For those that have no reason to run WordPress 3 in multi-user mode, don’t worry. The default configuration is single-user mode and you have to activate multi-user in order to get the additional benefits.

This blog is running the current WordPress 3.0 RC and to me it seems pretty stable and for the most part nothing seems to amiss. I am pleased with how well this release seems to work as I’ve not ran into any core issues that caused me problems as yet. I’m sure I’ll find some eventually but for now, the stability of WordPress 3.0 seems to be rock solid.

Just a side note. Two things I haven’t tried yet are upgrading a single user blog and a WPMU installation to WordPress 3.0. I can’t foresee many issues with a single-user site upgrade, except maybe for some very old plugin incompatibilities or theme issues that may crop up, but these I think are to be expected in the normal course of WordPress’s evolution. WPMU on the other hand, could present all kinds of difficulties but from looking at the code itself, it shouldn’t…. in theory. The issue with WPMU I think is going to be handling the numerous mu-plugins as I assume they will all have to be moved to the normal plugins directory and reactivated (haven’t tested this).

For now, if you haven’t looked at the latest release of WordPress 3.0, I suggest you give it a glance (download WordPress 3.0 RC1 here). It’s pretty slick and continues to show why WordPress is the best blogging software out there.

A few people using this plugin have reported that it doesn’t work with BuddyPress. After some investigation it appears to be because BuddyPress has it’s own registration template and doesn’t use some of the standard hooks WPMU uses during the initial signup process.

Not a big deal however in order to make this plugin work with the default BuddyPress theme you will have to make 1 manual edit to a theme file. I couldn’t find any better way to get the necessary check into their workflow but it’s a pretty simple edit.

Jump to the main plugin page WPMU Block Spam By Math, use the download link to get the updated plugin (version 1.1) and scroll down to the instructions and follow the note for BuddyPress users.

Post any issues in the main plugin post.

If you run a WordPress MU installation then you’re more than aware of the growing problem with spambots out there creating blogs to simple load links back to their spam sites. New WPMU installations can expect to be found and attacked within a few days of going live and if you have an open registration process, well, be ready to spend a lot of time weeding out the spam blogs.

My WPMU site Stampin Corner started getting hit the day it went live and I’d see between 5 an 15 new spam blogs created every day. After searching around and trying several solutions intended to stop the bots, and getting frustrated none of them really worked, I decided to just modify an existing plugin that I use on my regular WordPress installations.

It’s called WPMU Block Spam By Math. It’s based on the simple, yet highly effective plugin Block-Spam-By-Math created by Alexander Grau. Where Alexanders plugin protects your blogs registration, login and comment forms from spambots, WPMU Block Spam By Math protects your new blog creation process and the new user creation process.

It’s a simple plugin really but I find it to be highly effective at what it does. By simply adding math question to workflow (something like “what is 5+2 ?”). I won’t say it’s 100% effective but after adding this plugin to Stampin Corner two weeks ago, I’ve not had a single spam blog created (knock on wood).

Installation is simple:

1. NOTE: As of version 1.2 of this plugin you must have Buddypress 1.2.3 installed. For prior versions of BP you will need an older version of the plugin.
2. Download the plugin from WordPress.org.
3. Copy it to the wp-content/mu-plugins directory of your blog.

That’s all there is to it. You should now start seeing a dramatic reduction in the amount of spam blogs you see created. NOTE: This does not protect against those spammer who take the time to manually create spam blogs on your site. For those I recommend barbed wire and toothpicks under the fingernails.

BuddyPress Users
If you are using BuddyPress this plugin should still work fine unless you are using the default BuddyPress theme. If you want this plugin to work with the ‘bp-default’ theme you need to make a manual edit to create a new hook location. The process is very simple.

For versions of BP prior to 1.2.2

Open your wp-content/themes/bp-sn-parent/registration/register.php file.

Locate this line of code (approx. line 215).

<?php if ( 'completed-confirmation' == bp_get_current_signup_step() ) : ?>

BELOW this add this line of code:

<?php do_action( 'bp_before_current_signup_step' ) ?>

For versions of BP 1.2.2 and newer (tested on 1.2.3)

1. Simply install/upgrade the plugin

I completely skipped 1.2.2 but since it was reported the plugin wasn’t working correctly on that version I’m going to assume the problem was the same. If you are on 1.2.2 and still have problems upgrade to at least 1.2.3.

It appears BP is now able to bundle their default theme within the plugin directory and in doing so added a new hook which I had to manually add in previous versions. This update applies to an unaltered install of BP 1.2.3, if you have the older BP default theme in your wp-content/themes directory you should be able to delete it then activate the new default theme which resides in wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-default. (NOTE: This plugin will no longer work properly using the older default theme if you’ve upgraded BuddyPress).

There are NO manual edits for this version of BP just be sure you have downloaded and installed version 1.2 of the WPMU-Block-Spam-By-Math plugin. It should as simple as auto updating Buddypress and updating WPMU-Block-Spam-By-Math to the latest version (download from Codex or use link above) then switching your theme to the new Buddypress default theme.

