I mentioned before that one of my goals slash New Year’s resolutions for WebGrrrl.net is to create a new WordPress plugin that can support the GEDCOM data scheme to create a genealogy (family tree) site powered by WordPress. I plan to start it within this week.

Here’s my predicament — I can’t come up with a snazzy name for this plugin, so can you help me? Please vote or suggest a name using the poll form below and even let me know what you’re expecting from this plugin. Deadline? I guess this poll will be open until I’m ready to put out an alpha version of it, probably in 3-5 months’ time.

The poll above contains a few titles I’ve been playing around with. That WordPress TNG thing is actually a reference to my favorite Star Trek series, The Next Generation. Sure it sounds a little tacky, but I think it’s funny, and funny is always a good thing, heh.

Any help with digging this and adding to your social network sites will be much appreciated

I’ve finally come around to fixing the bugs in this version of TCW. I have added in most of the codes that support Gravatar, thanks to the work of Sergio Nascimento.

Hopefully the next update would include the ability to add multiple TCW to more than one sidebar within a blog, as suggested by someone via Facebook. I’ll do what I can

I found out about this a couple of days ago through the Top 10 WorPress Plugin Authors post, but only decided to talk about it now, coz this is a scheduled post, muahahahahah!!

I should have felt happier that I ranked in the 200s for the Top Commentators widget, but really, the credit should go to Personal Finance Advisor for developing the original plugin in the first place. The TCW, as I fondly call it, still has bugs to squash, so it’s not perfect. The new update will be published sometime this month, together with the start of the WordPress GEDCOM plugin I plan to develop.

You should really take a look at the Top 1000 list, as they contain some wonderful plugins such as Article Templates, Amazon Reloaded for WordPress, eShop, WordPress Download Monitor, and many more. If you’re creative, a lot of them can be used for your niche sites, either to improve usability or improve SEO!

How’s that for a first post in 2009?

Merry Christmas, everyone! Let us not forget that in a few day’s time, another year beckons. I already have around 10 to-do’s in my 2009 New Year’s resolutions, three specifically for WebGrrrl.net.

1. Create a new WordPress plugin that incorporates GEDCOM data to build a WP-powered genealogy site. I currently own a family tree web site, but it’s static and it’s such a chore. My main references are GEDCOM standard and GEDCOM XML for the data schemes, and the freeware GED2HTML for the types of output.
2. Start inviting guest bloggers into WebGrrrl.net. Topics will focus on blogging or WordPress. If you’re interested, do e-mail me or reach me via Contact the Grrrl. You don’t have to be an expert on either one of the topics. Just be passionate about what you want to share, and have a dash of personality added to it for taste (I do not tolerate swearing; that’s not “showing off your personality”, that’s just bad manners — you can do that in your own blog).
3. Redesign WebGrrrl.net. You know what they say — two years in the Internet is equivalent to forever in real life, or something like that. The theme will be created from scratch, of course.

What about you? Do you have any New Year’s resolution for your blog?

With the stable version of WordPress 2.7 coming out real soon, how can you not be excited?! Together with many avid WordPress users, I’ve gripped about how less user-friendly WordPress is since they rolled out WP 2.5, and the people at Automattic heard us. Now, WordPress looks and functions better than I can ever expect. If WordPress was a human woman, she’d be all beauty and brains, a knock-off, a hot chick not to be reckoned with!

Among the features I’m excited about:

1. QuickPress: Having it in the Dashboard looking so cute is definitely a A++! No longer do I have to go to Write every time I need to do a quick post, which I often do on occasions (read: paid postings, ahaks!).
   
2. Core Update: Finally! I feel so happy I could cry… instant WP update is now a built-in feature of WP 2.7! It’s a little more simplistic than other WP update plugins we’re used to, but if you use it in conjunction with WP DB Backup plugin, all should be fine and dandy. If only they could also include back-up feature of the wp-content folder, though. Also, according to a post in Weblog Tools Collection, not all web hosts support this feature fully due to the hosts’ server limitation and setup. Thankfully, my web hosting provider, WPWebHost, passes the test, and I took the liberty of adding them to the list of Core Update Compatibility web hosts in WordPress.org.
3. Oh-so-flexible navigation: Ooh boy, they did a great job with this one. This navigation is exactly what most of us WordPress users need. The menu of each section easily collapses and closes smoothly, and even though at first glance the menu has more sections than WP 2.5, it’s surprisingly much more intuitive and requires less click-and-wait than the usual to get to the options you want to go. The great thing about it is that collapsed and closed navigation remains that way even as you navigate through the Admin interface, then stays that way until you change it yourself. The drop-down Shortcuts on the top right of the admin page is also quite a smart move from the WP developers, featuring links to Add Posts, Add Pages and Manage Comments.
4. Oh-so-flexible Dashboard: I’ve never been particularly fond of WP’s Dashboard. Now, though, it’s possible to totally eliminate the default sections of the Dashboard via the Screen Options (which is also available in every other parts of the admin area). Though useful, I find the Plugins, WordPress Development Blog and Other WordPress News boxes to be a distraction. Now with a few clicks of the checkboxes, I can completely make it vanish into virtual thin air.
5. Pre-WP 2.5-nostalgic Write Post: If you hated having your Categories listed on bottom of your Write Post form like I do, you’ll be happy to know that it has been restored to the right side, just like we were conveniently used to before WP 2.5! You can even drag those boxes up and down to your preference, just like we could in WP 2.3! Even Tags is added on the right side! When I saw this, my body uncontrollably did a happy dance right in my ergonomically-challenged chair.
   

Aside from the fear that my favorite plugins might not work on the next update, I’m not too worried. Still, I feel a noticable slowdown of loading time in WP 2.7 compared to previous version, but I hope it’s due to it being a beta. Anyways, for those of you who don’t have the chance to experience WP 2.7 Beta 2, hop over to my WP 2.7 testbed and log in as general:general (Contributor level, please don’t change the password) to see the limited version of options you can find in WordPress 2.7.