as a CMS: The Strategy of Content Publishing.”

WordCamp Mid-Atlantic: The University of Baltimore Thumel Business Center has been set for the first ever WordCamp Mid-Atlantic covering Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia areas on May 16, 2009. You can register now at their show less...