This is basically a smarter way to handle the situation I just posted about. Using a function to manipulate the favorites dropdown instead of a core hack.

Editor’s note: 404 link removed.

If you want to use BuddyPress (a massive plugin that basically adds a social networking layer to WordPress sites, think, forums, profiles, user blogs, etc) but you’ve been hesitant to try it, now is a better time than ever.

BuddyPress 1.2 now works with stand-alone WordPress installs (before you had to use MU) and you can even keep your existing theme.

kristarella has a nice article on writing your own custom loops.

Nicolas Gallagher:

Here are two ways to include HTML5 elements in your WordPress post content without WordPress’ wpautop function wrapping them in p tags or littering your code with line breaks…. Both ways rely on hand-coding the HTML5 markup in the WordPress editor’s HTML view.

Great crash course article on theme building from Chris Spooner.

This is absolutely needed and will be an awesome upgrade for WordPress version 3.0. Also watch the video.

One of the things I hear people desiring from WordPress is some kind of system for customized installations. So when you go to install a fresh copy, all the settings are how you like them (among other things).

Thomas Scholz has a sweet solution here to get us nearly there. It’s a plugin that you install, activate, and delete. All it does is reset your settings how you like them (you customize it), and delete the “dummy” post and comment.

Last night while twittering, I enjoyed the launch of two incredible new WordPress sites. First announced was WPShift¹, specializing in custom WordPress themes:

Our WordPress themes offer you infinite customisation: just drag and drop. Beautiful sites are now for everyone. Customisable sites are now for everyone.

Then almost immediately after the WPShift tweet, Ben Gillbanks announced his newly acquired and freshly redesigned WPVote² site, where the WordPress community can submit and vote for their favorite WordPress posts. Think of it as way better than Digg for WordPress.

Both Alex and Ben did a tremendous job with their new sites. Congrats to both!

¹ Editor’s note: 404 link removed.
² Editor’s note: 404 link removed.

When 3.0 comes out, Kubrick and Classic will be dead and a new theme will be in. I don’t think it has an official name yet, but you can check it out so far by following the link. It’s currently in active development, I’ve noticed changes just in the few days I’ve been watching it.

Raises the bar, if you ask me.

“The point of the foundation is to ensure free access, in perpetuity, to the projects we support. People and businesses may come and go, so it is important to ensure that the source code for these projects will survive beyond the current contributor base, that we may create a stable platform for web publishing for generations to come.”

Jack Osborne emailed me with a question. His blog layout shows single posts at a time, with a set of arrows to navigate forward and backward in time. This works great on the single.php page where you can use next_post_link() and prev_post_link(), but those don’t work on the index.php file.

Jack wrote up the solution I sent him.

“In 2010 WordPress will get a new Default Theme, replacing the beloved/hated Kubrick Theme with a new Theme called 2010. I’ve got opinions on the matter. Oh, do I have opinions. I’ve even gone so far as to create a working idea for a new Default WordPress Theme. Read on to find out more.”

Jason Schuller with a nice and clean technique for showing Flickr photos in a WordPress theme without any third-party code. It uses the native fetch_feed() SimplePie stuff that ships with WordPress and a helper class.

Editor’s note: 404 link removed.

The guys over at WP Engineer have been ambitiously shelling out useful daily posts all through December. This link just goes straight to their homepage, so check that out and paginate back a few times to check out all the great articles.