I am not the only one with issues with WordPress 2.6 and PodPress and so many people on various forums are jumping over to the cavemonkey50.com Podcasting plugin, but finally today, we got word from the developers that in around ten days we can expect a release of PodPress that will work with WordPress 2.6.

Is this good enough?

PodPress is a huge plugin system that brings the ability to quickly and easily manage and embed audio and video to blog posts, providing millions of podcasters with a system to control their episodes and display them with a commonly understood look and feel. To me, this plugin has become a staple for podcasters, and should be treated as a premium plugin system where there are multiple developers, support from Automattic, and a working version ready within a week of a launch of a new major WordPress revision.

I couldn’t imagine how people who podcast every day have been feeling as two weeks will go by before they can either upgrade to WordPress 2.6, or if they already have, until they can easily embed their podcasts once again.

I might actually jump over to the Podcasting plugin, though I don’t really enjoy the interface as much as I enjoy the one that PodPress has, but it does support many of the features I am used to having. One thing I am really happy to see is that the display of the flash based player is exactly the same, meaning that people who listen to the podcast right on the post wouldn’t see any interface change.

And the important part for people like me that jumped on WordPress 2.6 is that the plugin works with the latest version of WordPress and has since before WordPress 2.6 was released.

If you have been having issues with PodPress and WordPress 2.6, checking out the Podcasting plugin from cavemonkey50 might be a great alternative for you to get your functionality back up and running.

I am not entirely sure if you can transition easily from PodPress to Podcasting, but it is definitely something that I might look into next week if PodPress doesn’t soon get a new release.

One great thing about the WordPress community is how their almost always end up being two plugins that do the same things, so that if one does die off, the community has an alternative to flock to.

I hope that PodPress development moves smoother in the future, and I hope Automattic will take some of the flack for not helping support certain premium level plugins.

Originally posted on July 17, 2008 @ 9:18 pm

I know it is ridiculous to expect a plugin to work with beta versions of the next version of WordPress, but at the same time, I am a cranky WordPress user that expects the software to only be manipulated in such a way that all of my plugins aren’t effected, other than taking plugin related features and integrating them into the core. One of my favourite plugins PodPress currently is not entirely working on this blog, leading me to directly link to my uploaded MP3’s.

There is no report yet on when PodPress will work with WordPress 2.6, but I have found PodPress to be on the cutting edge when it comes to WordPress compatibility, so hopefully they won’t let me and many others down.

PodPress is one of the few plugins that I am realizing are worth their weight in gold, and as such, are worth paying for, so if you have used PodPress and enjoyed it, please make sure to donate to the project as it will keep them happy, and more likely to continue its development.

Am I within my right to get annoyed when key plugins aren’t at the front of the development curve? Should I be mad at Automattic and the WordPress contributors for making changes that negatively effect key plugins or is all of this just part of open source software?

I guess it doesn’t really matter, I just want PodPress to work…

Originally posted on July 9, 2008 @ 8:49 pm