WordPress HTML editor font change

Posted on June 6, 2011 by timethief

I’ve been a WordPress blogger for 5 years and I’m really frustrated by this change. I have experienced many changes here at WordPress.com and although some have been frustrating none were an actual barrier to me using the editor in both modes — this one is a barrier. :(

I can read and quickly scan the font in the Visual editor with ease. Thankfully, it has not been changed but the Consolas font in the HTML editor is a completely different story.

The font stack use in the HTML editor is Consolas, Monaco, Monospace. If you computer does not have Consolas, then your browser will use Monaco. If it does not have that, then it will use Monospace. If it does not have that, the browser will use another font.

Consolas is a new Microsoft font.

Consolas is aimed for use in programming environments and other circumstances where a monospaced font is specified. All characters have the same width, like old typewriters, making it a good choice for personal and business correspondence. The improved Windows font display allowed a design with proportions closer to normal text than traditional monospaced fonts like Courier. This allows for more comfortably reading of extended text on screen. OpenType features include hanging or lining numerals; slashed, dotted and normal zeros; and alternative shapes for a number of lowercase letters. The look of text can be tuned to personal taste by varying the number of bars and waves.

I’m visually challenged and I normally use the HTML editor a great deal of the time. The font change is so terrible that I am being forced into using the Visual editor. Therefore I posted into this WordPress.org thread titled Return the html editor back to a sans font instead of the new Consolas font, begging that the font change to Consolas in the HTML editor in the WordPress 3.2 version be reversed.

I also submitted the following for consideration:

I am looking towards the future as well. I would like to see inclusion for WordPress.com users and parity with WordPress.ORG users when it comes to BETA testing new WordPress versions in developmental stages.

When the 2.5 upgrade was in development and being BETA tested by WordPress.ORG bloggers there was a demo site set up that we WordPress.COM bloggers could use and post feedback to. Is it possible that Staff and the our WordPress.com developers would consider doing the same for WordPress.com bloggers prior to upgrades in the future?

I’m suggesting this because most WordPress.com users are not to my knowledge conversant in coding and geek speak. In fact WordPress.com has always emphasized that we do not need to be conversant in code we can just blog. WordPress.org also emphasizes one click installs and implies one does not need to be code conversant to run a WordPress.ORG install. I think it’s unlikely that most WordPress.com users would be inclined to set up and run a WordPress.ORG install site simply for BETA testing purposes of WordPress version upgrades in development.

If WordPress.com users were provided with a demo site they can “test drive” what’s proposed and provide feedback from their non-coder non-geek speaking POV. I think that would be valuable feedback that would create party between the different types of users. Then the claim that the core WordPress upgrades are built on the feedback of millions of WordPress users will have more integrity, because at present the feedback from millions of WordPress.com users is not being facilitated.

Thank you, in advance, for reading my submission.

P.S. If this is not the correct venue for submitting my BETA testing parity for WordPress.com users suggestion please inform me where the correct place to post this is and I will post it there.

Discussion

I would like to discuss two related issues with my readers in this post.

1. I’m wondering what my readers think of this font change in the HTML editor. Do you find the Consolas font to be more or less “readable” than the previous font?

2. Do you support my parity between WordPress.com and WordPress.org users suggestion? Specifically, I asked for a BETA testing demo site to be set up so that millions of WordPress.com users can experiment with new WordPress versions in development and provide their feedback to WordPress developers along with WordPress.org users?

3. If such a demo site were made available to you as a WordPress.com user then would you use it and provide your feedback to WordPress developers?

UPDATE: If any of my readers would care to cast a vote, there is a poll on the change to the font in the HTML editor at the top of the right hand sidebar on WordPress Tips.

Please vote!
HTML editor font: more user-friendly and readable before or now? …

Help! I can’t see my images

Posted on May 10, 2011 by timethief

don't panic button My images are not visible on my [wordpress] blog. They are visible on my friend’s computer but not on mine. How do I make them appear please?

Whenever we experience these kind of problems the first thing we suspect is a browser issue so we troubleshoot beginning with checking for browser issues.

You could have a browser issue so try changing your browser settings, refreshing the page, or clearing the browser cache and cookies - instructions for specific browsers.
Note that when you make adjustments to your browser settings — changing privacy settings, deleting cookies or increasing security — you will need to close your window and restart the browser before those new settings become effective.
Which browser and version of it are you using? If it’s an older version then you could try upgrading your browser.
You could try using another browser.

Where are the images hosted?

