New features and tools at the old blog
June 3, 2008 by Phil Barron · 
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As a relatively new WordPress user, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find that when I determine a need for the blog - some bit of functionality or useful feature that I can envision but am hardly capable of coding on my own - I discover that the answer is out there, usually in convenient plugin form, quietly awaiting my attention. This has happened every time, without fail. Sometimes it has taken quite a bit of searching, but I have yet to return from any quest empty-handed. This must be that open source magic that Matt Mullenweg talks about now and again. Kudos to the vast WP community.
So. What have we done here lately?
Implemented (and recently upgraded) the ability of commenters to edit their messages via Ronald Huereca’s WP Ajax Edit Comments.
Allowed commenters to subscribe to comments via, uh, Subscribe to Comments by Mark Jaquith.
A randomized RSS blogroll has been added, featuring the latest postings at linked sites. It took quite a bit of searching, but it happened thanks to Sarah G.’s What Others Are Saying plugin. (Only recently did I learn of a preexisting WP RSS widget, but I’m not a big fan of widgets, so…)
Most notably, the featured post teasers here now appear one after another in a rather elegant fade rotation. This is not the work of a plugin, but a bit of coding we like to call a Dynamic Crossfading Image Display of Recent Posts, devised by Epic Alex and based on the way-cool JavaScript/CSS Crossfader from Brand Spanking New. Only people whose browsers enable JavaScript get to enjoy the fady, rotatey goodness of the featured posts display. The five percent of you (yep, it’s right about five percent) who disable JavaScript due to security concerns or other reasons will instead see teasers for all of the most recent featured posts displayed at once. The approach degrades nicely, I think.
That’s enough meta for today. More next week, I’m sure.
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