Area 51 » Technology

147

followers

Announcements

WordPress-related jQuery questions are also cool. As to "everything related to WordPress" I'd say maybe "everything 'how to' related to WordPress?" – MikeSchinkel Jun 1 '10 at 23:09

Who is the audience for this site? Please edit the audience to describe the people who will come here, not the mission of the site. – Joel Spolsky Jun 2 '10 at 0:22

"Proposed Q&A site for WordPress development and administration. If you write plugins or themes, or administer your own WordPress site then this is the site for you." – WraithKenny Jun 3 '10 at 19:19

show 39 more announcements

119 Example Questions (9 closed)

active newest votes

up vote -1 down vote

added by MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 8:22

up vote -1 down vote

added by davemac Jun 2 '10 at 12:49

closed as off topic by scribu, Gordon Gustafson, Keith S., squircle, Brett Veenstra Jun 7 '10 at 12:57

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Agreed off-topic. This isn't a jobs board -- maybe redirect folks to the wp-pro mailing list or the WP Tavern jobs board? – ZaMoose Jun 3 '10 at 13:38

This doesn't even have much value as an off-topic. – WraithKenny Jun 8 '10 at 19:45

up vote -1 down vote

added by Pbearne Jun 2 '10 at 13:41

This is a CSS theme question so yes and no – Pbearne Jun 2 '10 at 13:43

It is wordpress related so definite yes. – Arlen Beiler Jun 2 '10 at 14:32

Why is it off-topic? Wouldn't the answer be to edit style.css in the theme? – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 15:39

The answer is more than just a CSS question because it requires people understand themes and the files that compose them. There are many CSS related issues that have very WordPress-specific answers. – eddiemoya Jun 2 '10 at 21:22

Are some questions "too basic" to be asked? Is this too basic theming? – Roger Pate Jun 3 '10 at 11:39

show 2 more improvement suggestions

up vote -1 down vote

added by Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 14:45

I intended it as an example of an off-topic question because of its vagueness and because the general nature of it (in the absence of other details) is not specific to WordPress. "Edit style.css" (or visit the theme options page) is probably correct in 99% of the cases. I find it interesting that the vote is nearly even, given the very general nature of the question. – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 18:06

up vote -1 down vote

added by rcdunnii Jun 2 '10 at 15:05

Would like to see questions how specifics of how to host on AWS EC2 more than this question, or specifics about issues that might exist. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 17:38

up vote -1 down vote

added by Share And Follow Jun 2 '10 at 15:52

	The "Help ... who should I contact?" part makes me think off-topic. – WraithKenny Jun 3 '10 at 18:28
	...should be 'how do I repair POST operations to my Wordpress SVN when GET works fine?' – kevtrout Jun 5 '10 at 17:47
	The language this question is written in is technically incorrect and mixing things. A better question would be: How can I obtain commit access to WordPress SVN? Answer is: Ask Matthew Charles Mullenweg, he can give provide that. – hakre Jun 12 '10 at 20:05

up vote -1 down vote

added by eddiemoya Jun 2 '10 at 21:24

This one could go either way, depending on the specifics of the question. Going to grudgingly vote 'Yes' – manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:08

Definitely could go either way, but voted "no" b/c something along the lines of "When I hook on post save to update Twitter or Facebook, it's not working" would be more appropriate – bigdawggi Jun 2 '10 at 22:44

I agree that no one asks if they should RTFM, however I was trying to make it clear that the issue was the blurry area where 3rd party services integrates with wordpress. – eddiemoya Jun 3 '10 at 15:17

Subject area is OK, but there's not enough information. OP needs to add specifics so question can be intelligently answered. – John Biddle Jun 9 '10 at 18:55

up vote -1 down vote

added by eddiemoya Jun 2 '10 at 21:46

closed as off topic by MikeSchinkel, kevtrout, John Biddle, Drake, curtismchale Jun 12 '10 at 16:42

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

A really good question, but don't feel that it's relevant to this site. Much too broad to answer succinctly. – manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:09

Agree, it should be answered but with less broad questions. Not sure how to narrow it though so I didn't vote on this. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 23:05

I think this is the type of question that is better suited in the wordpress.org forums since it involved more discussion. Its not a question with a defined solution. – prettyboymp Jun 3 '10 at 13:37