There are various ways of linking to images and you will find the three permitted ways described in Images: The Three Link Options.
Did you upload the images from your own computer? If so then be sure the images are accepted file types ie. check the image file type extensions.
Did you link to images in your Media Library?
Did you remove the images from your Media Library?
Did you link to images in your account on an image hosting site? If you do not have unlimited bandwidth and have exceeded it and/or have not paid for additional bandwidth, then the image host can prevent the display of the images.
Are you “hot-linking” to someone else’s images?

Bandwidth theft or “hotlinking” is direct linking to a web site’s files (images, video, etc.). An example would be using an image tag to display a JPEG image you found on someone else’s web page so it will appear on your own site. Displaying an image or file that doesn’t belong to you could be a violation of copyright, making you open to litigation. Some sites have prevention measures in place so if you attempt to hotlink you can’t. Others have messages that replace the images with a message to the effect of stop stealing our bandwidth as they are paying for it and you aren’t by hotlinking you can cause them to exceed bandwidth limits and have to pay extra. — How do I know I am hotlinking?

There’s another reason not to hotlink images. As the inages are on the other party’s server they can change the image you are “hotlinking” to which results in you having an image you didn’t intend to display on your blog.

If you have tried the troubleshooting strategies above and you still cannot view the images on your blog then WordPress.com have provided additional troublehooting tips you can try. if those do not work for you then f none of those work for you contact Staff and provide them with all details about what you did and what happened.

5 years at WordPress.com

Posted on April 11, 2011 by timethief

101

Life is a balancing act and it’s not easy to achieve balance with one foot offline and the other online in an environment that never sleeps. The Internet doesn’t stop, can’t stop, won’t stop, so they say. It’s this aspect of blogging that can become repetitive and disheartening. You create content, publish, promote, comment, discuss and the cycle continues.

Passion and Persistence

Blogging begins with a passion for something that matters. If you blog, you have a commitment to publish on a regular basis. When your idea bank is empty you question: why am I doing this? The answer is validation. Keep creating content regardless of how you may feel at that moment. Publish and you will receive that validation.

Purpose

In-depth knowledge of the topic you are writing on will make your blogging easier. The more you know about your subject and the more invested you are in it, the more you have to write about. But regardless of how much you think you know, it’s important to research before you write. That’s when you will discover new material or come up with a new writing approach.

Productivity

Compelling error-free content is what people expect when they visit a blog. Committing to a content creation and publishing schedule (a certain number of words, hours, or articles per day/week/month) will help you maintain momentum. Schedule your time in advance and research, write or edit for exactly that amount of time, whether it is going well or not.

Reading high-caliber blogs is one of the most effective ways to improve your writing. What you read shapes how you write so learn from styles that differ from yours. What’s more is that reading fuels your imagination and that, after all, is a writer’s best friend.

People

Initiating connection and discussion leads to building a blog centered community. Learning from reader feedback helps you grow and your blog evolve. Pay close attention to what your blogging friends publish so you can comment and backlink to related content in your new posts. Network and be open to new ideas. Then when you write you are buoyed with the passion you had on the first day you began to blog.

I joined WordPress.com five years ago. I have enjoyed exploring the ins and outs of wordpress.com blogging and I hope my readers have too.

When I first became a member I believe the WordPress version was 1.5 or so. In any event it lacked all the fancy features we have now. There was only 1 staff member in Support, 1 Moderator, and 1 FAQs thread at the head of the single support forum we had. There was no support documentation.

Every time I learned something new I answered forum questions and passed that knowledge on. I also blogged it in 2006 in this blog which is now archived. That blog became the forerunner to one cool site which now contains 551 published posts..

WordPress Rocks SXSW

Posted on March 12, 2011 by timethief

SXSW is celebrating its 25th year and has grown into the largest convention and conference of its kind. South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of film, interactive and music festivals and conferences centered on the downtown Austin Convention Center, Texas that take place every spring.

The truth is that the people who can effectively work at SXSW are the people who benefit the most from the conference. … This post outlines five basic things that you can do to actually get things done amidst the insanity. – Mark Gilbreath of Mashable in HOW TO: Actually Get Something Done At SXSW

WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg, a former Texan now residing in San Francisco is one of PC World’s Top 50 People on the Web, Inc. com’s 30 under 30, and Business Week’s 25 Most Influential People on the Web. In case you missed it live or didn’t follow the streams, here is a twitter summary in the future of WordPress in 15 Tweets or less from those in attendance when Matt Mullenweg wrapped up his SXSW panel discussion on the future of WordPress.

