I can understand them wanting to push back the release date as to not rush things, but I’m not quite sure why they felt the need to skip version numbers. Since this is the next “major” release, doesn’t it make sense that it would use the next version number (2.4)? Anyways, the moral of the story is that we are now going to have to wait until March for the next major WordPress release. I’ve been able to check out a few previews of what they have in store for us in this next version, and from what I’ve seen so far, it will definitely be worth the wait.

Details are still pretty sketchy at this point regarding exactly what features will be included in the next release, but you can check out the official WordPress Roadmap for more info.

So if you’re feeling a bit spunky, download the RC1 and give it a whirl - just be sure to backup your database first!

Although we consider this release candidate to be stable, keep in mind that this is still pre-release software. You may find some lingering bugs. Please back up your database before upgrading. If you have problems with RC1, you will not be able to revert back to your previous release without a database backup.

This is still rough code, so you should only test the beta if you are comfortable troubleshooting PHP issues, filing tickets, and backing up your blog’s data.

Still want to play? Go ahead and join the wp-testers mailing list and download beta 2 here.

A few of the new features you can look forward to:

• Plugin and core update notification
• Built-in tags support
• Faster Javascript
• SEO-friendly URL redirection

Hopefully this means that we’ll be seeing the stable version of WordPress 2.3 in the coming weeks.

Allow you have to do is add the following line to your robots.txt file:
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Remember - this is not sensitive to disalow, so it doesn’t matter if you put it at the beginning or the end of the file.

Update manager

All you have to do is install update manager. It makes a new tab in the site admin: Plugins » Update manager and you can see which of your plugins need to be updated.

Now go and check your plugins

Once the themes and plugins start coming in, you will see some new links on this main page with previews for the themes and short descriptions of the plugins.

Now, get to work and start submitting!

First, don’t bother creating a .htaccess file, because you cannot use it. Log in to administration and go to options: permalinks. Now you can set permalinks using a format such as the following:

/index.php/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/.

As you may notice, there is only one difference: you have to leave index.php in your permalink scheme if you cannot use mod_rewrite.

Instead, my plan is to get everything ready before I leave, and then turn those features on when I get back. So stay tuned - you will soon be able to upload your themes and plugins to share with the Open WordPress community.