Everybody poops.
That’s a phrase that levels the playing field, isn’t it? At the end of the day, whether you’re a famous movie star or a no-name well digger, you’ve got something in common: you poop (hopefully).
Wonder where I’m going with this?
Turns out we have something else in common: we have all sinned. I’m not talking about the kind of sin that makes Jesus weep, I’m talking about WordPress sins that can make you look like a total noob (or worse yet, a major boob) in the WordPress community.
Want to look like a WordPress pro? Avoid these mistakes:
Sin #1 – Ignoring the Capital P
It’s WordPress, with a capital P as in “Puh-lease don’t use a lowercase p.” If your social profile says you’re a Word-lowercase-press professional, people will snicker and tweet about you behind your back. It’s a branding thing so, if you claim to love the WordPress brand, make sure to mind your P’s.
Sin #2 – Misunderstanding WordPress.com and WordPress.org
If this confuses you, you’re not alone. Simply put, WordPress.com is a free, hosted version of WordPress (easy-peasy to set up, but with limited features) and WordPress.org is a place to freely download WordPress for your self-hosted website (requires more tech savvy, but the sky’s the limit). Want to know more? WPBeginner recently published a nifty infographic comparing the two.
Sin #3 – Misusing the WordPress logo
This can be an innocent mistake, but it’s a biggie. We all want to have a good reputation in the WordPress community, but misuse of the WordPress logo, whether it’s accidental (noob) or purposeful (boob), can put you on the No No List and make you look smarmy. If you’re using the WordPress logo on your site or in your marketing materials, double-check the official trademark policy to make sure you’re in compliance.
Sin #4 – Using “WordPress” in your URL
Along the lines of the previous sin…
Under no circumstances is it permitted to use WordPress or WordCamp as part of a top-level domain name. – WordPress Foundation
Don’t do it. K?
Sin #5 – You’re Just Another WordPress Site
Are you known as “Just Another Person Who Poops?” I hope not! Nobody wants to be “Just Another” anything.
When you set up a new WordPress installation, change the default site description (located at Settings > General in your WordPress dashboard). This helpful one-liner about your site is good for your readers and good for SEO.
Sin #6 – Being a Name Without a Face
Unless you legitimately look like a big snowman on a gray background
, you need to upload a user profile picture. To do this in WordPress, head over to Gravatar and create an account using the same email address from your WordPress user profile. The cool thing about Gravatar? If you leave a comment on another WordPress site, it’ll automagically pull in your profile pic.
Have I left out any other “biggies?” Leave a comment below and discuss.
LOL, this made me laugh. Especially the snowman logo. Great guide for n00bs.
Also, if you leave your permalink structure as the default ?p=156 you might be a n00b or a b00b.
Hahaha – touche! That’s just my shortlink.
Great Post. What are your thoughts on using an avatar versus a photograph? I’ve done both, but am currently using an avatar. Wasn’t sure if this was frowned upon…
Thanks Susan! I don’t know if there’s an official school of thought on avatar vs photo. Doesn’t bother me unless it’s generic.
If you have the stock “Hello World” post or the generic “About” sample page that comes with every out-of-the-box WordPress install on your site still, you might be a n00b!
Troof.
Great post! I am really glad you posted that link to the WP official trademark policy. Awesome stuff! I recently poked around there for some clarification; but it is still nice to see it again.
I approve of the use of both “boob” and “poop” in this post. Whoa, and for a second I though upside-down poop was boob, but it turns out it’s dood. I’ll leave now.
Oh wow, that would have be freaky amazing.
How about this one??? http://www.carriedils.com/readme.html
I made that mistake and got called out on it just recently. Now I get to call someone out on it. Tag, you’re it Carrie!
NICE! Ok, check that URL again…
Ha, nice fix Carrie!
Hahahaha, that’s AWESOME! Nicely done!
This isn’t a mistake. The readme.html file is harmless. If it were, WordPress wouldn’t add it back every time you update. If you’re running an outdated version of WordPress, though, *that* is a mistake.
Hey Nacin,
Thanks for chiming in! Yeah, an outdated version of WP might be the worst mistake of all.
Carrie
Another great WordPress post, had to go back and doublecheck my blog for #1. (Found a few, too. Yikes!)
Check this out: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/capital_P_dangit
Didn’t know it existed until today when it auto-corrected my “example” lowercase p’s…
http://capitalp.org/ Hehe
Great post, Carrie! I am semi-new to the online WordPress community but have found myself compulsively capitalizing the letter ‘P’ in almost everything for about 6 months now.
The function reference and capitalp.org/ are hilarious…WordPress love for sure. I made the tld mistake but fortunately corrected it pretty quickly.
I know, a lowercase p stands out like a sore thumb now!
Hi Carrie
You know I can still remember looking at WordPress.com and WordPress.org and being so confused – seems so long ago, but we were all new to WordPress once and needed help.
I only found out about the P in WordPress when Brian Gardner pointed it out to someone on his blog.
I’m not sure about Studiopress though – big P or little p?
This post will help guide the way for those folks starting out on the long and winding road that is WordPress.
Having said that… I think that “Fluffy Snowman” is beyond our help!
Ha, awesome post. All these things which seem so obvious to me are so foreign to some people and that makes me laugh as well. Love the snowman reference. I would even go a bit farther and say whenever possible use a real face as well and not just a boring company logo, especially when commenting on other sites.
I’m a sinner. But now capitalizing all my Ps. Well, not all of em, just the ones in that word.
You’ve been cured of the lowercase p’s.
Great post! How about having Uncategorized showing as a blog category.
Yeah, that could throw you in the n00b house for sure.