What does this have to do with wordpress? At its heart it is an HTML/CSS/PHP questions (how hard is it to work with those languages) – Ash G Jun 11 '10 at 6:47

up vote -1 down vote

added by Ash G Jun 6 '10 at 1:52

	I have actually had this problem and while I found a work around, never did find out why this was happening. – Ash G Jun 6 '10 at 1:53
	Please specify "working as expected", so the question is a little bit fuzzy / unspecified but I can imagine that such can be asked. – hakre Jun 6 '10 at 20:55
	Agreed, in a real situation specifics would be needed. – Ash G Jun 10 '10 at 6:54

up vote -1 down vote

added by Share And Follow Jun 8 '10 at 8:21

	wordpress.org/extend/plugins/share-and-follow/… example stat page, where Chrome thinks there is 1 working and 1 broken result, yet all other browsers report 0 working and 0 broken – Share And Follow Jun 8 '10 at 8:22
	This is a browser/general net question not really specific to WordPress – curtismchale Jun 12 '10 at 16:40

up vote -1 down vote

added by John Biddle Jun 9 '10 at 19:15

Why is this not a good example? WP3 has been available as beta for a month, and this question is applicable to all MU versions as well. My goal was to find a good question for someone trying out the multi-user features of the new combined WP products. It doesn't seem to fit any of the reasons that would make a Q not a good example. – John Biddle Jun 13 '10 at 21:53

up vote -1 down vote

added by hakre Jun 15 '10 at 14:54

up vote -2 down vote

added by Arlen Beiler Jun 1 '10 at 21:58

Not really a WordPress-specific question. Perhaps if the poster had asked something about uploading images for a theme, or somesuch. – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 0:24

Voting no because its incoherent and seems generic. Agreed with Dougal that there is a valid question hidden in here and it would be worth figuring out what it is and editing the question to be more helpful. – jeremyclarke Jun 2 '10 at 14:17

Valid question might be "How do I insert images I've uploaded to my server into a post?" – kevtrout Jun 2 '10 at 15:59

Or valid question might be "How can I upload pictures and large files via FTP to my WordPress blog?" – hakre Jun 3 '10 at 21:56

up vote -2 down vote

added by Arlen Beiler Jun 1 '10 at 22:01

closed as off topic by Chris_K, MikeSchinkel, kevtrout, bigdawggi, googletorp Jun 7 '10 at 9:39

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

off-topic - subjective – Arlen Beiler Jun 1 '10 at 22:35

We don't want this to be about discussions of why WordPress is better or worse than some other tool, nor do we want subjective discussions. We want answers to "How To" questions. – MikeSchinkel Jun 1 '10 at 23:06

Agree with Mike, we are not selling WordPress and it's benefits here – davemac Jun 2 '10 at 12:24

It's in any case a question which can not be answered as long as it's unspecified for what that is to use and by whom. – hakre Jun 3 '10 at 21:53

This is subjective – Ash G Jun 6 '10 at 1:54

up vote -2 down vote

added by davemac Jun 2 '10 at 12:17

I think the question is confusing. What does "top-most parent category name" mean? – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 15:28

It's definetly on-topic. The "top-most parent category" means the final ancestor of a given category. – scribu Jun 2 '10 at 17:12

@scribu: highest ancestor is clearer, I think. – Arlen Beiler Jun 2 '10 at 17:21

Sorry, "highest ancestor" is a much better definition of what I was meaning. – davemac Jun 4 '10 at 11:21

up vote -2 down vote

added by Pbearne Jun 2 '10 at 13:39

because the first perm is depecatied so you need to code in the theme as work around – Pbearne Jun 2 '10 at 13:43

Let's ignore that the poster meant 'get_excerpt()', not 'get_extract()' :) – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 14:29

The question is not clearly stated enough. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 15:30

Maybe the typo is the question! @doug – Roger Pate Jun 3 '10 at 11:39

up vote -2 down vote

added by Pbearne Jun 2 '10 at 13:40

closed as off topic by aesqe, scribu, Chris_K, Arlen Beiler, squircle Jun 6 '10 at 16:46

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Just cause it's off-topic, doesn't mean it's not valuable. Don't be afraid to mark off-topic. – WraithKenny Jun 3 '10 at 18:14

up vote -2 down vote

added by Chris_K Jun 2 '10 at 13:45

Methinks that Chris_K must be a web developer too... ;-) – manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:10

LOL, perhaps... but the question was inspired by my time in the wordpress.org forums. Semi-frequent question... – Chris_K Jun 2 '10 at 22:56

This is a job posting (even though there is no payment), which I would think we don't want to encourage. – davemac Jun 4 '10 at 11:16

