Hide unwanted comments without deleting them. Edit the comment and wrap the offending text in [shush][/shush].
(Example: [shush]FIRST!!![/shush])

Readers can choose to read the hidden comment by clicking on the “Show” link.

ShushThatNoise plugin in action

Bonus: You can also use this shortcode in your posts as a “Spoiler” hider.

I like the idea of being able to use it as a spoiler hider. Let’s test that feature:

This method is only needed if you don’t have full server access to take a MySQL dump and a wpWordPress publishing platform-content dump in order to migrate a blog using PHPMyAdmin or equivalent.

Dennis’ post shows how you can still migrate a very large blog using the native WordPress export feature, splitting the export .xmlExtensible Markup Language - a set of rules for coding documents electronically (because it focuses on simplicity, generality and usability across a wide range of applications it now underlies many popular web services and computing tools) file into smaller components using a WXR splitter, then using the native WordPress import feature to upload the archives.

It’s tedious as hell, but it does work.

It’s obviously not quite as obvious as it could be.

I tend to get this mostly from users who need to gain admin/editor/author access to a group blog created by somebody else. New users have to create a wordpress.com account to become an author, the administrator cannot just add them as a user manually as they can on a self-hosted blog. The usernames generated by wordpress.com appear to be getting longer and more randomly generated, which is A Good Thing for security but not so good for displaying on the blog, and people appear to be unclear on how to change the name that is displayed to readers of the blog.

Luckily editing your display name is pretty easy :-

Click to enlarge

The Personal Settings option in the Users section allows one to remove the visual editor option (for those who prefer to write directly in HTMLHyper Text Markup Language - the encoding scheme used to create and format a web document.), to push Twitter status updates to one’s blog, and more.

The new features to look forward to:

• WordPress and WordPress MU (multi-user) have merged, so that multiple blogs will be easy to run from a single install. So far this is not yet an automated process, but the idea is that once 3.0 is in general release this will be easy-peasy to manage. This should make it especially easy to integrate custom social networks around a WordPress install while still having an uncluttered main blog as the front page.
• Custom menus are going to be available. I’m curious to see just how many options are configurable here.
• Custom post types – this will essentially add a more Tumblr-like posting facility right out of the box, and should allow lots more options for themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) designers with regard to both styling each post type and adding new post-types via functions.php. It’s also going to make it a lot easier for website producers to teach clients how to post their own content optimally-formatted with these options built-in – custom fields should now be incorporated into an intuitive menu for each post type instead of being a more complicated add-on option.

I’d be most interested to hear from anybody playing around with the Betas.

How to do it:

• Hybrid & Hybrid Child Themes

  Couldn’t be simpler. Go and create your default avatar (a grayscale or pale monochrome version of your favicon or site logo is a good idea for “branding”), go to your WPWordPress publishing platform admin Dashboard and upload it using Media » Add New, then add the full URL to the option in Appearance » Hybrid Settings. Voila!

• Standard WPWordPress publishing platform themes – up to 2.7

  (You really should upgrade for the new security features). This solution takes only a few lines of code in the comments.php file.

  
  <?php if(function_exists('get_avatar')) {
  echo get_avatar( $comment, $size = '70', $default = '<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/gravatar.pngPortable Network Graphic' );
  } ?>

• Standard WPWordPress publishing platform themes – 2.7+

From WPWordPress publishing platform 2.7+, the way that WordPress calls the comment-list has changed, so that the code above will not work if inserted into comments.php – there has to be code added to functions.php instead, and maybe just one little tweak to the array-call in comments.php to set the avatar size. If you are using one of the WordPress framework systems, the code may need adjusting to call framework hooks instead of standard WPWordPress publishing platform hooks (see next section).

Solution Source: first, add to functions.php (create it if it doesn’t already exist). This code assumes that you have uploaded your own custom gravatar image to a folder named ‘images’ in the themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) directory – if you have uploaded the image elsewhere then change the code accordingly.

