Woke up this morning to discover that a new version of Wordpress has been released. Version 2.6 code named “Tyner” is now available for download or for automatic upgrade for those that took my advice and added that plugin to their installation.

Some of the cooler features of the latest version include revision tracking, a new posting bookmarklet, theme previews, and easy image captions. For those that like to see the upgrades versus hearing about them, the folks at Wordpress have produced the following video.

As far as upgrades go, I upgraded my main blog using automatic upgrade and 2 minutes later I was running 2.6 but for those that prefer the do it yourself route, Wordpress gives the following information

2.6 is pretty much identical to 2.5 from a plugin and theme compatibility point of view, so upgrades from 2.5 should be pretty painless. The 2.5 branch will no longer be maintain so everyone is encouraged to upgrade. Our standard 3-step upgrade instructions apply to this release. There were at least 1,984,047 downloads of the 2.5 series, the fastest growing release we’ve ever had, and I think all of those people will find 2.6 adds a level of polish that really makes WP a pleasure to use every day. (At least I do. :))

Enjoy…

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If you’ve ever come across a web site that you wanted to write about you know how difficult it can be to keep referring back and forth between the site and the posting page of your blogging software of choice. If you use Firefox, blogging from a web browser is as easy as ever once you install the ScribeFire extension.

ScribeFire opens a publishing window from within your browser that allows you to blog while viewing a web page therefore not requiring you to go back and forth between browser windows while posting. Features include both WYSIWYG and HTML coding options, drag and dropping of formatted text from pages you are browsing, easy image uploading and insertion and it supports all major blogging platforms including Blogger and Wordpress.com. If you run multiple blogs, ScribeFire allows you to setup accounts for each and includes easy bookmarking to your del.icio.us account and Technorati tag insertion from within the posting window.

Once you use it you’ll wonder how you got by without it. You can download and install the extension here and if for some reason you have yet to join the Firefox revolution, you should try it now as well.

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If you thought that the title was in reference to DMOZ, while true, it is actually in reference to what was once one of the best webmaster resources on the web, Digital Point. I joined almost 3 years ago and throughout my varying web site attempts, it was always a great place to discuss issues with others going through similar situations. Somewhere along the way the amount of relevant and valuable information started to decline and it is now more known as a haven for scammers, spammers, and those trading anything and everything most of which is either against the TOS of the sites involved or totally worthless, or both.

I am not sure when it started down the long path towards uselessness but for me it began early last year on the directory forum where for awhile it became a major pissing contest between several so-called big boys and the rest of those that frequented the forum. It became nothing more than a “mine is bigger than yours” and your directory sucks fest to the point that some of the most helpful posters left altogether. Things have since quited down but now the majority of the posts revolve around different newbies posting their latest and greatest lists of some sort or someone else chiming in on how they believe that directories are useless.

So what is Digital Point good for now? From a blogging perspective, it is a place where many template designers frequent to show off their wares and from time to time there is the useful tidbit posted in regards to SEO and marketing but otherwise unless you are looking for someone to trade Diggs or Stumbles with (against their TOS’s by the way), not a whole lot else seems to be of use there anymore.

Even with all that is bad about Digital Point, I still have a hard time not going there daily to see what is going on. I know that normally it is just a waste of time but I guess some habits are hard to break. In the meantime I am now looking for somewhere else to get my fix of marketing and web related discussions so if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

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