Every time I update Spam Karma it takes significant tweaking to get it to work. Today, it's just plain dead.

This is a real problem since I had been recommending Spam Karma to everyone with WordPress as the ultimate comment spam solution. But I can't do that any more.

Rather than concentrate on the WordPress future, version 1.5, it seems like retroactive functions are more important to Spam Karma development. In fact, it seems like adding functions that deal with past comments have been prioritized over getting the spam filtering system to work correctly on new incoming spams. Ever since upgrading to version 1.11, for instance, I no longer get the comment content in my deletion digests. In this latest version, I'm led to doubt that the comment body is even processed for spam criteria.

Well, I've had it. The code is a mess and the latest version (1.16) breaks my WordPress install. There doesn't seem to be any regression testing involved in the releases, which are way, way too frequent to have received thorough testing on all of the WordPress versions and configurations that it's supposed to support.

I guess this means I'm back in the spam filtering game. Expect something new from me soon, since I'm sure I won't be able to tolerate hand-moderating every comment that comes through here for that long. Four new spam comments appeared while I wrote this.

I wrote a plugin today that restores the geographic location functionality that was removed from WordPress 1.5. It adds the additional ability to specify preset locations. You can do all of this from the WordPress admin panel.

Download the Geo plugin (alpha version!)

After the past day of WordPress documentation list discussion, I'm thinking about a forum plugin for WordPress. It would basically let you create new bulletin boards, post messages, etc. Of course, it would use EzStatic to embed into the WordPress layout.

Combine that with some online issue tracking software, too?

Sound interesting? Ideas still formulating...

It's always while you're turned the other way.

Someone posted something about RedAlt (which isn't done by any stretch of the imagination) and look at what happened at del.icio.us. (Or Technorati.) It's like a cancer or something.

So now I've got a ton of folks looking at my incomplete code. Nice.

Maybe this is even where the strange sudden impetus for centralized WordPress SVN plugin development came from. Of course, that's the rampant paranoia talking, since Matt has been going on about SVN for a while.

Is it because I'm getting old that I don't like this SVN idea, or is there something nagging at me about the permissions on the source control database? I need to think about it more.

I received five messages about various plugins of mine today. I don't think I've gotten so many in one day before. Hopefully, I've resolved everyone's issues.

There is a new plugin online for y'all. It's called "Countdown", and it lets you maintain a list of events like the ones you see in my sidebar under "Dates To Remember". You basically drop the plugin and a dates.txt file into your plugin directory, enable the plugin, add the output code to your WordPress template (read the readme.txt), update the dates file through the WP admin, and *poof*. You've got birthdays and holidays and all.

One nice thing that it does that you won't expect is that it will let you specify a date that recurs, like a birthday, or a date that is a one-time event, like this year's office Christmas party. Even nicer is that you can specify dates like "2nd monday september" and it'll figure it out every year.

The included dates.txt file has settings in it already for Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and Daylight Savings. You should add your own.

Download it from the usual place.