In the next day or two, I’ll be upgrading to WordPress 1.5 (WP). I’m currently using WordPress 1.2.2.
The developers of WP listened to their users and made major improvements. One of the best, which motivated me to do the upgrade, is better control of comments. I enjoy the very active comment sections I have on this blog, and I wouldn’t want to change that. Because of open commenting, however, trolls are having a field day. Restricting their ability to comment has inevitabley restricted commenters I like. (No, they don’t all agree with me.)
With WP 1.5, all that will change. The developers have implemented a feature called “automatic whitelisting.” After the upgrade, all comments will be held in the comment queue until I approve them. Regular commenters will be approved, of course. This will be a one-time deal, and your comments won’t be moderated after that. “Drive-by” commenters (Google searchers) and other first-time visitors will be held in the comment queue until I approve or delete the comment. Now here’s the best part:
Troll comments will never appear on the blog.
One thing habitual trolls enjoy is seeing their comments on the site, however briefly they appear. With WP 1.5, those days are over. If I suspect that someone is a troll, I will contact the person to verify the e-mail address. If I don’t hear back, I’ll assume the e-mail is fake, and the comment is deleted.
The developers also created blacklisting for WP, similar to the feature on Movable Type (MT). A comment containing a word I put on the list will not even make it to the comment queue. It’s zapped, killed, destroyed and sent away. I’ll never see the comment, trolls.
I’m too excited for words. 
There are several cool features in WP 1.5, but I’m upgrading mainly for the improvement in comment control. The developers also improved the WordPress wiki. It’s easier to understand and navigate, and much easier on the eyes.
When I decided to leave Blogger last year, I wanted to go to MT mainly because everybody else did. But at the time, my designer was offering a discount for moving to WP. I’d heard great things about it, but I was skeptical. There was no need to be. WP is a great tool. It’s much lighter than MT, takes up less space, and doesn’t require “rebuilding” every time you update.
In the past few months, I’ve worked with MT. I guest-blogged at Vodkapundit and contributed to GOP Bloggers and Easongate.com. I’m not a techie, but I adapted to MT pretty quickly. Based on experience, I made the right choice with WP. The only complaint is the comment/trackback link. For their next upgrade, I hope the developers will implement separate links. Other than that, I highly recommend you try this innovative, open-source software if you start a blog or you’re ready to ditch Blogger.
Addendum: If there are problems with the new commenting feature, please e-mail me instead of leaving a comment. The less trolls know about how things work, the better.
Update: As many bloggers already know, banning IP addresses is probably the least effective way to get rid of trolls. I just learned that WP 1.5’s new feature takes into account other factors, as I was hoping it would. If I didn’t say it before, I’ll say it now. In the words of Martha Stewart, “It’s a good thing.”
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Being a lazy slob, I went with MT. But I can see WP’s charms. Hope you enjoy your new toy.
Now if we could only get WP to support multiple blogs from one installation.
Actually La Shawn, you should make it so only registered commenters can make comments. You can do that by directign people to this link http://www.lashawnbarber.com/wp-register.php. The thing you’re talking about called “whitelisting”, is not the greatest thing. For one, people with AOL share the same IP in one region. Allowing comments from one person can bring in a troll. Secondly, IP’s change a lot for people with broadband. It won’t always approve for them. Just a suggestion.
Also – I do agree with the Comment / Trackback seperation. There are plug-ins though for this:
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/wordpress/mw_comments_trackbacks.html
Hope that helps,
Ian
Thanks, Ian. I know all about the AOL browser issue, but IP-banning is not what I had in mind. And whitelisting is ideal for regular commenters. There’s nothing to prevent trolls from registering, so that’s unworkable. What I have in mind for first-time commenters and drive-bys will require some hoop-jumping, unfortunately, but troll comments will no longer pollute this blog.
La Shawn,
If you like your old WP you’re going to love 1.5. I also am not tech savvy but the directions for the 5 minute install in fact only take five minutes (not counting upload time if you have a slow server). The only shortcoming I have found in the past month since starting my blog using WP 1.5 is a bug with trackbacks. I can receive trackbacks but am unable to send. Everything else works great and WP 1.5 is indeed an excellent choice. Enjoy the new features.
I admire you, LaShawn. This week has been a particularly awful week with blogger, but being a html idiot, I’m chicken to try anything yet. Your post is making it more attractive to consider it, though!
Looks interesting. Hmmm.
LaShawn,
Pardon me, but with my limited, albeit male, imagination I just can not ever envision you being “too excited for words.”
