I use the P2 theme a lot. It’s handy. While using it with a few folks over the weekend I dreamed up and built a new plugin designed just for it.

Meet the P2 Check In plugin. It’s designed to work with the P2 theme, though it really could work with any WordPress theme. The plugin is a widget you drop into the sidebar (preferably to the top of the sidebar) which gives you a button for “checking in” and “checking out”. Checked in users are shown in the sidebar, along with how long they’ve been in and the total time they’ve been checked in to the site.

The aggregate check in times have made the users I’ve talked to a bit competitive about the amount of time they’re checked in. The language the plugin uses (“I’m here!” and “I’m leaving.”) is left purposely vague so the true meaning can change depending on how it’s used. I developed it specifically for the user-case where users are checking in to a physical location (kind of a private “who’s at the office now” thing) but it could just as easily be used to show who’s actively watching the P2 or working on a specific project.

I’ve got a few more ideas for future versions of the plugin, but this is already pretty useful. If you use P2 at all, give this one a try and see if it helps you and your team use P2 just a little bit smarter. I hope you like it.

(By the way, there are a slew of other P2 plugins that are handy and linked up over on WPCandy.)

I enjoy comments. They are easily the number one metric I use to determine whether a day’s worth of blogging was well spent. The way I check for comment activity is via the Recent Comments Dashboard widget. It puts comments in one spot, on my Dashboard (where I usually am) and does it in a nice simple way.

Since I’ve started using the new bbPress plugin more, I find myself wanting the same thing there. I want to quickly see new topics and replies, the same as I can via the Recent Comments widget. So, I created the Dashboard Forum Activity plugin to do just that.

Dashboard Forum Activity

You can download Dashboard Forum Activity from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory. The plugin will add a widget to your Dashboard (only if you are an admin, or more specifically have the manage_options capability) showing newly created topics and replies on your bbPress-powered forum.

From the widget you can jump in and edit any topics or replies, as well as view them on the front end of the site. (Almost the) Same as the Recent Comments widget.

I have further plans for this plugin, but wanted to start simple and get it out. I’ve started using it today as well, and already enjoy it. I hope you will too!

I’m one of the folks that doesn’t at all mind the WordPress Admin Bar, added to WordPress in version 3.1. Using it as much as I do, though, it bugs me just how sensitive the Admin Bar dropdowns are. I was in the process of fixing it for myself, when I figured it would make a nice simple plugin that others might benefit from as well.

This plugin slows down the dropdown so that it only opens up after a moment’s hesitation on the Admin Bar. It only effects logged in users, so shouldn’t add any overhead to your site.

You can download the Admin Bar Hover Intent plugin from the WordPress Plugin Directory.

That’s pretty much it, since this plugin is pretty straightforward. Hope you find it useful!

I had an interesting Sunday last week. I was in the process of finalizing my home church’s new website to launch, and one of the last things to do was to add a page promoting our new series entitled Why?. But when it came to uploading a small image to accompany the page, it wasn’t happening.

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A recent post at Smashing shows off a lot of great 404 pages before asking users to create their own and submit it to the site. But, to prove it’s theirs, add the words Smashing Magazine, without a link, to your 404 page.
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