Thesis (a WordPress theme) recently introduced a headline filter in version 1.7, which removes (not display:none, but from the document altogether) title, by-line, and date on posts you select.

This is really handy for building a blog with a style closer to Twitter or Tumblr, or a mix of styles.

Two concerns, though:

• If we post something on the web without a date we’re doing it wrong. Thesis’ headline filter removes title, but also date, from posts. Bummer.
• Title’s important for syndication. Even if the title’s not shown, you have to title the content for readers coming from Facebook, Google Reader, etc. Blank title, body-like titles, or title-like bodies, are sloppy. This is a problem bigger than Thesis and worth thinking about if you go with this approach.

Though I’ve seen repeated mention of this headline filter feature in Thesis 1.7, I  had a heck of a time finding it.

The secret: filters are only available to developers. Ew.

Fortunately what I think is a common scenario, hiding the headline of posts in a certain category, can be done with a cookie cutter. Here’s an example:

1. Create a new post category or use an existing one (I’m using category “bits”)
2. Edit the file /wp-content/themes/thesis_17/custom/custom_functions.php. Insert (carefully):
   
function shown_headlines()
{
    return (!in_category('bits'));
}
add_filter('thesis_show_headline_area', 'shown_headlines');

   and replace ‘bits’ with your category.

For more complicated criteria, you might look through the “is_” functions in WordPress Function Reference and consult your local WordPress or PHP fiend.

Image via Wikipedia

WordPress support for data stores other than MySQL would bust every theme, plugin, widget, and value-add (other than your thoughtful words) for WordPress on the planet.

So naturally, the roadmap to do so is “well, if someone pays us…”

I challenge someone to actually break and remake WordPress with an abstraction layer that’d let it run in MySQL-less environments like Google App Engine or Windows Azure.

What? No, I don’t have time to do it myself. Well, if you pay me…

I decided to dink around with the blog’s backside briefly.

#1: Added an Atom <link>. RSS is dead. (Well maybe that’s a bit extreme, but providing only an RSS <link> is lame.)

#2: Removed any RSS badging/links. The fine art of “wasting time looking for a syndication badge when there’s plenty of other stuff on the WWW to look at” is dying. It’s not as usable or quick as letting a computer figure it out.

#3: Removed the search box, and related WordPress search cruft. Search on low-traffic personal blogs is definitely dead.

#4: Now displaying a bit more older content on the homepage.

#5: Fixed validation bugs (a <div> in a place it can’t be, a missing alt attribute on an <img>, and a Flickr URL with unencoded ampersands.)

#6: Changed styles and text a bit.