La Shawn,
Your review of Word Press is incredibly tantalizing. How I wish I could switch to my own web domain and a more reliable blogging tool. Blogger is okay, but it’s been acting up a lot lately. The only real advantage to using Blogger is that it’s free. Right now, I just don’t get enough hits to make paying for my internet soapbox worthwhile. Fortunately I did figure out how to disable that stupid bar at the top of the page. I clicked on that “next blog” button once, and it took me some foreign language porn blog that tried to install spyware. At that point I decided that the Blogger navbar had to go! Fortunately, between Firefox and Norton, spyware is a thing of the past!
Thanks,
John
Depending on bandwidth use, your hosting costs would probably run as little as $5 a month. And I’m sure you anticipate an increase in traffic. I think the money is worth it. Then again, many people are satisfied with Blogger’s features. For those in doubt, I’d recommend blogging for at least a few months before deciding to shell out the dough for hosting. I’d recommend you buy your domain now, though.
Is Word Press very user friendly?
I’ll put it this way. If I can handle WP, you can, too.
La Shawn,
The clunkiness of blogging tools such as Blogger is what drove me to write my own blog software for DOUBLE TOOTHPICKS. I must admit, though, that the blog interface (and even some of the code) is based on WordPress (and its ancestor, B2). Having been down in the guts of its source code, I can tell you WordPress really is pretty clean.
Great! Open source, better protection against comment trolls, and other improvements you didn’t describe…sounds like a no-brainer to me to go for the upgrade. Good luck with it!
(I’ve been saying for awhile that I wouldn’t start blogging until I could do it as part of Electric Minds…which means I’ve got to write new bits of the software to accomodate that. At the rate it’s going, this may take some time. But I’m in no hurry.
)
I’ve been using WP 1.5 for almost a month and I love it. I’m not a geek so I’ve had to have some help, but you really don’t need to know much html to publish. Just the regular commands, and going from memory, you can even click a button to do that if you wish. As far as trackbacks, I’ve had no problem. You just get the trackback code from the site you want to track to and paste it into the slot on the page and voila!
I don’t get much traffic either but I was so disgusted with blogger I decided if I wanted to publish I wanted to publish when I wanted to and not when blogger wanted me to. Since I don’t have much traffic I went with the small package with my server and paid a year in advance which saved some money. I believe I paid under $100 for the year and about $10 to register my domain. If I can do it, LaShawn, with your intelligence and savvy you can do it in a breeze! Good luck and God bless.
I have been holding off on starting a real blog, until I got my website and tv show up and running, but I am about ready now. I am just so tired of learning new technology. Hopefully this is as easy as it seems on the surface…
Very cool, La Shawn! I hope that WP 1.5 works out well for you!!!
So with an existing site, if I want to begin using WP 1.5 (I don’t use any right now) is there a hosting fee? Would I need to move my site and re-register my name?
(I did try finding these answers but might have been looking in the wrong place ’cause I couldn’t!)
Mark – Who is your host? Since your site is not a blog, you wouldn’t have to import entries to WP, and you won’t need to re-register your domain name. Don’t ask me how to install WP. I leave that to others.
I’ve been with Earthlink for a few years now and for the most part am very happy with them. They provide a number of free websites for customers. I’m getting closer to falling off the fence and converting to blog form. Is somebody paying you to do this??
Sorry, Ian. The link was spilling off the page. Just let everyone know to visit your hosting page. – Admin
Paid to blog? I wish! You should talk to the Wonkette to find out more about that. She’s one of the professional bloggers. Most bloggers do it because they love/like it. That’s part of the reason I’m so impatient with people who try tell me how and what to write.
IF YOU’RE NOT PAYING ME FOR A WRITING ASSIGNMENT, LAY OFF THE SUGGESTIONS!
Pardon me. That slipped out.
If you start blogging, Mark, you will discover that it eats up a lot of time. Blogging involves researching and gathering links to web sites and other bloggers. It’s a time-consuming labor of love for me.
Re: Admin
Heh it is okay – it was a shameless plug anyways!
So has the 1.5 change occured yet or no?
Anyways – other than better comment management, 1.5 allows you to switch between skins in a click of a button (If you have more than 1).
La Shawn,
not a problem. If you check out my “Say What Now” page you’ll see I’ve been doing that for a while now. The only thing really holding me back was seeing what happens to you and others via the Comments section. Watching you though, I think it can be handled!
La Shawn,
I think you’ll be very pleased with WordPress 1.5. I know I am. I moved off of Blogger a couple of weekends back, and WordPress has been a dream. (Except for the Trackback thing, of course.)
I’ve actually been so impressed that I’ve started to learn enough HTML to do my own site template, instead of just modifying one of the free ones available.
I have added the word trackback after the / at the end of my pings from WP and that seems to “fix” the issue! Of course I could be wrong.
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