Speed Force

I’ve updated the site to WordPress 3.3. WordPress updates usually go smoothly these days, but in case you run into something that looks wrong or doesn’t work, please let me know. Comment here, use the contact form, send a note on Twitter to @SpeedForceOrg, or just send an email to speedforce at pobox dot com.

I’ve updated the blog to WordPress 3.2. Let me know if anything isn’t working properly using the comments here, or if that fails, the contact form, @SpeedForceOrg on Twitter, Facebook message/wall post, Tumblr question, or email to speedforce – at – pobox – dot – com.

Quick note: I’ve updated the site to WordPress 3.0. I’ve been testing it over on K-Squared Ramblings, so I don’t expect anything to break, but that’s always a possibility.

If you find anything that’s not working, please drop me a line…

• Here in the comments if they’re working
• In the contact form
• On Twitter at @SpeedForceOrg
• By email at speedforce – at – pobox – dot – com

Thanks!

Update: I’ve fixed the placement of the comment preview button. It’s next to the submit button again, instead of being above the form. Apparently some new comment form features didn’t quite work with my theme, but it was easy enough to fix.

I’ve updated the site to WordPress 2.9. I was going to write a bit about cool new stuff, but it’s 12:30 in the morning and I just spilled water on my keyboard, so I think I’ll just leave it here:

If you notice anything broken, please let me know, either by posting a comment here, using the contact form, emailing me at kelson – at – pobox – dot – com or contacting me on Twitter @SpeedForceOrg. Thanks!

Just a quick note: this site is now running on a shiny new server. Between this and the network move last month, the occasional bouts of slowness and downtime should — I hope — be a thing of the past.

Still getting some kinks worked out, so please let me know if you run into anything that’s broken. Comment here, or if you can’t, contact me on Twitter @SpeedForceOrg or by email at speedforce – at – pobox – dot – com.

A couple of brief site notes:

1. WordPress 2.8 is expected to come out today. I wanted to avoid a major upgrade the same day as Flash: Rebirth #3, and of course instead of taking the sensible approach and waiting until the weekend to upgrade, I installed the release candidate a few days ago. (It’s not quite that bad. I did test it on my other blog first. Or does that make it worse?) Just about everything seems to work so far, though I’m not sure about email notifications. Update: It’s running on 2.8 final now.

2. CommentLuv has just launched their new site and plugin. The service adds a link to your latest blog post when you make a comment. The new version has some additional features for registered users: not only can you choose from several recent posts, you can add up to 5 different sources, including multiple blogs and a Twitter account.

Update: 3. Bad Behavior has released a new version as well. With luck this will block the pill spammers who have been cluttering up the spam folder. Akismet has kept them from making it through to the site, but there’s just been too much junk to look through it for false positives.

If you encounter any problems with the site, please let me know here!

A couple of notes on recent changes here at Speed Force:

1. You may have noticed a welcome banner appearing from time to time on the site. That’s something I’ve been trying out here and at K-Squared Ramblings, and presents an appropriate message to viewers coming from various search sites and social networks. In theory you should only see it once, or at most once a week, if you allow cookies. It’s powered by the Wp Greet Box plugin, and I go into more detail at K²R.

2. I’ve been trying to balance software speed with download speed, especially for visitors on mobile handsets. I used to run WordPress Mobile Edition, which tries to detect most phones and other small-screen, low-bandwidth devices, but it doesn’t work well with server caching. Since I upgraded to a G1 phone, I’ve been trying out WPTouch, which presents a clean interface on the iPhone and on phones that run the Android browser. If you read this site with a mobile device, please let me know how well it works. I’ll probably be tweaking this some more.

3. I’ve updated to a new version of WordPress. Actually, I’ve jumped the gun a bit by installing the WP 2.7 release candidate. (I’ve also dropped the WP_Identicons plugin in favor of the built-in Identicon support, but it generates different avatars than the plugin did. Sorry if you liked your old one better!)

The new version supports threaded comments, but the theme I’m using isn’t compatible with them. I’ll take a stab at updating it manually this weekend.

Anyway, there may be some wonkiness with the upgrade. If you stumble on something odd, please let me know.

4. Holding steady at #8 on Comic Blog Elite. Or at least I was until today.

5. Can’t believe I missed the six-month mark. Half a year! The downside is that I’ve been somewhat neglecting updates at Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning in order to keep this going.

6. More social networking coming up. I’ve added the Twitter account SpeedForceOrg, and I’m working on something to tie this into Facebook. (And yeah, I’ve got a backlog of friend requests. Sorry about that.)

I just upgraded this site to WordPress 2.6. I probably should have held off a bit, but there were some things I really wanted to be able to use, like the new Gears support, version history on posts, and improved image management.

Call it an impulse.

Anyway, if anything is broken, please let me know in the comments here — or if you can’t comment, please email me at speedforce [at] pobox [dot] com.