Chris Pearson and Matt Mullenweg clashed over GPL in an interview conducted at Mixergy.

The license adopted is one that covers Thesis for its WordPress components as well as Pearson’s own work into the product. So, you cannot redistribute Thesis as it currently is. You can only redistribute the parts that are WordPress code and API.

It boils down to the fact that Pearson can deliver a product that he can only offer, rather than adopting GPL for the whole theme and possibly losing business.

For me, I think this is a fair compromise. I am very sure it was a hard one to deal with and while I am certain there are a few developers grumbling that they cannot work with the entire code, at least they can work a little more with what is there. It is not an easy decision when changing software licenses because it can effect a lot of people.

However this protects Pearson’s work and also honors WordPress. Kudos to Chris Pearson!

I will say that for those who have been supporters of GPL software, this comes as great news! It is great that Matt Mullenweg stepped up to the plate to take on this issue.

What are your thoughts?

So, today, June 17, 2010, you probably logged into your WordPress site and saw the notification:

WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” is here! Now you can have a single site and use BuddyPress or use multi-installations of WordPress on one install. For some, this is epic. Now WordPress is one entity instead of split into WordPress and WordPress Mu. This does something awesome – makes it convenient and easy to install a social community like BuddyPress.

For me, I have been excited about this project since hearing about it the first time. (Your fault Matt and my fave core developers – making me wait all that time for it…lol…jk.) I tested it on my own development site, and I know some have even been comfortable to exercise the release candidates for 3.0 on their live sites.

WordPress really has come a long way. Some of the videos I have seen from the most recent WordCamps, on top of the ones I sat in at WordCamp Chicago highlighted some of the versions. Brings back some memories.

So, if it is okay with everyone who reads WPAddict… I am going to send a big shout out Thank you to everyone who contributed to making WordPress 3.0 happen. All those countless hours are much appreciated.

Unfortunately, during WordCamp Chicago, I was unable to access the already spotty internet available. However, that is okay. Although I am sharing it just about everywhere I know, I promised to post my Power Point presentation. In regards to it. I will be going into depth in the next few days for those who are hungry to learn more and continue to think outside the box.

Please leave me a comment if you were at WordCamp. I like to return comments or at least reply because… well, it allows me to know what other things you would like to know. I myself am eager to answer those burning questions. You are also welcome to visit Blondish.net, my main site which I talk about social media, tech (more about webmaster and user resources), web design, SEO, and even graphic design.

I appreciate how everyone has been very supportive and because there were a lot of people, I did not get to meet everyone, but my door is open.

Oh, and before I forget. If you like to review plugins, themes, or have WordPress related news, or even tutorials… come guest write here!

I have some insight behind the Network Solutions issue. One of my clients I consult for and that I had to fix their WordPress installation also had the Secure File Permissions Matter back in February. Recently, Network Solutions published Tips and Info for Network Solutions WordPress Customers. Guess what, Matt Mullenweg was right and I actually have my own experience to share on this- after dealing with the same issue for A MONTH AND A HALF!!!

Network Solutions suspended my client’s account (which had been updated to the most current version of WordPress) because it had been a DDOS attack. I was surprised because I heard that Network Solutions was suppose to be a good host. I do not use them. I use Host Gator as a dedicated server client and have since 2006. I usually recommend others there because they have been great.

I told my client it had nothing to do with WordPress, but it did have to do with the server itself. My client felt that he had done something wrong. I explained to him that it is not necessary to have a password to always hack or create a DDOS attack. My client was basically told it was his fault.

So with promise to fix WordPress, they turned the juice on. HOWEVER I could not post, delete spam or do anything. AND on top of that when I had my client talk with Network Solutions, they wanted me to fix the problem they had created in the first place and even charged my client tech service fees to fix their VPS account. I could not even change file permissions from the Plesk account. I ended up assisting the tech through the process to troubleshoot it.

How many other people did they charge the same fees and made the same excuse in the past month and a half?

I am sure Network Solutions is a good host on some levels, but to blindly blame the client when it is the server, I was a bit shocked and insulted. I understand there will be DDOS attacks and sometimes the occasional downtime. However, I think Network Solutions needs to own up to their mistake and make sure they look at their clients with a kinder eye. Not all web hosting clients are idiots. Some of them have run $750,000 servers for e-commerce for big companies.

Were you affected by this?

I actually use Intense Debate on my main website, Blondish.net and at first, it was an experience I was conducting to see what would be better – Intense Debate or Disqus?

I have really enjoyed the updates in the past few months that have come up and even deciding to try Disqus on another blog has been pushed to a low priority. Sad, because I could be blogging my own experience here at WPAddict, but great because that means I really do like Intense Debate.

So far, Intense Debate has integrated CommentLuv, and just a few days ago rolled out automatic logins from various places including Facebook, Twitter, WordPress.com, and OpenID as mentioned at Introducing WordPress.com User Accounts & Auto-Login to IntenseDebate.

Truthfully, I think it would be wild if they tried working with Disqus to allow a login for that since there are a lot of Disqus users too. Though, it is just a whimsical thought.