This is more appropriate to a jobs forum – Ash G Jun 6 '10 at 1:59

up vote -2 down vote

added by jeremyclarke Jun 2 '10 at 14:14

Not relevant to wordpress specifically. Should ask about plugins or something specific to WP. – jeremyclarke Jun 2 '10 at 14:15

Ask on the Web Applications SE. – Arlen Beiler Jun 2 '10 at 14:45

Definitely not relevant. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 15:42

up vote -2 down vote

added by curtismchale Jun 2 '10 at 15:24

This type of question should be referred to the paid theme developer forum. – curtismchale Jun 2 '10 at 15:26

Hmm, I'm going to have to disagree. This is very much relevant to WordPress albeit a subset of WordPress users. If there's enough demand there could be a Thesis Theme Answers that spawns out of here but I very much want to find answers to 3rd party solutions at WordPress Answers. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 15:35

We can assume that most of the answers that would be found on Wordpress Answers should be on some other documentation site... but it doesn't follow that thus none of them belong here. 3rd-party theme/plugin questions should be on-topic. – Chris Hubbs Jun 2 '10 at 16:16

I disagree that this should be answered here. Thesis tends to have it's own way of handling things. If the question were "How do I remove Thesis' custom image headers in favor of WordPress' image headers" it may be much more appropriate. – manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:13

I think that as Thesis is a paid for Theme that the theme owner should be the one who supports it. When it comes down to it, if you want to help someone with that theme you have to consider that for you to be able to support a fellow Wordpress user, you need to have spent about $70 on Thesis. So for me Thesis is Off-topic, yet free themes are On-topic. – Share And Follow Jun 3 '10 at 16:18

show 4 more improvement suggestions

up vote -2 down vote

added by manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:03

Great question. I've often wondered this myself and it demonstrates best practice as well. – davemac Jun 4 '10 at 11:26

Isn't functions.php specific to a theme? So this question implicates theme <- or -> plugin. – hakre Jun 4 '10 at 17:20

Its a good question, but its more discussion based than a simple answer which fits the SO format. – prettyboymp Jun 7 '10 at 2:20

A good answer would be a list of pro/cons for each approach, not a definitive answer for any specific functional requirement. I think this is a good question for a budding WP developer. We want to encourage those, right? – John Biddle Jun 9 '10 at 19:02

up vote -2 down vote

added by manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:17

If you are wondering right now, the difference is that WordPress.com is not self-hosted. SuperAdmins are allowed, of course, because they are almost self-hosting it. – Arlen Beiler Jun 3 '10 at 3:44

If non-self-hosted isn't allowed on the site, this should be covered by the FAQ and should not belong as a question. – Roger Pate Jun 3 '10 at 8:42

up vote -2 down vote

added by hakre Jun 12 '10 at 20:12

	I assume you mean "custom Post type". If so then the question is poorly worded. If not, I don't know what you're referring to. – John Biddle Jun 13 '10 at 16:47
	@John: I meant "nothing", I have taken the wording from another question I found here: Question: How do I add a custom post status? Author: MikeSchinkel Date: Jun 2 at 8:22 – hakre Jun 14 '10 at 6:22

up vote -3 down vote

added by Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 0:35

closed as off topic by aesqe, scribu, squircle, Brett Veenstra, Callan Jun 7 '10 at 22:30

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

This is about marketing and promotion, not about WordPress. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 1:21

Well, the question is generally about WordPress, but not about development, coding, or technical issues. The question could be answered simple like, "Write good content about your subject, and participate in the community involved with your subject" and leave it at that. If this will be a technical only site, then it is indeed off-topic. – WraithKenny Jun 2 '10 at 17:15

This would be more appropriate to a SEO stack – Ash G Jun 6 '10 at 1:34

Or a general webmastering stack. This must not be SEO (but it certainly is these days). – hakre Jun 13 '10 at 8:30

up vote -3 down vote

added by Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 0:54

You might have to be careful not to get sucked in by questions like this. This is a browser/CSS question, not a WordPress question, even though it involves a theme from the repository. – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 0:57

A good answer would be "report it to the theme developer". – Arlen Beiler Jun 2 '10 at 2:01

Agree to avoiding specific browser/css questions – davemac Jun 2 '10 at 12:39

Right, while I wrote this specifically as an example of an off-topic question, it's really a bit of a gray area. Probably the best way to handle it is to say it's a problem for the theme author to handle, and suggest finding a different theme. But actually solving an IE6 CSS problem is not in the scope of WordPress Answers. – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 14:14

