A few updates

It’s Labor day so we’ve been working extra hard for you. Here are a few of the latest improvements on WordPress.com:

  • Managing links works better.
  • You can now use extended entries with the “more” WYSIWYG button.
  • You now get less generic profile information on registration.
  • Invites are a lot smarter — it prefiles a lot of information for people you invite.
  • When you invite someone you’re automatically added to their blogroll on their new blog.
  • Feedback form works in IE.
  • The cool fade I alluded to before is now in full effect. (Delete some more posts and comments.)
  • It should be faster now (and we haven’t even moved to the new servers yet).

All the electricity problems have been solved in the new colo and thanks to the super-human Jason Hoffman everything has been racked and stacked and we’ll begin configuring them this week.

Safari Support

I just wanted to post a quick clarification that Safari is not quite up to snuff for all the things we’re doing yet on WordPress.com. Where possible we will try to make it as elegant an experience as we can, but the Webkit engine is still evolving pretty rapidly and it may be a release or two before it’s fully caught up with things like Firefox.

Beam me up Scotty

As we boldly go where no blogging service has gone before, it seems we don’t have enough power! As in electricity to physically power all of the new hardware we have. I asked if hamsters on wheels would help things out but they seem to think the power requirements are even beyond that. It’s not an issue, because we’re not one thousandth of one percent to the capacity of our existing servers, but I’m personally looking forward to firing up the new hardware, so I imagine some of you might be anxious too. I will keep everyone updated on this WordPress Power Saga 2005 as it unfolds.

Movable Type Demo

They just said if I blog about MT there’ll be a prize.

They’re making a lot of bold claims, they just said it is the “most used blogging platform in the world” and it has the “best community and support in the world.”

Now they’re showing the video that shows a demo of upgrading. Upgrading is now much simpler. New feature: System Overview. (It’s really hard to see the screens because my the screenshots have small text. I’m getting older, maybe my eyes are getting bad!)

Comment spam – “silent data loss, big management burder, no way to know who’s building your community.” Spam is spam. “Movable Type 3.2 is the only blog platform with a junk folder” where it automatically deletes things after a while. Comments have a virtuous cycle.

“You can post from Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Word.” Favorite of Mena Trott: Context-sensitive search. You can customize the interface. Integrates into tools you have now. “No need for scripting.” Use Golive or Dreamweaver.

“Most important reason: best support in the business.” Brand new user manual and prints on demand. Manual allows comments from bloggers. (Why not just use a wiki?) Help ticket system integrated into application. “We’re realising it next week.” “Blogging platform that’s ready for business.”

The prize is the first three people to post about this demo get a copy of Hacking Movable Type. I just posted but I’ll leave the copy of the book for someone who needs it more. Jay Allen has hair now!

Presentation Feedback

Matt at BBS

First I wanted to thank everyone that came out terribly early in the morning at 8 AM for the WordPress presentation, espescially in light of some of the great parties last night. Don’t forget to email me if you caught me right after the presentation and gave me your business card, as that way I’ll be sure to reply.

Here’s some of the feedback I’ve been seeing, I’ll update this post throughout the course of the day as feedback shows up on Technorati and Feedster and in the WordPress dashboard. If you have a post I’ve missed please leave a comment.

Some photos from Flickr:

Photos by Kris.

Internet Explorer Schwag

I’m a Firefox/Flock guy at heart, but Microsoft just gave out this really nice bag that’s perfect in every way except for the Internet Explorer logo on the side. 😉 I don’t want to be shunned at the geek meetings and dinners, so I’ll probably stick to my current setup, but if I got a bigger laptop I’d probably use this bag. They also attached a CD with IE 7 beta on it, so that’s pretty interesting. I may try that out on my computer at work.