WP 2.7 Dashboard surprise: Eyecandy!

Who wouldn't want a treat?

After a long day — it didn’t help that the fickleminded early December weather was a mix of dry chilly wind and humid air  — a yummy surprise is always welcome.

You know how it is when the acknowledged cooks in the family are left to themselves in the kitchen doing their stuff while we go about our daily concerns. We know that they’re putting something *nice* together. How *nice* that will come to be, though, we leave it up to circumstance, knowing they won’t fail our expectations even when there are moments when their activities fall to the back burner of our  attention.

Such is WordPress.com’s upgrade, notwithstanding the sustained v2.7 announcement;   it can’t be helped but to ignore it sometimes, or be curious about it depending on one’s state of mind at the time that the notice appears (or is seen) on the dashboard. 

More WordPress stats: “Breaks 4 million hosted blogs mark” [Startupmeme.com]

I have to give it to the guys at WordPress. This heads up came from Plurk friend Startupmeme.com today on WordPress’ new milestone: surpassing the four-million mark for WordPress.com hosted blogs as soon as September entered the 2008 calendar.

The news was drawn from Joseph Scott’s blog posted on Sept. 3, 2006, or three days before WordCamp Philippines in which he proposes that if the sign up trend continues, WordPress.com “will hit 5 million in less than 4 months [or possibly] (end of December?)”.

WordPress.com, on which this blog is hosted, is the free blogging platform of WordPress.

During the recently-concluded WordCamp Philippines 2008, Matt Mullenweg showed a slide from his presentation of an increase of 1 million in WordPress blogs between his talk in Manila and WordCamp San Francisco in August — in just within three weeks.

Matt also said at WordCamp Philippines 2008 that there have been, thus far:

• 4 million beta-testers
• 11 million downloads so far
• a total of 5 default plug-ins use in WordPress blogs on the average
• between 1-2.3 million new blogs

This milestone proves that the principle behind WordPress’ dedication towards user satisfaction and a continuous effort towards achieving a robust and secure platform is on the right track.

Because of Matt’s personal appearance and targeted presentation last Saturday, it is comforting to know that there are companies, developers, programmers and designers who are inclined to listen to users and strive to offer good service. I wish all the guys over at WordPress all the best.

 

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Image above courtesy of startupmeme.com from Joseph Scott’s blog
Joseph Scott’s original post
Startupmeme.com’s post with some additional data
WordCamp 2008 Philippines status report
Breakaway sessions at WordCamp 2008 Philippines from stellify.net
Some images from the WordCamp 2008 Philippines
Related WordCamp 2008 Philippines mind doodles

Postscript to a Camp and a world premiere: WordCamp Philippines 2008

Having attended the first WordCamp in Southeast Asia at the College of St. Benilde in De La Salle University over at Taft Avenue last Saturday, Sept 6, I have to say that blogging truly is a serious undertaking for many, and I take it from those who attended and stayed throughout the event. This also happens to be the first blog-related event I had ever been to.

I missed the morning sessions and I feel deprived of knowing about some important issues regarding blog services in general, and the state of WordPress in the Philippines, in particular (courtesy of Chuckie Dreyfus).

However, I made sure to stay the rest of the day and be at the highlight of the event which I believe was WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg‘s talk and the premiere with live demo of version WP 2.7. But that is getting ahead of myself.

Organizers, volunteers and attendees busy at the front of house before entering the venue