WordPress.org

Can I change the number of status updates displayed?

Yes, of course you can! Go to your sidebar widgets and hit the 'Edit' link for the Ping.fm widget. This is all mentioned in the installation instructions, but I can see that you're the impatient type that never reads anything. I bet you didn't read the owner's manual for your car, either, huh?

Why am I not seeing any updates in my sidebar?

Well... have you posted any yet? Only status updates posted to Ping.fm after installing the plugin and after configuring the custom URL will show up on your blog. If you're confident you've done everything right, there might be something else going on. You might have discovered a bug, or an "undocumented feature" as we software engineers like to call them. Send me some sugar at matt@mattjacob.com and I'll see what I can do.

Why aren't pings coming through to my site?

Read the question immediately preceding this one once more. Done? Now go through the checklist below and make sure everything is kosher:

• Are you using PHP 5? I think the exact minimum version is 5.1.0, but the higher, the better. You can't go wrong with something newer.

• Is your site blocked off from others using HTTP Basic Authentication or some other method? Do you have firewall rules restricting users to a certain IP range?

• Are you using any WordPress plugins that limit outside access? I've seen problems related to the Bad Behavior plugin in the past.

• Can you hit the "secret posting URL" from your browser? You should get an error message, which is a good sign that the plugin is installed and working.

• Do you have some boxes checked over at the Custom URL Settings page? Next to Use for:, you need at least one of those options selected (preferably all three).

• Under the main Ping.fm Service Settings, is the box checked next to the Post messages to Custom URL option? This is important.

• If you're only posting status updates to the widget and not as full posts, is the widget activated and placed somewhere?

Can I post blog entries or pages from my Ping.fm account?

The original answer was a defiant "get off my lawn, you damn kids!" That lasted for a whole point release. By popular demand---and thanks in no small part to Rocco and Vinny, who were sent to convince me---the ability to post blog entries has been available since 0.9.2. Support for creating pages might be added in a future release. Give the people want they want, right?

Will this plugin work with WordPress.com blogs?

Definitely not. That would be goofy. Plus, Ping.fm already has support for WordPress.com hosted blogs.

Can you add feature X, Y, and Z? And Q? And L?

I could add all kinds of features, but the real question is whether I should. The intent and operation of this plugin was meant to be simple, but go ahead and pitch your feature idea to me. If it's not too outrageous and I think others would benefit from it, I'll probably add it to a future version of the plugin.