blogging

It’s been quiet around here

I have to admit, it’s been quiet around here for the last few weeks… even months. There is no one specific reason – it’s more of a combination of a few.

The main one being … you guessed it: WORK! I’ve been extremely busy at work lately and didn’t have a spare moment to even read the feeds, let alone blog on my own.

The rest – just contributed: this year being rich in friends and family visiting Cyprus, me moving to a new phone, Facebook changing their policy on publishing to profiles via third-party tools, and even Instagram Importer WordPress plugin suddenly not synchronizing any more.

This is not how I like my blog. I like it to have fresh links, posts, and pictures on a daily basis. Or at least weekly. Going on for almost two month without posts (with one or two exceptions) is not acceptable. So, I’ll be back. Now. I promise.

This blog will not contribute to the “blogging is dead” myth. :)

WordPress : Getting Ready for Gutenberg

Here are some very exciting news from the WordPress fronts: WordPress 5 will feature the built-in Gutenberg project. Gutenberg is a complete rebuilt of the WordPress administration and content publishing experience, with much faster and cleaner user interface and a whole array of new features, such as “page builder” functionality.

Here are a couple of links with more information on how to get yourself ready in time:

WordPress 4.9 Field Guide

WordPress 4.9 is just around the corner (scheduled for release tomorrow, November 14th). This version brings an impressive number of new features and improvements. The stats so far are:

Roughly 400 bugs, 181 enhancements, 7 feature requests, and 42 blessed tasks have been marked as closed in WordPress 4.9.

Figuring out all these changes and how they affect you is an effort in itself. But don’t you worry! Here’s the WordPress 4.9 Field Guide, which showcases all the main changes and provides plenty of additional resources to follow up.

Wow! WordPress 4.9 packs quit a punch!

Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds

I’ve been a fan of Jeff Atwood’s writing on Coding Horror for years. But it was mostly about technology and programming. Today, I was reading through his review of a video game – Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds – and for the first time in a really really long time, I wanted to download it and start playing even before I finished reading his post.

That reminded me of how gaming reviews and guides were done back in the 90’s – not by professional content managers and editors, but by people who had a passion. Learn from that, the gaming industry. Learn from that, everyone else!

WPBloggerTricks – The Real Blogger & WordPress Tricks

It looks like blogging is coming back. At least in the world around me, there is quite a few new blogs spawning up, and the old ones being resurrected. I don’t know what’s causing that, but I see it as a good thing.

I’ve been answering a lot more basic blogging questions from all sorts of people recently, so I thought, let me link to one of those tips and tricks sites that have plenty to offer. You know, just to save myself a bit of time.

WPBloggerTricks seems like a good choice here. It has plenty to offer to the new and return bloggers.