For the past two years, ActiveBlogging members could run ABTheme for free, month by month, as a members-only bonus (ABTheme is normally licensed via a permanent blog key).

I wrote custom code for that: on the ABTheme side, it would check in with ActiveBlogging (actually, two domains, for redundancy and failsafe protection), and get a confirmation key to continue – if the member was active and had created a key for that site. Otherwise, the plugin would stop working.

And it worked well – I used it on many of …

Yes, and it’s very slick, with an improved user interface.

I’ve been downloading the release candidates, but finally yesterday the first ‘real’ release came out.

I’m sure ActiveBlogging Members can already predict what I’ll be saying in my report for April, where I’ll be discussing some of the biggest changes there.

First impressions, though, are that the Admin interface will make blogging MUCH easier for the average writer, with tech info tucked away or displayed off to one side (and reduced font, no less).

There’ plenty for the geeks …

“Above the fold” is an old newspaper term – since papers arrived folded, the top half was seen first – so obviously, if you wanted to get attention (and encourage people to read the paper), you put your best stories “above the fold”.

On the Internet, you’d think this was not a problem, but we still have a ‘fold’ to deal with – the first part of the web page that appears in our browser window. Anything below it has a problem – because if this top section doesn’t attract, …

Although readers of my report on WordPress security already know about the problems with themes and plugins, it’s still interesting to read about some real world examples of how these can be abused.

Blogsecurity.net (an excellent security blog and well worth bookmarking) reported on the security flaws of some packages and poorly formed mySQL input. Note this isn’t malicious coding of plugins – it’s just code that hasn’t been checked thoroughly in its inputs. Still, the end result is someone gets access to something they shouldn’t.

5thirtyone.com talks about care …

Let’s face it – EVERY site (including WordPress ones) is susceptible to security problems.

Now I don’t want to give the idea that WordPress is insecure – it’s actually VERY secure, and updated frequently as problems arise.

But it’s the nature of the Internet – people can come ‘knocking’ at your website’s door 24/7, and some of them REALLY enjoy vandalizing!

What can you do?

Keep alert to security updates – if a program (like WordPress) releases a new version, update it.

Avoid third-party plugins and themes you aren’t comfortable …