Andy Hagan wrote a fantastic post called The Lazy SEO Manifesto and it’s hit the social media sites like crazy. Just look at that spike!
Nice one, Andy! btw, personally I’d enable trackbacks and comments for that post.
Archive for the 'blogging' Category
Error messages are always a worrying sight, but thankfully this one was easily dealt with. Here’s the message I was seeing today on my newly upgraded to Wordpress v2.1 blog:
WordPress database error: [Can't find file: './homedir/wp_comments.frm' (errno: 13)] SELECT foo FROM bar WHERE …
A quick google tells me that it’s a MySQL error, and can be fixed with a simple MySQL command REPAIR TABLE wp_comments; (replacing wp_comments with the relevant table name if that’s not the right one). Alternatively you can do a repair within phpMyAdmin if GUIs are your thing.
I wonder whether this was related to my playing around with different themes, and the associated compromise of database integrity, or if it was related to the upgrade from 2.0.7 to 2.1…
Technorati Tags: Error, Wordpress v2.1, WordPress database error, MySQL error, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, upgrade, 2.0.7, 2.1
If you host your own Wordpress then take note - there’s a php exploit on the loose that’s taken out several well known SEO blogs. Advice is to update to Wordpress 2.0.7 right now. You have no excuse if you’re compromised because you have been warned!
Updated 23rd Jan: there’s a shiny new Wordpress v2.1 that’s just been released - I recommend you upgrade to this, which includes the fix I mentioned below, along with a host of minor and not so minor changes (e.g. database performance caching)
If you don’t know how to upgrade to the latest version it’s quite easy:
- Download the latest version of Wordpress (this link is always to the latest good copy)
- Upload it to your server
- Unzip/untar it
- Copy it over your current install of WP
- Go to yourserver.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php and click the big button
- You’re done!
That was easy, right?
Technorati Tags: Wordpress, php exploit, Wordpress 2.0.7, how to upgrade
I read an interesting review of Terapad last night from Andy. It was a constructively critical review with many compliments and complaints about the various features of this new blogging platform.
Stephan of Terapad was very quick to reply to Andy’s review, albeit in a somewhat defensive manner. From a neutral perspective I can tell that both of the guys have very valid points and it’s a pity that the discussion seemed to produce a negative outcome when it had so much potential.
Using valuable customer criticism
Yes, criticism is valuable. Companies spend megabucks on user testing so when you have someone offering up golden information for free, thank them - no matter how negatively it’s worded. Stephan is understandably defending the product which he has put heart and soul into. But he doesn’t need to be defensive about it.
Stephan, I think you should step back and view this constructive criticism for what it is - valuable customer feedback.You’ll be getting user feedback from non-technical users and now you’ve had a techie guy hand you on a plate a prioritised list of things that you can change for v2.0. This kind of feedback is golden.
As someone interested enough to create a whole new blog platformyou should view this as an opportunity to communicate with your users and get more people on board.
My recommendation to you, Stephan, is that you take Andy’s list, fix what you can right now. Then take the list, and put it on your blog as “user feedback” drawing lots of attention to it and list Andy’s constructive criticisms and note after each if it’s fixed, or if it’s not then what you’re doing about it.
That’s how to use feedback like this - embrace it, don’t defend against it!
Technorati Tags: review, compliments, complaints, Terapad, customer criticism, criticism, customer feedback, feedback, communicate
