JISHOU, HUNAN — Before I upgraded WordPress and trashed my MySpace layout overlay, I had a WP plugin that automatically inserted my posts into my MySpace page.

That plugin, MySpace Crossposter, doesn’t work anymore. The new code in WP 2.6 effectively killed it, and its developer (it seems) is not maintaining the plugin anymore.

What to do?

I rarely visit MySpace. I’m more a Facebook man. But I would like to advertise this blog on MySpace to get more readers, so I needed a replacement for the outmoded plugin. The solution is easy.

Use a widget to grab your WP blog’s (or any) RSS feed and insert it into your MySpace profile. I found a nice little news feed widget at SpringWidgets. Enter your blog’s RSS feed URL, customize the look of the widget, then copy and paste the code into your MySpace profile. No plugin woes!

Here’s what it looks like.

September 29th, 2008 | Tags: crosspost, MySpace, widget, wordpress | Category: General stuff | Comments (3)

JISHOU, HUNAN – One thing I hate about upgrading website applications is the tinkering necessary to make everything work again. I started my upgrade of this site 18 hours ago, and finally got things working right again after 16 hours.

My main problems were (a) a slow DSL connection, which would lead to (b) the FTP server/client connection timing out. So, some files were not uploaded in their entirety, despite several attempts using two different FTP clients (gftp and ftpcube for Ubuntu Hardy). FileZilla finally did the trick late last night; it seemed able to handle connection problems without corrupting the files.

Next problem: WordPress plugins. The plugins I have installed seemed to work fine with the public side of Wheat-dogg’s World, but were preventing me from accessing the administration control panel. I would enter my username and password, and come right back to the login screen. It’s the same blockade I encountered when I tried my last upgrade, to 2.6.

After trolling the Internet for a couple of hours this morning, I found any number of solutions, sprinkled among what seems to be hundreds of complaints all centering around the same problem I had. Meanwhile, the WordPress.org moderators were trying to be patient with the complainers, who I have to say were bitching more than specifying exactly what was wrong with their sites.

If you are one of those hundreds, here’s how to fix the admin login loop.

September 19th, 2008 | Tags: login loop, plugins, solution, upgrade, wordpress | Category: General stuff | Leave a comment