@Dougal: Right on! – Arlen Beiler Jun 2 '10 at 17:48

show 4 more improvement suggestions

up vote -3 down vote

added by Chris_K Jun 2 '10 at 3:53

Needs to provide details. – Arlen Beiler Jun 2 '10 at 3:56

Frequently Asked Question but expect to see it a lot since folks struggle with searching first. On the SE platform one could hope some of that would be mitigated. (oh, and I'd consider it quite on topic, even if most answers are of the copy/paste variant). – Chris_K Jun 2 '10 at 4:04

This one is tough. SE is about specific questions with objective answers. The answer to "I've been hacked" is often custom to the person. Maybe there's a generic answer that could apply to every situation though? Dunno. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 8:19

Agreed. In the wp.org forums we tend to respond with a collection of links to "how-to's" until the question can become specific -- like, tell us what files have been modified (core vs. themes/plugins) or additional details. – Chris_K Jun 2 '10 at 12:38

If there is something to deal with properly at least it should be security issues (remember, WordPress is a webapplication). The problem with this question is that it is fairly unspecific and no global answer can be given to it. For WordPress this normally means to reinstall a backuped version and database - prior to the (first) hack. – hakre Jun 3 '10 at 22:40

show 2 more improvement suggestions

up vote -3 down vote

added by Krusty Ruffle Jun 2 '10 at 11:53

	Flagging as "not a good example" because a Google search for "wordpress nightly builds" turns up the correct answer easily. – Dougal Campbell Jun 5 '10 at 12:17
	@Dougal: Oh, well if that's the criteria... . – hakre Jun 6 '10 at 20:50
	If this site is for admins and coders, I think it's not that bad. Maybe with a hint to the CVS in use as well makes sense. – hakre Jun 14 '10 at 6:21

up vote -3 down vote

added by Krusty Ruffle Jun 2 '10 at 11:56

This is off topic. This is more DNS/registrar related. – John P Bloch Jun 2 '10 at 13:20

I'd vote that it's on topic for setup of WPMU. Sure the specifics change from registrar to registrar but the general idea of how to do it stays consistent. – curtismchale Jun 2 '10 at 15:30

A similar question would be "How do I set up pretty permalinks?" which would involve creating an .htaccess file. Would that be off-topic too? I think not. – scribu Jun 2 '10 at 17:14

@scribu Hmmm... I disagree; the big difference is that WP can (and often does) create/edit the .htaccess file, whereas it cannot turn on wildcard subdomains. Turning on Wildcards must be done explicitly through DNS settings. It would be the same situation as if someone asked "how do I enable cURL" or "how do I upgrade from PHP4 to PHP5". I think it's out of scope. – John P Bloch Jun 2 '10 at 18:15

To enable wildcard sub domains with WPMU you need to have DNS, your http server, and WordPress all set up correctly. DNS and Web server may be out of scope, but without it WordPress will not perform correctly. For most people the first two parts would be someone else's responsibility, but the wordPress part still remains. I would have thought this was on topic. – Krusty Ruffle Jun 3 '10 at 21:55

show 1 more improvement suggestion

up vote -3 down vote

added by jeremyclarke Jun 2 '10 at 14:10

Hmm, the answers will be subjective. But a list of tools to fit the bill would still be useful. "What is the best X" is generally not as good a question as "Can someone recommend an X". Best responses would give various pros and cons for each X. – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 14:33

Dougal: Excellent point, I've seen both types on SO and now that you mention it I realize the benefits of 'recommend' in terms of framing a discussion. Best has its own charms though, and lets votes be for IDEs rather than the specific response. Maybe something like "What PHP IDE for OSX is good for WP and why?" – jeremyclarke Jun 2 '10 at 17:28

I'm split on this one ... so I won't vote. But IDE questions (even if you only develop for WordPress) aren't really about WordPress at all ... – EAMann Jun 2 '10 at 17:37

Definitely off-topic for "best." "What are the IDEs that I can use for WordPress development with OSX?" would be on-topic as they relate specifically to IDES with features that recognize WordPress (btw, PhpStorm FTW!) – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 17:39

up vote -3 down vote

added by Al E. Jun 2 '10 at 15:19

More appropriate might be "Is there a plug-in that does X?" – Al E. Jun 2 '10 at 15:42

Or to be more pedantic "Which plugin does X? (assuming one exists)" :-) – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 17:37

@Mike: Always assume one exists. If one doesn't, "none exists" is a valid answer. (It makes for better questions, avoids yes/no, etc.) – Roger Pate Jun 3 '10 at 8:49

