Spam in comments isn’t nearly as problematic as spam posts, because the posts go out in the RSS feed, which devalues the legitimacy of the feed. A lot of crap floating down Writer River makes the whole river smell.

With the rise of spam, I lost some interest in the social news site. You’d think Pligg would offer better filtering through user registration or confirmation, or allow a site admin to first approve new posts, but no. In fact, Pligg itself is a bit clunky. Creating pages, adding new sections to the sidebar — it’s not very intuitive. The documentation is skimpy and often nonexistent. Worse, it seems there are only one or two half-active developers for Pligg, and a flailing, non-communicative community. There’s no momentum.

So when Silahsiz Kuvvetler (whoever you are) hacked the site through a security vulnerability and brought it down, I almost felt a sigh of relief. Now I had good cause for abandoning Pligg to try something else.

But what? Another Digg clone? Like Mixx.com? I didn’t want an inflexible hosted option. And the whole voting thing — it wasn’t really catching on. I think voting itself is a hassle. All I want to do is skim and read.

I’d heard about a Twitteresque WordPress theme called Prologue, which might provide an alternative. Coincidentally, Prologue was coded by Joseph Scott, a bug exorcist for Automattic who happens to live nearby and who I often talk with at local blogger dinners in Salt Lake.

Unlike other themes, Prologue is intended for groups of people to add updates from the main page through a quick submission form, rather than logging in to the Dashboard to post. Here’s the quick post form I’m referring to.

Post form at the top at the top of Prologue

So I turned from Pligg to WordPress and uploaded the Prologue theme. I also put the new WordPress 2.6 Press It bookmarklet under the title. It turns out, this bookmarklet is nothing short of amazing. You drag it to your browser’s link toolbar, and then when you’re on any Internet page, all you do is click the bookmarklet link — and up pops a little post window to Writer River with the link already inserted.

Press this bookmarklet

So now I point you to Writer River version 2.0, more Twitter-like than Digg-like, powered by WordPress rather than Pligg. More detailed author profiles appear, there shouldn’t be any spam or hackers, and you don’t need to worry about all the voting.

One last note. If you already registered on Pligg, sorry, but you’ll have to re-register for the new Writer River site. They use entirely different databases. But also, when you register this time, you can type a description of yourself, which will appear on your author page.

And if you have a gravatar, you can also pull that in. If you want to repost some of the links you posted before, feel free. But I don’t mind just wiping the slate clean and starting fresh.

On a final note, it feels good to come home to WordPress for this type of site. I know my previous post about WordPress’ documentation came across as harsh, but compared to other open source software, WordPress is miles above in functionality and documentation. And most importantly, the WordPress community is vibrant. That same vibrant community is what I hope Writer River will one day attract.

Joseph Scott, one of the WordPress developers employed by Automattic, organized the event and is taking charge of the upcoming Wordcamp, which looks like it will be in September to avoid competition with other conferences (Blog World, Open Source, and New Media Expo).

Wordcamp Dallas a Success

By the way, Charles Stricklin of the WordPress Podcast just put on a Wordcamp in Dallas, and you can check out the latest videos on his site to see what Wordcamp is like (also read his notes on how to put on a Wordcamp, Part 1 and Part 2). Personally, I’ve never been. But I have attended Podcamp.

My Lesson Learned Tonight: Simplicity, Simplicity

Now, on to the point. After discussion about sponsors, sessions, venues, registration, etc., discussion shifted to more casual topics, and I asked Joseph for some advice on the upcoming WordPress session I’m giving at Doc Train.

The title of my presentation is From Novice to Geek: Getting Started with WordPress. “Geek” is a pretty generous term considering that I only have 60 minutes, and I won’t have a computer lab.

Joseph said I should focus on the tasks people will most commonly perform on a daily basis. People need to know how to write posts and pages, and how to deal with comments. I don’t need to get into how to tweak specific CSS styles, how to modify the loop or alter PHP tag parameters, or do anything advanced.

Lessons from an Immunization Study

In fact, one blogger from Twelve Horses mentioned a study about immunizations. Apparently a researcher found that the less information you give people about immunizations, the more likely they are to show up for immunizations. In contrast, inundate them with info, and they rarely appear.

I don’t want to scare people with talk about MySQL databases, PHP scripting, or anything like that. I will keep it simple.

Quick Reference Guides Are Like Chocolate to Users

Joseph said people will also benefit from a handout that contains brief, concise instructions — for example, the simple steps to writing a post.

It’s not necessary to be thorough with info about trackbacks, comments and pings, custom fields, and tags below the post. Or to explain how to timestamp the publication or change the slug (URL) of the post.

He even recommended tools like Windows Live Writer so that people can author in an environment they feel comfortable in.

Keep it S-I-M-P-L-E

Keep it simple, concise, and brief. Don’t go into all the detail that is possible. Doing so will only intimidate people and make them hesitant to move forward with blogging.

The same approach could be said of any software application. Users want brief, concise instructions to help them get started. Almost all help documentation should probably have at least two deliverables: the 200 page searchable reference guide, and the 10 page quick start guide.

The Progression of Learning

Once people get the basics down, they start clicking a bit more and exploring the program. They may begin checking out the tabs under Design, and look at the code of the theme files.

But in the first hour, they need the basics. Here’s how you log in. Here’s how you publish a post. Here’s how you insert an image. Here’s how you respond to a comment. Here’s how you create some categories and pages.

Maybe I’ll have a follow up WordPress session for anyone with advanced-type questions. (I’m already holding a podcast meetup, so one on WordPress would just be ad hoc.)

