At last WordPress 2.3 is installed and the CWF Game Cast is fully updated. Many apologies for the delay in this lengthy process.

So far things look good…mostly. Some features encountered problems with the new version. As such, there will be some changes. I hope they will be temporary.

First, user registration is different. We had problems with spam registrations and previous methods to dispel that didn’t work. Now, if you wish to register, and we hope you do, you need to answer a simple math questions such as 2+2. Additionally, you will be e-mailed a link to verify your registration. You have 3 Days to do that or your account is deleted.

Second, we now have tags. Yay! This is one of the main new features in WordPress 2.3. Every single article on the blog has the capability to have tags. They will be shown at the bottom of the article. You can click on them to find other content on the same issue. If you click the WordPress 2.3 tag at the bottom of this article you’ll also get the post we made announcing the upgrade.

If you’ve ever used flickr or librarything you’re used to tags. You’re also used to the Tag Cloud. It is that cloud, or grouping, of words of varied size. The more popular tags are bigger than the least popular. For example, if there’s 10 posts on 40k and only 2 on BFG then the 40k tag will be much larger. This lets you see, at a glance, what is popular here. Our Tag Cloud is in the sidebar at right.

Also, we are working to convert our categories into tags. We previously used categories as you would tags. But, there’s many more benefits to tags now. We wish to harness that, which requires a conversion.

In line with that, we are slowly rolling back the usage of categories. Awhile back we said that we would be adding more detailed categories to help you search for content. Tags have now replaced that. So, categories will now be more general. For example, in Miniatures Games we won’t have 40k and Warmachine listed anymore. You will find those as tags. But, the overarching Miniatures Games category will remain.

Lastly, if you notice anything wonky or acting oddly please let us know. If there’s a feature you cannot use anymore, if the blog looks funny, or if anything seems out of place speak up. That could be the new version we’re using. It is a stable version but it could act up with our plugins and other features.

The CWF Game Cast will be updating from its 2.2.1 version of WordPress to 2.3 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.

Please read WordPress 2.3 at the official WordPress blog. That explains all the reasons why we’re updating. But, basically, we’re doing it for the automatic plugin support and to use tags. If you use Technorati or Flicr you’re used to tagging your content. You may tag a pic as 40k, space marines, ultramarines, and death. Any other pics with any of those tags will show up when searching for that tag. I.e. if I search for 40k then all the pics tagged 40k would show up. For us, if we tag a post as 40k you can search for 40k and get all the other posts with that tag. Or, you can just click on the tag to see all the associated content.

This update will take some time and as such the blog will be in maintenance mode. All the plugins will be taken off line and you may not be able to do what you normally can. In essence, the blog will be wonky.

As soon as the update is complete we’ll be back good and new.