<php
function my_own_gravatar( $avatar_defaults ) {
    $myavatar = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . '/images/gravatar.pngPortable Network Graphic';
    $avatar_defaults[$myavatar] = 'GRAVATAR NAME DISPLAYED IN WORDPRESS';
    return $avatar_defaults;
}
add_filter( 'avatar_defaults', 'my_own_gravatar' );
?>

You should now see a new default avatar with the name you gave it in the code above added to the list (Mystery Man, Wavicon, Identicon etc) on the Settings » Discussion page. Select it as the default and save. Then there’s merely avatar size to consider, which is a simple array insertion into the comments.php file at the line where we see wp_list_comments :

<?php wp_list_comments(array('avatar_size'=>70, )); ?>

• Thesis

  If you are using a WordPress frameworkyou may need to alter the above code slightly to fit with the framework architecture. For Thesis you definitely need a slight change in the code. There’s a good post here but the code’s final line wasn’t quite right. A quick visit to the DIYThemes forums showed me that someone had come up with a fix:

  1. Upload your custom gravatar to the Thesis custom/images folder.
  2. Add the following lines to the Thesis custom_functions.php file.

  
      /* Add a Custom Default Gravatar */
      if ( !function_exists('custom_gravatar') ) {
      function custom_gravatar( $avatar_defaults ) {
      $myavatar = get_bloginfo('template_directory') . '/custom/images/IMAGENAME.pngPortable Network Graphic';
      $avatar_defaults[$myavatar] = 'MYDEFAULTGRAVATARNAME';
  
      return $avatar_defaults;
      }
      add_filter( 'avatar_defaults', 'custom_gravatar' );
      }

Choose the new default avatar from the Settings » Discussions page, and there you are. Gravatar size can be tweaked as desired.

For more distinctiveness, avatars can also be customised to have different styles for authors and admins. I’ll do a tutorial on that in the next week or so.

I find that on sites without a comments widgetA small program that can be easily added to a web page to display extra content from another source (e.g. weather forecasts, advertisements or just about anything) the discussions on older posts just wither away as new posts take the sweet spot at the top of the front page. With a comments widgetA small program that can be easily added to a web page to display extra content from another source (e.g. weather forecasts, advertisements or just about anything), people can see that a discussion is ongoing on a post they’ve already read and perhaps commented on, and are encouraged to check those latest comments and maybe add more to the discussion. Without a comments widgetA small program that can be easily added to a web page to display extra content from another source (e.g. weather forecasts, advertisements or just about anything), they have to want to revisit that post they’ve already read just on the offchance that new comments have been added. How many of the readers are going to do that?

Sure, they could subscribe to the blogs Comments RSSReally Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary - a format for delivering regularly changing web content as a "feed" that notifies readers and aggregator programs of new content (www.WhatIsRSS.com) feed, or maybe just the specific Comments feed for that post if they are tech-savvy enough, but how many do? I generally don’t follow comments by RSSReally Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary - a format for delivering regularly changing web content as a "feed" that notifies readers and aggregator programs of new content (www.WhatIsRSS.com), the option just doesn’t appeal. If someone like me who follows hundreds of Posts feeds by RSSReally Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary - a format for delivering regularly changing web content as a "feed" that notifies readers and aggregator programs of new content (www.WhatIsRSS.com) isn’t generally going to click on a post’s Comments feed, how many others do you think are going to do it?

In WordPress, the default Comments widgetA small program that can be easily added to a web page to display extra content from another source (e.g. weather forecasts, advertisements or just about anything) is pretty basic: a simple list of commentor names & gravatars (optional) that doesn’t show how many comments a post has in total and can show a maximum of 15 comments. I prefer a bit more information about comments (although obviously on this very new blog I don’t have that many comments to display yet).

I’ve long been fond of the pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application for Brian’s Latest Comments (plus widgetA small program that can be easily added to a web page to display extra content from another source (e.g. weather forecasts, advertisements or just about anything)), but for ages that wasn’t being updated. I’m glad to discover that it has been updated after all, in July 2009. I’m normally a bit leery of plugins that aren’t in the official WordPress repository, but I’ve liked and used earlier versions of this pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application for over 3 years, so I’m not about to stop now. As you should be able to see in the sidebar, it shows the post-title of the most recently commented posts, the total number of comments for that post and the latest 5 comments on the post.

More Comment Encouragement: I’m also a big fan of the Subscribe to Comments Pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application for helping keep discussions alive. This is an old pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application, hasn’t been updated for yonks, but still works perfectly well up to WPWordPress publishing platform 2.9. The additional pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application Subscribe to Comments Now! adds the necessary code to your comments template to include the option for people to subscribe without commenting, so you don’t have to add it manually.

As per major new release SOPStandard Operating Procedure, there’s an announcement post listing all the new features for 2.9 up at the WordPress Dev Blog (video too).

P.S. Heh, I just added a new category for “wordpress” all in lower case – and the category list autocorrected that to the official capitalised “WordPress”! Warms the cockles of my pedantic little heart, that does.

