WP 2.5 Woes

There are a lot of nice features in WP 2.5.  The increased stability and functionality are also major boosts.  But, there are also some drawbacks.  For us, there has been a very irritating problem when using the Write Post ability.

That is a major concern because that is the way we communicate on the blog.  When writing a post an error message is given by the web browser saying there is an unresponsive script.  This is caused by the custom fields, which many plugins use to enhance functionality.

WP 2.5 instituted significant changes to how plugins work and interact with WordPress.  Our problems became pandemic when we upgraded to WP 2.5.  The benefits outweigh the negatives as far as our usage of the new version.  But, in order to make the blog usable for people to write new posts we had to take away some of the features.

We have removed two key features and modified another.  It is no longer possible to rate articles.  It is also not possible to read an article and see related content listed at the bottom.  Both of these created hundreds of custom fields, each, that triggered the error.

Additionally, we experienced major problems with podPress and became quite perturbed.  Podpress is a plugin that enables us to podcast and share the podcast with all of you.  We have deleted the plugin and done a fresh install to restore functionality.

All of our actions have resulted in a 99% success rate.  When using Firefox we still receive the unresponsive script error.  But, it does not show in Safari and we expect it won’t show in Internet Explorer.

You can view the blog with any browser.  But, if you are going to write posts we recommend using Safari for Mac and IE on Windows machines.  We continue to look for a complete solution but this will have to do for the meantime.

GW’s Flavor of the Month

GW seems to be mending their less than friendly customer relations. Good product, better customer relations, better content in WD. Win, win, win. Right?

WD #334 was a really good issue. It had some great Apocalypse and High Elf coverage plus a useful LoTR article that can be helpful in other systems. All was good for a month until WD #335. What the hell went wrong with issue 335?

GW is still utilizing the flavor of the month approach to sales, last month was all Apocalypse and HE all the time, and now it is some Apocalypse but mainly Space Orks and some LoTR all the time.

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Star Wars Minis – Battle of Hoth Update

Last November we showed you the new Battle of Hoth scenario pack for SW Minis. It comes complete with a re-painted AT-ST, Hologram General Veers, Snowspeeder, and other figures. This includes 17 non-randomized figures (2 very rare, 6 rare, 4 uncommon, 5 common), map, rules, life counter sheet, and a d20.

At the time I hypothesized that your FLGS, friendly local gaming store, would soon be carrying them. I have to announce that I was wrong. I took a hiatus from the game and recently got back into it. After speaking with Derek Lloyd, owner of Battleground Games & Hobbies in Abington Mass, he informed me that the scenario pack is a Target exclusive.

Unfortunately it no longer shows up on the Target website but while perusing eBay, don’t go stealing them away from me, I noticed it selling for much more than I originally expected.

I’ve only seen this, so far, online at Arcane Miniatures where it is retailing for 31.50 GBP (MSRP of 35 GBP).

I am sure it will be coming to US retailers and at a lower price than the conversion of $73.19. I’m guessing that this set will retail in America for $44.99 or $49.99. That’s not bad when you think about it. It has two huge figs, plus 1 exclusive fig, and a ton of rares.

eBay has far surpassed that where it sells for anywhere from $64.99 to $89.99. Whether this is due to a diminished supply at Target or greedy sellers I don’t know. But, one thing is for certain. If you have this scenario pack don’t give it up. Unless it is to me for a good price.

The astronomical prices do pose an interesting problem for me. I wish to create a few displays and perhaps dioramas featuring SW Minis. One such display will depict events from the Battle of Hoth. The Battle of Hoth scenario pack is a shoo in purchase for my display. However, that no longer becomes affordable at $90 a pop.

I may have to lay off the Battle of Hoth idea and stick to my Jabba’s Palace quest. But, there’ll be more about that in another article dedicated to the topic.

WP 2.5 is Here….At Last!

The CWF Game Cast will be updating from its 2.5 RC1 version of WordPress to 2.5 final today. Why do this, you may ask. Instead of trying to explain it all to you, the WordPress people did a great job of it already. We’re just thankful to finally be able to update to 2.5. It has been a very long wait and it is ready for release….at last.

Please read WordPress 2.5 at the official WordPress blog. That explains all the reasons why we are updating.

During the upgrade the blog will be unavailable. We expect this to last 30 minutes. But, check back at the blog for further updates. We’ll have the usual Site Unavailable for Maintenance Mode message up during this process.