Mullenweg also comes across as incredibly attuned to the needs of his customers. He consistently mentioned that WordPress upgrades were in response to ‘requests from you guys’ – meaning, the folks in the audience who used his product. … And Mullenweg seemed very serious about keeping ads on WordPress to a minimum, mostly because he thinks it will keep his customers happy. — Serve the Customer and Win

Matt Mullenweg founded WordPress to “democratize publishing for the world.” In his interview with “This is Us!”, on Nov 11, 2010 Matt explains the community-focused business philosophy behind the amazing success of WordPress. Enjoy the video.

In additon, there have been several announcements of interest from WordPress.com. If you haven’t become aware of them yet check them out.
How is WordPress.com made?
WordPress Takes SXSW
VideoPress now on iPhone, iPad, and HTML5 browsers
Boost your self-hosted WordPress with Jetpack
Guided Transfers to .org

The WordPress Foundation an official co-host of the WordPress meet-up of SXSW. WordPress Party at SXSW 2011. Don’t you wish you were there?

The 10 point case against CAPTCHA use

Posted on November 14, 2010 by timethief

Did you know that approximately 80 to 90% of email received every day day in and day out by our mail server is spam – unsolicited, bulk email?

Spam-bots are automated systems that surf the Internet looking for ways to post spam messages to forums, blogs, wikis, guest books or any of a wide variety of web forms. Worse still, spammers are now paying people to post their spam.

We all know spammers change their methods frequently. But there are also some broader trends that slowly emerge over long periods. The economics of spam has changed considerably since Akismet first started back in 2005, and that has led to some new trends and changes in spam patterns recently. Here’s a quick summary of some of the most important changes in web spam we’ve seen over the last year. – State of Web Spam blog.akismet.com/

John Suler, Ph.D, Department of Psychology, Science and Technology Center, Rider University: A strong relationship exists between one’s presence on the web and the amount of spam received. The more places in cyberspace that your e-mail address is listed, the more likely the spammers will find it and add it to their mailing lists. Paradoxically, then, the more available your address, the less likely people will be able to clearly contact you through the noise created by the spam you receive. Currently, I receive up to 100 spam emails a day.
– The Psychology of Coping with Spam

CAPTCHAS

CAPTCHA is an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart and is a challenge-response test that was developed to fight ‘spam-bots’. Captchas are security tools for preventing spam postings and log-ins. You have experienced them as images of random letters and numbers that some sites require you to decipher in order to submit a comment or log in to a resource. The most common type of Captcha requires that the user type letters or digits from a distorted image that appears on the screen.

Web Accessibility

Software can be designed so both the able and disabled users can use any site with ease. Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. Web accessibility also benefits older people, with changing abilities due to aging.

Millions of people have disabilities that affect their use of the Web. Currently most Web sites and Web software have accessibility barriers that make it difficult or impossible for many people with disabilities to use the Web. As more accessible Web sites and software become available, people with disabilities are able to use and contribute to the Web more effectively.

This is the case against using Captcha.
1. Captchas are an annoying inconvenience to legitimate commenters who do not like being delayed by having to type in Captchas codes or having to type in numerical solutions to arithmetic questions. (Arithmetic questions are a barrier to people who have learning difficulties or cognitive disabilities.)

2. Captchas render content inaccessible to blind users or anyone who uses a screen reader system. If you’re a US company, this is potentially an AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) violation.

3. Many Captcha codes cannot be read by people who are visually challenged and those with dyslexia also have trouble reading them.

4. The use of Captchas is NOT a barrier to unethical humans, who are paid to spam. To get around Captchas and math comments, spammers are now paying people to make comments for them ie. to post their spam.

5. A surprising amount of Captcha software is buggy. Many Captchas do not work as expected and the bloggers who have buggy Captchas on their sites are not aware of it.

6. Captcha will NOT keep the trackback spam out.

7. Captchas are hackable.

8. No anti-spam solution can ever be 100% effective or foolproof. Captchas do provide a primary level of defense against spambots, but some of the more sophisticated bots are now able to read the more simple Captchas, and they are getting better all the time.

9. According to a study by SEOmoz, if your site is monetized then Captchas could be costing you conversions.

10. Captchas are not the best solution to prevent spam. Akismet and Defensio are superior choices.

Discussion
IMO CAPTCHAs are a barrier to commenting and Akismet and Defensio are better anti-spam choices. What’s your opinion?
Do you use CAPTCHA on your blog?
What’s your CAPTCHA user experience?

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