I need your help. I have a new project that will include features of Wordpress that I’m not that familiar with and I need some ideas on what plugins you’ve used in the past to accomplish these types of things.  The site is being built for a Chicago-based group of individuals who just want to get together and have fun by posting topics to the site, and displaying information on upcoming events in the area.  The owner of the site would like to see the following sections:

Streaming Music

Music files, likely in MP3 format, will be loaded dynamically into a player on the site where the visitor can turn it on or off at will.  The idea is to give the visitor a taste of Soca music from the Trini community.

Social Events Calendar

The events calendar, preferably a page on the site that displays upcoming events in the area, will be the highlight of the site and the events need to be advertised throughout the site in order to gain interest in attending them.  Site admins can enter the events through the WP admin.  An option to register for the event is a nice-to-have, but not necessary.

Photo Gallery

An easy-to-use section to visitors to upload photos to a gallery that can be displayed to all visitors.  This requirement is somewhat vague right now, but I imagine that each user who wants to submit photos will have to have a registered account on the site, and upload the photos after they’ve logged in, making them instantly visible to anyone who comes to the site.

Contacts

I’m thinking this list might be a directory of individuals who have chosen to allow their profiles to be publically available, showing their contact information at various social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc.  The Media Page plugin does a nice job of displaying the media links of the site owner, but doesn’t break it down into individual user profiles. Possibly an extension of the user profile would work nicely here.

Check out my progress on the site as I update it to match some of the suggestions that you will provide here.  Visit Croiseepeople.com.

A collegue at work prompted a conversation on Facebook the other day and it got me worked up a bit.  He wasn’t defending the site at all, but simply asking for input on our thoughts about using the site.  I had a few thoughts of my own that I’d like to share here.

First off, I’ll admit Facebook is a pretty cool site for catching up with long lost buddies from high school and for sharing pics and now posting videos for others to view.  It has its benefits over sites like Twitter and Brightkite where you can personalize your content in a more meaningful way for your friends to see.  But when it comes to open development for Facebook, have they jumped the shark?  Let me explain…
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There is an apparent video virus going around on Facebook that installs the Trojan.Zlob virus.  I happened to be standing next to my wife as she opened one of these messages from right inside of Facebook.  It appeared to come directly from one of her contacts and asked her to open the link to view a video message.  When the link came up, she was prompted to install a new version of the Flash Player, which she promptly did.

With some helpful advice, again from my friends on Twitter, I downloaded a copy of SUPERAntiSpyware and used it to run a full scan of my hard drive.  (more…)

This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post on building a sidebar widget for the “Social Media Page” plugin from Philip Norton.  After playing around a bit more with the widget code, and taking a look at another widget example, “Twitter Widget”, I managed to break my code out into another separate file which I will describe here.
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If you’re up on the latest trends in social media on the web, you’ve no doubt heard of Twitter, the site that asks you “What are you doing?”.  Well, some people take this question a little too literally, and others abuse the hell out of the system.  So I’ve put together a few do’s and don’ts in regards to using Twitter in a friendly manner.

• DO: Post relevant topics to your local area or questions for others around you to answer.
• DON’T: Follow people because they have a cute profile picture.  That’s creepy, dude!
• DON’T: Use Twitter as your personal blog. If you want to post things for others to read only, WRITE A BLOG, DAMN IT!!!
• DO: Make an attempt to respond to those who acknowledge your presence by asking you a question.
• DON’T: Use Twitter as a chat client and post 1-on-1 messages in the public timeline in a rapid fire format.
• DO: Follow people who have similar interests, and even introduce yourself or let the person know that you found one of their previous posts interesting.
• DON’T: Let the world know when you’re taking a trip to the restroom, or describe it when you come back.
• DON’T: Ask people for photos.  How old are you again?
• DON’T: Lure people to pornographic websites.

I know, I know, just who do I think I am making up this set of rules? Well, I’m Brian (Webguyatwork) and I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in June of 2008 and have personally witnessed all of the above “DON’Ts” in the public timelines.  I’ve also noticed others address these in their responses, so I know I’m not the only one who’s irritated by them.

Some folks probably won’t agree with all of these points, others will be just as irritated by them and will be willing to add to the list.  If you care to have your points listed, reply below or simply “Twitter Me” with your bullet point and I’ll add it.