Paul Gibbs just shared that 1.7 Beta 2 has been released. Trac shows a number of bug fixes and improvements, mainly around theme compatibility and a few around admin screens. Download it here if you’re feeling curious or brave.

We’ve been working hard over the last few weeks compiling lists of resources that will be a starting point for a much bigger library that we hope to create long-term. The goal of our effort is quite simple – we want to provide as much education as possible through valuable community-curated resources to both existing community members as well as those who have yet to start using WordPress. The hope is to simply create a ton of value for everyone who might pass through our site.

With over 334,000 downloads WP Smush.it has become a staple within many WordPress developer circles – it’s an incredible plugin that has helped thousands save space by optimizing images – lossless, by the way. It stripped meta data from jpegs, optimized compression, converted certain gifs to indexed pngs, and even stripped un-used colors from indexed images. Sadly though it seems that it’s time for the original author, Alex Dunae, to move on:

Between Ghost Busters and Ninja Turtles I would used to watch Inspector Gadget – you guys remember that? Go-Go Gadget [fill in the blank]! That stuff was super-legit and still inspires me today. Sure, Shredder and the random assortment of ghosts were scary but was their anything more scary than Dr. Claw? You never got to see his face he was so stinkin’ crazy! Shudder.

Ah, very stoked about this news, for sure, as there is now a new spot for documents, planning materials, and training information for WordPress-related events. They’ve been building the database and finally it’s got it’s own “codex” that’ll house all the templates, content, or even “well written” prose that you’ve got. Drum up those emails and old blog posts that you’d like to contribute to the new codex!

People leave your site for a number of reasons – maybe it’s the color on your blog or because your first image is a meme which offends those that pass through. Who knows. Those things are subjective for the most part. There are some things though that are less subjective and that you may want to take into consideration the next time you design and develop your WordPress-powered site. Take a look at this infographic in a spare moment today and consider some of the improvements you could make – click for larger view:

How much time have you spent on educating your WordPress clients on how to use WordPress (or even your parents and friends)? Lots of time perhaps – too much time if you’re running a full-blown WordPress-centric business. Well, that’s where WP101 steps in and helps ease the pain of education by providing robust videos and tutorials covering nearly every aspect of WordPress and even technologies (like RSS) that aren’t a part of WordPress. Obviously this covers the bases and saves a lot of people an incredible amount of time – which is why Pagely has begun using their service for […]

Have you ever had to migrate a blog from one URL to another? Yeah, you and me both – 1,000 times it seems. For those that have the development chops this process is boring and well-worn but for many this is a scary proposition and you end up spending a lot of time on Google to look for solutions. Perhaps if all you’re looking to do is change the Site URL is use this neat generator that’s freely available? Check it out:

It seems like it may be so. We got an inside look into an upcoming plugin and theme that can help others using WordPress to crowd fund/source there next great project. It looks like they’ve created both a theme and an add-on via Pippin Williamson’s plugin Easy Digital Downloads and it might just be amazing. So we touched based with Adam Pickering and he gave us a real 411. Check it:

The creativity and entrepreneurship via the NYC Meetup Group knows no bounds! Steve Bruner has shared that this month is a unique month with the meetup as they have started a new campaign and initiative that seeks to give back to their community: This month at the WordPress NYC meetup, we’re starting something new: WPNYC GIVES BACK. We will raffle off $1 for each user that RSVP’s (i.e. 100 RSVP’s = $100).  This money will be split between: 1. One WPNYC member. 2. A WordPress developer that has donated a free theme or plugin to the community (chosen by the member […]