This specific question is off-topic, tho a more precise question of the same form should be on-topic. – WraithKenny Jun 3 '10 at 18:15

up vote -3 down vote

added by suzecampbell Jun 3 '10 at 14:05

Better question: "I need "X" feature in a theme. What are my options?" – MikeSchinkel Jun 3 '10 at 15:49

up vote -4 down vote

added by Arlen Beiler Jun 1 '10 at 22:00

but isn't that exactly why they would be asking for help? – Chris_K Jun 2 '10 at 3:38

@Chris_K: but it is too basic. the way SO type sites work is ny attracting experts, basic questions get answered but the questioner needs to show that they have at least minimal understanding of the question. – Good Person Jun 2 '10 at 7:19

@Good Person - Agreed. Questions should ideally be Advanced to Expert, but at least Intermediate to get the better people to spend time answering. – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 8:15

I think this type of question should go in a basic computer question forum. It's about computer use more than use of WordPress. – curtismchale Jun 2 '10 at 15:20

Flagging "not a good example". Because it's not :) – Dougal Campbell Jun 5 '10 at 12:32

show 3 more improvement suggestions

up vote -4 down vote

added by Krusty Ruffle Jun 2 '10 at 11:55

closed as off topic by Arlen Beiler, Dougal Campbell, Keith S., squircle, John P Bloch Jun 7 '10 at 14:13

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Hrm. While this appears to be on-topic, I think I might have to vote off-topic. It's not a technical question, and the answer is always "when it's ready." – Dougal Campbell Jun 2 '10 at 14:23

It's a question based on a timeline and it's either conjecture (if not yet released) or only of historical value. And the latter can be answered here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordpress#Releases – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 15:37

Predicting the future is off-topic. – Roger Pate Jun 3 '10 at 11:42

up vote -4 down vote

added by John P Bloch Jun 2 '10 at 21:35

I think this should be off-topic. This is certainly 'related to WordPress', but it's not appropriate here. WP history, lore, and factoids probably aren't in scope. What does everyone else think? – John P Bloch Jun 2 '10 at 21:39

Hmm.. i went with no on this one. Although its clearly related to wordpress - its not relevant to using it, or working with it. If there is for some reason a desire to contact someone, then the reason should be stated, so that they can be directed to the correct person/people/website. – eddiemoya Jun 2 '10 at 21:44

Point em here instead: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordpress#Key_developers – MikeSchinkel Jun 2 '10 at 23:07

Yeah, I don't think that questions that are easily answered by looking at the wordpress.org site belong here. I mean, come on -- visit wordpress.org, click 'About', boom. Question answered. – Dougal Campbell Jun 3 '10 at 2:33

@prettyboymp: But the proposed charter here is that WordPress Answers is for "development and administration". What does this question have to do with those? – Dougal Campbell Jun 4 '10 at 2:24

show 1 more improvement suggestion

up vote -4 down vote

added by manifestphil Jun 2 '10 at 22:03

up vote -4 down vote

added by WraithKenny Jun 3 '10 at 18:37

	Boy, that's a complicated question that can have a ton of different answers. No vote yet... – ZaMoose Jun 3 '10 at 20:00
	What does it matter if code is derivative of WordPress? Does that help you develop plugins/themes or administer a WordPress site? Off-topic. – Dougal Campbell Jun 4 '10 at 2:09
	Again I think this is GPL related and somehow unspecific. Maybe we should offer a GPL FAQ? – hakre Jun 4 '10 at 17:35
	Way to broad, off topic and not a '10 best' question – davemac Jun 7 '10 at 10:20
	I was going for an example of off-topic, but I guess this is not a good example :-\ – WraithKenny Jun 8 '10 at 19:44

up vote -4 down vote

added by Arvinje Jun 4 '10 at 9:53

Agreed, not the sort of question an expert would find encouraging either. – davemac Jun 10 '10 at 11:39

up vote -4 down vote

added by Tim Jun 8 '10 at 18:12

up vote -5 down vote

added by MikeSchinkel Jun 1 '10 at 23:10

closed as off topic by aesqe, Keith S., kevtrout, hakre, davemac Jun 7 '10 at 10:25

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

This is subjective and poorly qualified. It might be appropriate to compare them if the criteria were very specific, but even then only if the answer could be fully objective based on the criteria. – MikeSchinkel Jun 1 '10 at 23:12

Too subjective imo – Ash G Jun 6 '10 at 1:55