Community & Conversation » blog http://communityandconversation.com Social tools for business success Wed, 04 May 2011 23:59:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 markCTO.com http://communityandconversation.com/client-profile-markcto-com/ http://communityandconversation.com/client-profile-markcto-com/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:30:21 +0000 Edward F. Gumnick http://communityandconversation.com/markcto-com/ …[more]]]> markCTO.commarkCTO.com is a business venture of my Starfall Graphics partner, Mark A. Herrera. Mark already had a lifelong passion for consumer electronics before I met him, and then I got him hooked on Apple products about a dozen years ago. Now he’s putting to work his expertise and keen nose for bargains as a consultant, helping clients buy, set up, repair, and maintain Macintosh computers and networks, Mac operating systems, iPhones, storage and backup solutions, home and office audio and video systems, and more.

Web and social-media projects include:

  • Web site built in WordPress.
    Note the custom-made bullets in bulleted lists!:
    Custom bullet style at markCTO.com
  • Facebook fan page. New blog posts on the web site are automatically posted to the Facebook page using the Networked Blogs application.
  • Twitter account that tweets Mark’s blog updates
  • PBworks wiki for internal communications and project management
]]> http://communityandconversation.com/client-profile-markcto-com/feed/ 0 What Is All This Salty Pink Meat Doing in My Blog Comments? http://communityandconversation.com/what-is-all-this-salty-pink-meat-doing-in-my-blog-comments/ http://communityandconversation.com/what-is-all-this-salty-pink-meat-doing-in-my-blog-comments/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 04:44:10 +0000 Edward F. Gumnick http://communityandconversation.com/?p=501 Around the time you finish setting up your WordPress blog—or not until a day or two later, if you’re lucky—you’ll start getting “comment spam.” Comment spam is a stream of mostly nonsensical comments left on your blog in the hope of routing traffic to the spammers’ target sites. The comments contain links to those sites. …[more]]]> SpamAround the time you finish setting up your WordPress blog—or not until a day or two later, if you’re lucky—you’ll start getting “comment spam.” Comment spam is a stream of mostly nonsensical comments left on your blog in the hope of routing traffic to the spammers’ target sites. The comments contain links to those sites. They’re counting on finding blogs on which comments aren’t moderated, leave their links, and drive up their own search engine rankings. Most of the spammers seem to employ software robots to drop their loads of unwanted canned meat in your comment threads. But there are also humans who engage in this tacky form of self‑promotion, plugging their porn sites on your blog about needlepoint, for instance. (Posting legitimate, relevant comments with backlinks to a site about a related topic, on the other hand, is perfectly cool.)

Fortunately, WordPress comes loaded with a strong defense against comment spam. It’s a plugin called Akismet, and it’s provided by Automattic, the same folks who supply the WordPress software itself. The plugin checks new comments from unknown users against a database of known spam sources. To activate Akismet, you need to register with WordPress.com and obtain an API key—a password that tells the Akismet servers that a request for data is coming from a legitimate WordPress user. It’s free and easy to obtain.

Comment form with CAPTCHA feature
Comment form with CAPTCHA feature

Akismet quarantines everything that it suspects is spam, so you need to take a look from time to time to make sure that no legitimate comments get caught in the filter. But I’ve been using Akismet for a couple of years, and it hardly ever makes a mistake.

If you don’t want to bother with moderating your comments, or if you just want a second line of defense against comment spam, you can install a plugin to add a CAPTCHA feature to your comment form. (I’ve had good results with one called SI CAPTCHA Anti‑Spam.) This will prevent robotic agents from posting any comment spam to your site. But only your attention will stop the human shameless self‑promoters.

]]> http://communityandconversation.com/what-is-all-this-salty-pink-meat-doing-in-my-blog-comments/feed/ 0 WordPress: A Strong Foundation for Your Blog or Web Site http://communityandconversation.com/wordpress-a-strong-foundation-for-your-blog-or-web-site/ http://communityandconversation.com/wordpress-a-strong-foundation-for-your-blog-or-web-site/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:30:08 +0000 Edward F. Gumnick http://communityandconversation.com/?p=445 WordPress is an open-source web application that was initially built for creating blogs. Through seven years of updates and the addition of static pages and loads of customization options, it’s grown into a small-scale content management system (CMS). It’s now the foundation for 200 million web sites.

You can use WordPress either of two ways: have your blog …[more]]]> WordPress is an open-source web application that was initially built for creating blogs. Through seven years of updates and the addition of static pages and loads of customization options, it’s grown into a small-scale content management system (CMS). It’s now the foundation for 200 million web sites.

WordPressYou can use WordPress either of two ways: have your blog hosted for free at WordPress.com, subject to some limitations on storage space, bandwidth, and the amount of customization that you’re allowed, or you can download the free, open-source software and install it on your own web server. (You can also pay for premium features at WordPress.com.) I’m going to speak specifically about custom installations, because I haven’t experimented much with WordPress-hosted sites.

Installation requires PHP Hypertext Preprocessor and MySQL, as well as administrative access to your MySQL database, but these apps are included in most web hosting packages.

The power of WordPress comes from its huge community of developers. WordPress is open-source software, and it’s been designed to be extensible. Developers are constantly working to design themes and plugins. (“Themes” are packaged site designs; plugins add more functions to WordPress.) A huge community of users regularly beta-tests the software and suggests improvements. In recent versions, WordPress is even designed to update itself, as well as any properly designed plugins you’ve installed. The administrative interface offers prompts to let you know that an upgrade is available, and you only have to click a button to install it.

Once you’ve installed WordPress, you can download and install any of thousands of free themes that are available, or if you have some expertise in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and PHP, you can design your own. There are also a few themes that have been programmed to contain their own suites of customization options. (I’ve been very pleased with one called “Atahualpa,” which offers a panel of about 30 menus from which you can customize hundreds of details of your site’s design.) You can download many themes for free and install them manually, or use the “Add New Themes” tool within recent versions of WordPress to find and add themes to your site with a one‑click installation. There are also sites that sell themes, and lots of designers you can hire to create custom themes.

Here are some sites that I’ve designed and constructed (or assisted with) on the WordPress platform:

Contact me at 713-562-1813 or by e-mail if you’d like help setting up or using a WordPress blog or web site.

]]> http://communityandconversation.com/wordpress-a-strong-foundation-for-your-blog-or-web-site/feed/ 0 Anne Swanson Graphic Design http://communityandconversation.com/anne-swanson-graphic-design/ http://communityandconversation.com/anne-swanson-graphic-design/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:11:54 +0000 Edward F. Gumnick http://communityandconversation.com/?p=327 Anne Swanson Graphic Design is the freelance design business of my sister, Anne Gumnick Swanson, who has also been a part‑time employee of Starfall Graphics since 2003. Anne started her own firm in 2008, but we continue to collaborate on projects as well.

Projects include:

Web site built in WordPress and featuring a portfolio of Anne’s design projects. Facebook …[more]]]> Anne Swanson Graphic DesignAnne Swanson Graphic Design is the freelance design business of my sister, Anne Gumnick Swanson, who has also been a part‑time employee of Starfall Graphics since 2003. Anne started her own firm in 2008, but we continue to collaborate on projects as well.

Projects include:

  • Web site built in WordPress and featuring a portfolio of Anne’s design projects.
  • Facebook fan page. New portfolio posts on the web site are automatically posted to the Facebook page using Networked Blogs.
  • LinkedIn profile for Anne
  • PBworks wiki for internal communications and project management
      • ]]> http://communityandconversation.com/anne-swanson-graphic-design/feed/ 0