Ryan Imel

Editor in Chief

ryanimel-authorimage

Ryan Imel is the Editor in Chief of WPCandy, and the one you get to be upset with if something goes wrong. You can also find him at his blog and on Twitter.

Ryan’s Latest Posts (1,497 total)

Siobhan McKeown planning Words for WordPress copywriting business launch

By 208 days agoOctober 28, 2011

6

Moments ago WordPress blogger Siobhan McKeown announced her intentions to launch a new business soon called Words for WordPress, a copywriting service specifically for WordPress. Right now only a landing page is there, where she will happily accept your email address. Details aren’t clear yet, but presumably a “copywriting service” would cover standard blogging, documentation, and marketing materials.

McKeown certainly has the writing credentials for a service like this, having written dozens of posts — likely hundreds by now — for WPMU.org, the blogging-focused sister site to WPMU DEV.

Fun fact: McKeown is using Launch Effect, a launch theme that we reviewed last week. When it launches, would you say this sort of WordPress-specific copywriting service will be interesting to you? Could your WordPress use a few more Words?

WordCamp Philly sold out, waiting list now available

By 211 days agoOctober 25, 2011

1


Folks, it’s official: We’re sold out! If you missed a chance at a ticket, we’re looking into a waitlist. #wcphilly
October 25, 2011 3:13 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite
@WordCampPhilly
WordCamp Philly

If you haven’t yet picked up your ticket for WordCamp Philly this year, well, how do I put this. You might have waited too long. Just a few minutes ago the WordCamp Philly Twitter account announced that all tickets have sold out.

However all is not lost. The organizers are looking into setting up a wait list for those that just missed out and would still like to make it next week. If you’d like to let them know you’re still interested in attending, fill out their waiting list form here.

Just in case the waiting list doesn’t pan out: Grab a hoagie, have a seat just outside of the venue — preferably near a window with a good view of the event inside — and have yourself a good cry. There’s always next year.

StudioPress launches managed hosting for Genesis users

By 217 days agoOctober 19, 2011

12

This morning Copyblogger Media, via their StudioPress property, announced the launch of their new managed hosting service Synthesis. This new service offers hosting exclusively for StudioPress customers using the Genesis theme framework.

Explaining the reasoning behind the new service, Brian Gardner said that it was simply a matter of offering to others what they have built up for their own use:

With a user base of more than 58,000 people, we’re frequently asked for recommendations on high quality web hosting. Since we took the hosting for Copyblogger Media in-house earlier this year, we can’t really recommend something we don’t use.

So we’re offering you the exact hosting services that we use for our own high-traffic sites.

Interestingly, this is the first hosting service I know of that is requiring a specific theme from one provider in order to host with them. In anticipation of this question, the first question answered on their FAQ is about just that. They say that “Synthesis is specifically designed and optimized for the Genesis Framework,” and that they are able to “offer better WordPress hosting by eliminating rogue variables at the design level.”

Continue reading →

WordCamp Phoenix 2012 could be happening on February 25

By 218 days agoOctober 18, 2011

5


Don’t mistake it for gibberish, because according to the rather cryptic tweet you see above the next WordCamp Phoenix could be happening on February 25, 2010. I mean, assuming it’s not gibberish. The tweet is from Amanda Blum, one of the organizers of 2011′s WordCamp Phoenix event.

Last we heard, WordCamp Phoenix was only going to happen again if new organizers stepped up to the plate. This year’s organizers Blum and Chuck Reynolds have each stated they will not be involved in organizing WordCamp Phoenix in the foreseeable future.

A firm date isn’t listed on WordCamp Central yet, so don’t go booking those non-refundable flights yet. We’ll be in touch with the new organizers soon to get some more information. And here’s to hoping it does happen — last year’s event was a lot of fun.

ThemeGarden will most likely shut down indefinitely for updates

By 218 days agoOctober 18, 2011

9

Last month we reported on Jason Schuller’s intention to modify his ThemeGarden project to make it more like his initial vision. It now looks like he is definitely taking steps to move in a new direction. In an email sent to ThemeGarden authors earlier this month Schuller said that as of October 21, or Friday, the site will be going into maintenance mode indefinitely in order for him to “work on updates” to the marketplace.

