Tag: Blogging
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Will the real Caoimhe please stand up
I was browsing my blog stats this evening and I noticed that lots of people were coming to my site having searched for the term Caoimhe blog. Caoimhe is a very well known Irish blogger and she was recently interviewed on a daytime TV program called The Big Bite along with several other Irish bloggers…
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Using WordPress as a CMS – More problems sorted
WordPress is the Content Manangement System (CMS) used to produce this site but shoehorning it to produce a complete site can cause unforseen problems. For example, my Permalink structure was denying me access to my awstats folder! Why? – this is because I’m publishing the site using WordPress 1.5 and it’s mod_rewrite (created by the…
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Comment spam plugins no longer required!
I have written many posts on my battles with WordPress comment spam but all that appears to be coming to a very satisfactory solution. I am now no longer using any comment spam plugins and I have stopped moderating comments on this blog. How did I get to this enviable position? Well, it has been…
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Block hotlinkers but allow some sites remote access to images using .htaccess
In a previous post I explained how to create a .htaccess file to stop remote image linking (hotlinking) and bandwidth theft – however, there are some situations where you might want your image files linked to from remote sites – how do you make exceptions for these sites? The code to block all sites from…
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WordPress theme Rubric updated for WordPress 1.5
I had a WordPress template called Rubric on my WordPress 1.2 site. I hacked it a bit to work for me (adding css to show Amazon links within posts etc.). On upgrading to WP 1.5, I followed the very straightforward upgrading old WordPress templates instructions and suddenly I had Rubric in WP 1.5. I have…
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Easy effective control of comment spam
MacManX posted a comment spam strategy on the WordPress Beta discussion site the other day which caught my attention. In the post he said he uses a plugin called WP-HashCash. The main advantage of this plugin is “it requires no maintenance or intervention on my part, and it’s invisible to my readers”. He went on…
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Using .htaccess to minimise comment and referrer spam
I have been using my .htaccess file to stop comment and referrer spam on this site and it has been surprisingly successful (so far!). How do I create a .htaccess file capable of greatly reducing comment and referrer spam? Firstly, I use Awstats to analyse visits to my site daily and I use Spam Karma…
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Trackback spam explained
I posted about Trackback Spam previously but it was brought to my attention that I didn’t explain it properly, so I am now going to attempt to rectify that. If you are using a blogging application, like WordPress, there is a facility called Trackback, whereby, when you are making a post in your blog, and…