WordPress and the Tech Writer Audience

One blogger advised me that I must know my audience. Some people apparently show up at SXSW conferences thinking they’re giving an introduction to a technology, and the audience consists of PHP hackers who want to go straight to the advanced techniques.

But my experience with technical writers is that, while learning technology is their job during the day, it’s not often their hobby at home. The less difficult, the better.

WordPress Needs Technical Writers, Not Just Plugin/Theme Developers

While I’m on the topic of WordPress …. you know, I think WordPress could really benefit from the talents of technical writers. There is no WordPress Getting Started Guide that appears on the home page. No online help integrated in the application.

The WordPress Codex, while thorough, is not something the beginner turns to happily. The Codex rivals the complete works of Shakespeare in length. Nobody reads it cover to cover; they search it, and hope it’s up to date. And it keeps growing, and growing.

Thoughts on Meetups and the STC

I realized tonight something critical: the blogger’s casual dinner format works. Every month the bloggers get together at a nearby restaurant and chat for a couple of hours.

Contrast that with the STC, where we feel we need an official presentation, someone to come in and lecture to everyone for an hour or more. Not enough networking takes place at STC meetings, maybe 10 to 15 minutes.

The STC needs a new model. We don’t need more interesting presentation topics delivered on a monthly basis. Everyone has his or her own tools and methods and problems. It’s rare that you attend an STC presentation that actually addresses an immediate need you have.

On the other hand, casual networking, such as with the blogger dinner, allows this flexibility. You can exchange info with others who have similar interests. You can get right to the core of any problems or questions you have, and build camaraderie and friendship in a community of other like-minded professionals. Food is the magic ingredient of conversation. We need regular social dinners!

• You can make a living from the ad revenue from your site. Laura and Michael Moncur run a Quotations Page site, which gets 200,000 hits a day and provides their primary income. They started it in 1994 and use TribalFusion for the ads. You’d think they feverishly add dozens of quotes a day to keep up the rankings, but Laura said they add maybe half a dozen new quotes a week. The key is that they started so early.
• The most profitable readers are those who don’t find what they want on your site. They click the ads because your content doesn’t provide the answers. This provides an interesting irony about writing: to make money with ads, stack up your content with SEO qualities to attract searchers, and then leave them wanting more. (Of course, it’s a double-edged sword: if you don’t write useful content, no one will link to you, and your SEO rank will drop.)
• Sometimes the ads displayed on your site contradict the actual recommendations of your post. Sure you want readers to click the ads, but … oh the ethics of making money.
• Joseph Scott, one of the Automaticc employees behind WordPress, says WordPress 2.4 will offer a total redesign of the administrative panel, a complete UI overhaul that will make strides in usability.
• We talked about WordPress’s ability to attract volunteer forum moderators who feel their calling is to help users solve their problems, and they work all hours of the day in this calling. None of us understood the motivations of forum volunteers, but we all appreciated their help. Laura said that people even send her quotes all the time to add to their site.
• Text-link ads can hurt your SEO because Google penalizes you for your link relationship with spammy sites. You might make a few bucks from the ad, but it will hurt your rankings, and then your site will lose traffic.
• We talked about the dangers of syndicating your content to other sites, such as corporatewebsite.com. If you do a search for your post title, and their site appears higher than yours, you’re losing valuable traffic. (Because of this, I decided to stop allowing corporatewebsite to occasionally post content from my site, even with attributions.)
• We asked Joseph why WordPress doesn’t provide more attractive themes. Everyone agreed that most WordPress themes are visually amateur, and some are embarrassing. Joseph said WordPress doesn’t provide more themes in the default install because including themes also means excluding themes. Whenever they make a decision to include/exclude a theme, hundreds of upset people write in angrily complaining about the unfairness of not including their theme. I believe he said WP.themes.net is dying for the same reason.
• I recommended that WordPress include the Alex King’s Popularity Contest as a Top 10 Posts widget built into the core, but Joseph said the same thing happens with plugins as with themes: people go crazy when they realize their plugin was excluded. My wife and I were still in favor of the reality check.
• Rather than going to all the trouble to customize themes manually, someone recommended just buying a professional one for $50 to $100. It’s well-worth the hours you will spend trying to customize a free one. In fact, the guy I was talking to (Thom Allen), says he often builds sites for clients from themes he buys. About all he has to do, then, is set up the site, install the theme, and input the client’s content. I totally agree with this idea. I’m not a graphic designer, and it takes me a long time to customize a theme. So today I started surfing around for premium WordPress themes and saw one I like here: WordPress Magazine theme. My wife hasn’t given me permission to buy it, and it’s too magazine-ish for me anyway, but I’m on the lookout.
• We really appreciated the people who came up to talk to us. We arrived late (and the incorrect address didn’t help — like Newspaper Girl, we also used Goog-411 to find where the restaurant was). When we got there, the two big round tables were packed, especially the one where Matt Mullenweg was sitting. But some outgoing people pulled their chairs up next to our table and were extremely friendly to us, including Thom Allen, who is organizing the upcoming podcamp in SLC, and also Michael Moncur, Laura Moncur, and Joseph Scott.
• As a final note, I was really glad my wife joined me for this event, because otherwise I would have felt too nerdy alone.

By the way, if you’re local to SLC and want to get on the blogger mailing list, contact Laura Moncur and she’ll add you.

Feb 5 Update:

Rocky Mountain Voices posted an interview with Matt Mullenweg here (at the same restaurant, I believe). Matt talks about how they monetize WordPress and their new 29.5 million dollar funding.