It’s not entirely clear yet what ThemeGarden’s new direction will be, but one thing is clear: Schuller is serious about remaking ThemeGarden in his new vision. If you were Jason, what would you do with ThemeGarden? If you’re an author on the marketplace, let us know what you plan to do in the interim in the comments below.

For the full message sent to ThemeGarden authors see just after the jump.

Continue reading →

Schedule and first few speakers are live for WordCamp Detroit

By 218 days agoOctober 18, 2011

1

Taking place the weekend of November 12th, WordCamp Detroit is only about a month away now. To remind everyone just how close the event is, organizer Anthony Montalbano has published a working schedule for the two-day event as well as the first handful of confirmed speakers.

The schedule for Detroit’s event this year includes a few plans that I don’t remember seeing at other WordCamps. Jim Raffel and Shelby Sapusek will be running a session called “She Said, He Said” where they will debate WordPress topics, and at the close of the first day a session called “The WordPress Game Show” will test attendee knowledge of WordPress. Sunday’s lineup also includes a three-hour workshop intended to help answer specific questions attendees have.

If you haven’t committed to WordCamp Detroit this year yet, take a look at the schedule and see if that tips the scale for you. Once you’ve decided speak up in the comments: will you be attending the event in Detroit this year?

Tune in for the new free Theme.fm iPhone app

By 218 days agoOctober 18, 2011

3

All these kids running around with their fancy website iPhone apps. When I was their age, we had to type each URL character into a field and hit return, and we were grateful to be able to do that! Granted, I’m probably younger than many of you reading this so I’ll just go ahead and drop this joke now.

The team at Theme.fm, who we link to often, have launched their own iPhone app today. They developed it themselves in Objective-C using a plugin they created which uses the XML-RPC API built into WordPress to pull in content. Right now it does little more than show a list of their recent posts, but they say they will be adding more features, along with full iPad support, before long.

On the top of the list of desired features, Konstantin Kovshenin said they are looking to find a better way to display code snippets inside the app, as well as some of their videos which are not supported now.

You can grab the Theme.fm app from the App Store for free. While you’re at it, you might as well create a folder and throw this one, WPLift’s app, and WPCandy’s app in it to compare them. There now — do you have enough WordPress stuff on your iPhone yet?

The Sweet Plugin: Featured Image Column

By 219 days agoOctober 17, 2011

6

Today brings the return of The Sweet Plugin, which is easily our most popular show at WPCandy. For those of you new to the show, The Sweet Plugin is a daily show where we examine an awesome WordPress plugin and give it a dry run.

This latest episode brings us Featured Image Column, which you can hear about just past the jump. The video is embedded at the top of this post’s page, with more about the plugin below.

Continue reading →

The Sweet Seven: Top WPCandy posts this week

By 228 days agoOctober 8, 2011

2

A lot happens in the WordPress community every week — so much so, that sometimes it can be easy to miss out on the big stuff, even when we publish as much WordPress news as we do. That’s why we have the Sweet Seven, where you can catch up on the most popular stories this week, just in case you happened to miss them before.

Without further ado, this week’s most popular posts are:

  1. Themes enabling plugins: this (PHP) class is one you might actually enjoy
  2. Bring out the birthday cake: WPCandy is now four years old!
  3. Michael Fields joins Automattic as a Theme Wrangler
  4. Community Poll: How many custom post types do you use?
  5. Meta Review: WooCommerce plugin from WooThemes
  6. WooThemes announces tweaks to their subscriptions
  7. WP Paintbrush releases eleventh coat, er beta, of their theme

Be sure to jump into the discussions on each of these posts, since they all are all host to interesting discussions. My favorite is definitely the PHP class discussion (number one up there).

Among these, what was your favorite this week? And while you’re at it, let us know if you’re doing any cool WordPress stuff this weekend.