FAQ

• Does this plugin work with the regular Block spam By Math plugin?
  Yes, you can run both. I use the regular WordPress plugin on my WPMU site as well to allow individual site owners the option to add the protection at the blog level.
• Does this plugin work on regular WordPress?
  No. This is only targeting the WPMU new blog signup and new user signup functions. If you need WP registration, login and comment protection I recommend you get the Block Spam By Math plugin.
• Change I change the math questions?
  Yes, just edit the two rand functions in the plugin file to generate whatever type of numbers you want.
• Does this plugin work with BuddyPress?
  Yes. See the Buddypress note above under installation. You have to perform a manual edit in order for it to work with the default Buddypress theme.

Support
If you like this plugin and want to support me, leave a comment or check out my donations and support page!

All three of the major search engines offer some kind of website service. The most popular being Google Webmaster Tools. Yahoo offers Site Explorer and Bing has Webmaster Center. All three require that you verify your site and offer various methods to do so. This plugin uses the meta option and inserts a meta tag in your sites section of your site.

If you’ve used WordPress.com then this will look familiar since it’s based on that tool.

Installation is simple:

1. Download the plugin from WordPress.org.
2. Copy it to the wp-content/plugins or wp-content/mu-plugins directory of your blog.
3. Enable the plugin in your admin panel.
4. An option for Webmaster Tools will appear under Tools.
5. Enter the verification code for each service you wish to use

FAQ

• Where do I get the verification code?
  Go to either Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, or Bing Webmaster Center, find the option to add/verify a new site then select the meta option. You be provided with a piece of code and instructions to add it to your site.
• What do I do with the code once I have it?
  All you need is the actual content= code, the plugin will automatically format the meta tag when it inserts it.
  Ex.: Google will give you a piece of code like this: <meta name='google-site-verification' content='dBw5CvburAxi537Rp9qi5uG2174Vb6JwHwIRwPSLIK8'>
  You want to copy the code: dBw5CvburAxi537Rp9qi5uG2174Vb6JwHwIRwPSLIK8 and paste it in the input box for Google.
• I’m using WPMU but I don’t want the plugin automatically activated for each site. Can I just put it in the wp-content/plugins directory so each blog owner can choose whether or not they want it activated?
  You sure can. Just be sure not to copy it into both locations.

Support
If you like this plugin and want to support me, leave a comment or check out my donations and support page!

If you’re using WordPress MU you may have run into a problem where new users aren’t added as subscribers to the main blog (blogid: 1). Some may prefer it this way but I ran into this issue on Stampin Corner because I also wanted users to be able to post in the help forums which use BBPress. For some reason nobody could post in there, and it turns out this was the reason.

According to the developers BBPress is a bit behind handling this integration and it’s assumed at some point it will. That said, I got around this irksome problem by creating my own little plugin. (Actually I maintain a custom-functions plugin for just this type of thing). It’s pretty simple really, just create a new file in your mu-plugins directory and this code to it.

//--------------------------------------------------------//
//---Hook-------------------------------------------------//
//--------------------------------------------------------//
add_action('wpmu_activate_blog', 'add_new_user_to_mainblog', 10,2);
add_action('wpmu_new_blog', 'add_new_user_to_mainblog', 10,2);

//--------------------------------------------------------//
//---Functions---------------------------------------------//
//--------------------------------------------------------//
function add_new_user_to_mainblog($blog_id, $user_id) {
	add_user_to_blog( '1', $user_id, 'subscriber' );
}

Basically all this is doing is using the hook wpmu_activate_blog to trigger the function add_user_to_blog. WPMU also has this habit (not sure why exactly) of removing an existing user from the main blog when they reated another new blog. Not a huge deal again but problematic if they haven’t logged into BBPress already. So the second add_action triggers on wpmu_new_blog to add the user back.

Simple as that. Of course, this doesn’t handle getting any existing users set as subscribers so you’ll have to do those manually or write a script to do it, but any new users should get added just fine.

WordPress version 2.9 “Carmen” named in honor of magical jazz vocalist Carmen McRae has been released upon the blogging world. You can upgrade easily from your Dashboard by going to Tools > Upgrade, or you can download from WordPress.org.

The coolest new 2.9 features from a user point of view are:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature, which means that if you accidentally delete a post or comment you can bring it back from the grave (i.e., the Trash). This also eliminates those annoying “are you sure” messages we used to have on every delete.
2. Built-in image editor allows you to crop, edit, rotate, flip, and scale your images to show them who’s boss. This is the first wave of our many planned media-handling improvements.
3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking, which means you can update 10 plugins at once, versus having to do multiple clicks for each one, and we’re using the new compatibility data from the plugins directory to give you a better idea of whether your plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress. This should take the fear and hassle out of upgrading.
4. Easier video embeds that allow you to just paste a URL on its own line and have it magically turn it into the proper embed code, with Oembed support for YouTube, Daily Motion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revision3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy, and WordPress.tv (and more in the next release).

There’s also a neat video that usually accompanies major releases. It highlights a few of the changes you can expect to see in this version.

Download WordPress 2.9