The Quarterly Magazine’s design process, sped up on video

By 17 hours agoFebruary 6, 2012

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The first issue of The WPCandy Quarterly is in the printing queue as you read these words. Exciting, right? Since there’s nothing I can do to speed up the process (believe me, I would if I could) I’ve taken some time and looked back over the first issue’s development.

One thing I did, while the design process of the Quarterly moved along, was save several drafts. There were nearly 50 individual design drafts of this issue, actually (we drafted articles separately with the individual authors).

Since the drafts were interesting, I put together a quick video showing a few stages of development for various pages within the Quarterly. In the video you get to see the pages when they weren’t much more than words on a page, when they changed formats and styles, and then what they eventually become. I had fun making it, so I hope you enjoy watching it.

I’ve embedded the video below, just after the jump.

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The first WP on Tour was a huge success

By 17 hours agoFebruary 6, 2012

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WP on Tour Crew 2012

The 15th of January through the 22nd finally saw its first WP on Tour go live. WPCandy mentioned WP on Tour here before, but it’s basically a bunch of WordPress developers (of all shapes and sizes) sharing a working space for a week.  This first edition saw 10 of us — yes, I was fortunate to be among them — in a beautiful house in Sitges, Spain having fun and co-working for 7 days.

You can find the full list of WP on Tour attendees on this Twitter list, You might have noticed some of your WordPress buddies on Twitter mentioning the #wpontour hashtag and you might have concluded that we had a lot of fun…

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The WPCandy Quarterly print proofs are in

By 3 days agoFebruary 4, 2012

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The WPCandy Quarterly is, as far as I know, the first-ever WordPress-centric magazine. Or rather, it will be when it begins shipping out to subscribers in the next week or so. On Friday I received the final print proofs, which wraps up the last necessary step before all the issue are printed and delivered.

I’ve dropped in a few photos of the proof sheets below. Of course I’m a bit biased, but I think this issue looks fantastic. I’ll have more to share about the production process next week, but I just couldn’t help sharing this update now. I’m pretty excited to see this coming together.

Remember, we have a limited number of issues. Pick one up today to be sure you have one of the first issues of the Quarterly.

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WPCandy Podcast 30: Jetpack full of fireworks edition

By 5 days agoFebruary 2, 2012

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In this, episode 30 of the WPCandy Podcast, we officially adopt a new format for the official show. In short, the goal is for the WPCandy Podcast to deliver a higher awesome per minute ratio, and be the “if you only listen to one WordPress podcast, listen to this one” podcast.

But that’s not all. In this episode Brian and I recap on 2011 at WPCandy, and I sit down to interview Andy Skelton and Joen Asmussen from Automattic about the WordPress.com/Jetpack year-end reports (example).

You can listen to the podcast here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This week’s episode is just over 41 minutes long. If you want to jump ahead:

  • 00:50 Ryan and Brian reminisce on 2011
  • 14:55 Interview with Andy Skelton and Joen Asmussen

Subscribe to the show on iTunes, or directly to the RSS feed. As always you can send any emails you would like to have included on the show to podcast@wpcandy.com. The download link is just after the jump.

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Behind the Site: Tripawds, a user-supported three legged dog community

By 5 days agoFebruary 2, 2012

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Ed: Tripawds is, in all honesty, a very touching site. It is a community of bloggers and users supporting canine amputees. The site is run by Jim and Rene Nelson, and just so happens to be running on WordPress. Jim offered to share some background information on Tripawds when he saw our ongoing Behind the Site series.

In this series, a WordPress site’s owner walks us through what makes their site unique and how it does what it does. At this point I’ll hand it off to Jim, who wrote about he and his wife’s site below.

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Quarterly update: The magazine’s at the printer

By 6 days agoJanuary 31, 2012

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I’m excited to announce that we’ve begun the last stage of production on the first issue of The WPCandy Quarterly. The issue’s files are with the printer now, and barring any last-minute issues we should see printing begin in the next couple of days.

In other words: the wait is just about over, and all orders will shortly be fulfilled. The magazine is 60 pages filled to the proverbial brim with articles from some of the smartest people in the WordPress community. Personally I can’t wait until you see what we’ve all been working on.

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Pressbits 001: Introducing our latest show

By 7 days agoJanuary 30, 2012

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I’m happy to introduce the newest addition to the WPCandy shows family. It’s called Pressbits, and it’s exactly what you’d expect: bite-sized thoughts on WordPress. Ryan and I will both be contributing to Pressbits, and you can expect them at a rapid-fire pace (daily-ish).

I got inspiration for Pressbits from Paul Boag’s Audio Boos, which is one of my favorite web related podcasts. Our goal is similar, quick, off the cuff recordings of what’s on our mind. I hope you’ll enjoy, and of course, your feedback is always appreciated.

We’ll update this post shortly with a podcast feed url dedicated to Pressbits. Listen to the introductory Episode 001 of Pressbits after the jump, or download it directly.

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WP Late Night Episode 2 recording tonight at 8PM EST

By 12 days agoJanuary 26, 2012

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The WP Late Night crew is back for another episode! Tonight at 8pm EST Ryan, Brad (that’s me), and Dre will be recording their second episode of the video podcast LIVE! As always you can watch the recording on the WPCandy Stream.

Make sure to catch the first episode of WP Late Night (dubbed the Shame Edition) so you know what to expect.

If you have WordPress questions or comments to send in to the show, you can do so by:

  • Commenting on a show post (like this one)
  • Leaving a voicemail at (815) 322-WPLN
  • Emailing us at wplatenight@wpcandy.com
  • Tweeting using the #wplatenight hashtag.

We’ll see you guys tonight!

WordPress.org and .com join the SOPA protests with blackouts

By 20 days agoJanuary 18, 2012

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Earlier today WordPress.org announced its participation in the January 18th protests against the USA’s Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). Earlier this evening the blackout went into effect, and will block access (initially) to all of WordPress.org including the Codex, support forums, plugin directory and theme directory. The blackout will be in effect for 24 hours.

For more about the acts and protest in question visit sopastrike.com.

But the blackout on WordPress.org is not unavoidable. Scrolling to the bottom of a page will give you a link to clear the blackout for an hour and continue on to the website. On her blog, Jane Wells explained that while she originally wanted to see the whole site blacked out, instead the WordPress.org team opted to make the blackout only partial for the sake of those who depend on WordPress.org:

The reason we did this instead of a full shut-down is that there are many businesses and people who help drive the independent web that need access to the WordPress Codex, forums, plugin/theme repos, and APIs. We wouldn’t want to penalize them in our protest, so we just made it impossible to ignore instead.

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