I’ve also added some handy new plugins:

The Flickr widget allows you to show [...]]]> Our blog software has been updated from 2.6.5 to 2.8.2.  You will notice the completely redesigned (and completely customizable) Dashboard when you log in. (For more information and a tutorial on how to use the new Dashboard, see my previous post.)

I’ve also added some handy new plugins:

The Flickr widget allows you to show photos from your Flickr account in your blog sidebar.

More Privacy Options lets you customize the level of privacy of your entire blog. You can now limit access to only logged-in Smith users, or you can limit it to a specific group of people whom you select. This will allow us to use WordPress for course blogs which are visible to course members only.

My Page Order lets you set the order in which pages appear in the page list widget.  Under Pages, you’ll see an additional menu item that lets you easily drag your page list to reorder it.

Along with the usual security updates and bug fixes, this version comes with a completely redesigned [...]]]> WordPress 2.8.1 has been released!  We were planning to upgrade to 2.7, but we will now be skipping directly to 2.8. This upgrade will happen by the end of July, so be prepared to see some nice changes here.

Along with the usual security updates and bug fixes, this version comes with a completely redesigned Dashboard interface.  This means that when you log in to make updates to your blog, the blog administration page you see will look very different.

Here is a view of what the new interface looks like:

WordPress 2.7 Dashboard

For more information on the new Dashboard interface, please read this tutorial.

For further information on what specifically has changed from 2.6.5 to 2.8.1, see WordPress’s blog posts on 2.7 and 2.8.

The security issue is an XSS exploit discovered by Jeremias Reith that fortunately only affects IP-based virtual servers running on Apache 2.x. …

2.6.5 contains three other small fixes in addition to [...]]]> Smith College Blogs has been updated to WPMu 2.5.6, an update which fixes a security problem and a few bugs. Via WordPress Blog:

The security issue is an XSS exploit discovered by Jeremias Reith that fortunately only affects IP-based virtual servers running on Apache 2.x. …

2.6.5 contains three other small fixes in addition to the XSS fix. The first prevents accidentally saving post meta information to a revision. The second prevents XML-RPC from fetching incorrect post types. The third adds some user ID sanitization during bulk delete requests. For a list of changed files, consult the full changeset between 2.6.3 and 2.6.5.

Smith College Blogs have recently been updated to WPMu 2.6.3, which fixes a vulnerability in the Snoopy library, which is used to fetch the feeds shown in the Dashboard.

Akismet was also updated, a plugin which, if you haven’t noticed it, should be your favorite! Akismet protects your blog from comment spam, and it’s [...]]]>

Smith College Blogs have recently been updated to WPMu 2.6.3, which fixes a vulnerability in the Snoopy library, which is used to fetch the feeds shown in the Dashboard.

Akismet was also updated, a plugin which, if you haven’t noticed it, should be your favorite! Akismet protects your blog from comment spam, and it’s doing it’s job if you never think about it. To check out what Akismet has blocked, go to Comments → Akismet Spam. (As of writing this post, Akismet has blocked 102 spam comments on the Smith College Blogs News & Updates blog.)

Lastly, the video embedding/linking plugin has been upgraded to Viper’s Video Quicktags 6.1.4. You’ll notice the new embed buttons in your text editor. To add other types of video or remove some of the default buttons, go to Settings → Video Quicktags.