These frameworks mostly involve adding new ‘hooks’ that can be used for innovative customisation outside the areas already covered by the default WordPress ‘hooks’. Depending on the framework, you either need to know how to manipulate these hooks directly, or it can be much easier if the development team has included a custom admin interface accessed from the WordPress Dashboard. There are also several framework-specific plugins that help make manipulating the framework hooks much simpler.

I’ve become increasingly interested in how these frameworks operate, and what each of the designers is doing with them. It seemed like the more CSSCascading Style Sheets - a style sheet language that is used to separate document content from document presentation - improves accessibility, flexibility and control, XHTML and PHP I learnt, the more I wanted to be able to tweak things, and the problem with tweaking normal themes is that they are often coded so quirkily that it’s easy to break something unexpectedly. These themes based on improved frameworks are meant to be more robust because of the way that the frameworks are coded with customisation hooks built in right from the basement, as it were.

I’ve played around with three of these framework templates recently:

• My social commentary blog, Hoyden About Town, uses the Thesis framework.  This is a “premium” themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) – payment is required in order to receive a license to use it and to access the support forums (which are truly excellent). There are options for Personal licenses and Developer licenses (and Client Site licenses for Developers, which don’t allow the Client to access the support forums). The basic themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) is very simple – almost a plain sandbox – and there are tons of admin-options for customisation as well as a system of “hooks” which can be used to add all sorts of custom content.
• My Australian live comedy site, Gagging For It (Oz Comedy News), uses a WooThemes premium themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) (purchasing a themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) also purchases access to the support forums, there is a Developer’s Club option as well).  Woothemes has built its own framework and offers an extensive collection of themes based on it, each themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) offering a variable array of features out of the box (perfect for that client in a hurry). Woothemes can be customised quite extensively, but it’s a very different beast from Thesis, because it has so many different looks right up front to start from.
• This site, tigtog’s corner, is using the Hybrid framework and the Hybrid child-themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) “Life Collage”, which I chose mostly because of its lifestream page feature (its default styling is nicely relaxed, but you can’t see much of that any more).  Hybrid themes and child-themes are free, and basic access to the support forums is free, but tutorials and forum answers from the Hybrid core developers have to be paid for (although at $25 to join the Hybrid themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) club is by far the least expensive framework option of these three).  Hybrid offers a variety of child-themes to jazz up its basic framework, plus offering a Sandbox version which allows for complete customisation control via hooks. I’m looking forward to playing with the possibilities, so don’t be surprised if the appearance of this site changes quite often while I play with it.

So far, these frameworks have been as far as my budget extends. I’d like to hear about anyone else’s experiences with other frameworks though.

• altPWA
  altPWA is a pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application that will allow you to easily embed a Picasa Web Album in your pages.
  Version 1.1.2 | By Radu Capan | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site
• Flickr Gallery
  Use easy shortcodes to insert Flickr galleries and photos (and videos) in your blog.
  Version 1.3.0 | By Dan Coulter | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site
• Flickrpress
  Display Flickr items in the sidebar. Supports Flickr RSSReally Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary - a format for delivering regularly changing web content as a "feed" that notifies readers and aggregator programs of new content (www.WhatIsRSS.com), photostream, multiple photosets, favorites, filtering by tag and displaying random photos.
  Version 0.3.2 | By Michael Tyson | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site
• flickrRSS (this one is integrated into the Life Collage Hybrid themea code package that controls how a site looks through a stylesheet (may also have custom functions coding built in) for use in the Lifestream Page)
  Allows you to integrate the photos from a flickr rssReally Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary - a format for delivering regularly changing web content as a "feed" that notifies readers and aggregator programs of new content (www.WhatIsRSS.com) feed into your site.
  Version 5.1 | By Dave Kellam and Stefano Verna | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site
• jQuery Lightbox
  Used to overlay images on the current page. Original jQuery Lightbox by Balupton.
  Version 0.9 | By Pedro Lamas | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site
• Lightbox Gallery (I haven’t got a demo page up for this one yet, although I’ve used it happily on other sites)
  Changes to the lightbox view in galleries.
  Version 0.6.1 | By Hiroaki Miyashita | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site
• TubePress
  Displays gorgeous YouTube galleries in your posts, pages, and/or sidebar. Upgrade to TubePress Pro for more features!
  Version 1.8.7 | By Eric D. Hough | Visit pluginadd-on code that extends the functions of a web application site

What else are people using that they recommend?