This is great as Intense Debate has finally started to catch up to Disqus. I can only wonder what else they have planned.

I have been tagging quite a few commenters for spam and noting at other WordPress related sites, that there have been a lot of people leaving comments for their premium plugins.

The message has nothing to do with the original post and in my case, it was on a post of a plugin that had nothing to do with the premium posts.

Rather than go about it this way, perhaps the plugin makes should consider releasing the plugin to notable people in the WordPress community to try out and write their feedback. Commenting and leaving a spammy link does nothing but go to the trash or get ignored.

There are better ways to get the word out including affiliate programs, effective advertising on various networks, and as I have said, through word of mouth through product testing. My concern is that these commenters are the type who were hired cheaply at some freelancer website and by someone with no grasp on how to use social media marketing effectively.

So, this is just a heads up to those in the WordPress community. If you talk about WordPress or WordPress plugins, you might be targeted for comment spam.

Have you experienced this? How did you respond to it (or did you)?

Ian Stewart posted on ThemeShaper.com Hacked about a a security issue he found in the theme, particularly in the sv_ss.php file located in the languages ( thematic/library/languages/ )

Ian recommends going to the WordPress theme directory and downloading the Thematic WordPress theme copy from there.

It is important to note that things like this DO occur and Ian did catch this hack and inform others about it. (Thanks Ian!)

Some suggestions for users even if they are not using Thematic:

1. Make sure your WordPress version is up-to-date. This is the first and best thing to do up front. You can also use secure or hardening methods to your WordPress if you want.
2. Make sure your theme version is up-to-date. Some designers do update and fix any bugs that come up.
3. Make sure your plugins are up-to-date. Some plugin developers do update. Word of caution. Newly updated plugins, you should hold off at least a week before installing in case the new version is incomplete or another bug issue comes up. This will prevent further headache.

When I first started using Tweetmeme on my own personal site, I ended up blogging on how it was not validating. In fact, Mike Little pointed that out too when visiting the site. Tweetmeme plugin developers eventually validated another earlier version that I reported (and I am sure others did too), but somewhere alone the line, that got lost.

As few days ago I had to take down the plugin for the Tweetmeme retweet button because of this issue and reported it. I received an email this morning from Tweetmeme that they have corrected the URL outputs and validation, as noted in the Tweetmeme button changelog.

I have since upgraded and activated the plugin. Version 1.7.2 of the Tweetmeme button is confirmed as validated! So for those code ninjas and W3 accessibility folks, it is good to use.

I also suggested to Tweetmeme for future versions to add a function like the Sociable plugin for users to be able to disable the button on individual pages or posts as obviously some pages might not have any valuable information to retweet (like contact forms).

TDO Mini forms, a flexible form plugin by Mark Cunningham had been updated on November 18th at the WordPress Plugin directory for users to be able to upgrade. Unfortunately the plugin version issued was not complete and called fatal errors.

Example:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function tdomf_get_all_users() in /home/themes/public_html/test/wp-content/plugins/tdo-mini-forms/include/tdomf-notify.php on line 60

This errors was just for the form, but the entire site. I use this on Blogrity, the social bookmark site for bloggers and was unable to see anything except the fatal error. Mark has since then reloaded and mentioned the fix for the fatal errors of version 0.13.7 of TDO mini Forms.

The fix does work. I have tried it out. All you have to do is delete the old files and reload the new files. If you use TDO mini forms, and have any suggestions, plugin bugs to point out, or plugin fixes, you can go to thedeadone.net Forums.

Chat Catcher, which has a plugin for WordPress users allows bloggers to install their free service and add a “reaction” like in Disqus or trackback entries from Twitter, FriendFeed, and identi.ca, along with various url-shortening services.

Here is what Shannon Whitley, the creator of Chat Catcher said in an email I received for Chat Catcher users:

Greetings,

I’d like to make everyone aware of an issue we are having in processing your comments. The bit.ly url shortening service temporarily blocked Chat Catcher and we were not able to expand bit.ly urls. This has prevented us from linking comments back to your blog if bit.ly was used to shorten the url. Links from other url shortening services were not affected.

This was a temporary situation due to routine maintenance at the bit.ly site. I have been in contact with support staff at bit.ly and we are working on the issue. At this time, you should begin to see comments again.

For some posts, Chat Catcher will go back and retrieve comments that were missed during this period. There are some limitations around historical searches and it’s probably best to assume that most of your missing comments will not be retrieved.

I apologize to those people who have missed comments. As a user of the service, I’m disappointed as well. I am doing everything I can to make sure Chat Catcher runs smoothly and will post any updates to the @ChatCatcher account on Twitter.

Thank you for your support.

Best,

Shannon Whitley
Whitley Media
swhitley AT whitleymedia DOT com

By the way, separated the email address so Shannon would not have any extra spammage.

So, basically until Bit.ly is fixed, Chat Catcher cannot process urls with Bit.ly. However, they will be able to go back and catch up from skipped tweets once they are back up.