The Weekly WordPress News: 5%, bbPress Woes, Free Theme Release & More

I have been working on converting a large forum over to bbPress which has over 20k members and over 900k posts - The import went ok but what I'm struggling with is the speed of the forum itself. It's very slow, even compare to the old vBulletin site it currently runs on - there is a delay just clicking around the site and an even bigger delay when posting and replying. Obviously large sites running bbPress can be achieved as the WordPress.com forums run on it but I'm disappointed with the performance - if anyone has any suggestions on how to speed it up for larger forums I would really like to hear them, thanks!

I have a new free theme in the WordPress directory this week, CleanPort is one of our best sellers on ThemeFurnace so check out the post here on WPLift or head over to download the theme. Releasing free themes into the directory undoubtedly helps our business grow as we receive direct referrals from the site who turn into paying customers, it's also how my company gives back to the WordPress community in general, we definitely spend more than 5% of our time doing so :)

Also this week I have been updating our coupon code section here on WPLift, check it out for some fresh coupons on loads of WordPress related deals.

On with the news! Have a great weekend everyone :)

WordPress News and Articles

• Competition: Win 7 WooCommerce Add-On Plugins by RightPress - Win 7 great WooCommerce plugins in our current competition.
• Five for the Future - Read Matt's thoughts on companies contributing to WordPress core.
• The feasibility and governance concerns behind 5% contribution to WordPress Core - Matt wants WordPress companies to dedicate 5% of their resources towards the open source project, can you afford to ?
• Contribution as culture - Read Brian's thoughts on the 5% contribution. Nails it as usual.
• Writing Good Software Takes Time  - Good coding takes time - Read Tom's post about the subject.
• Should You Develop a WordPress Site for a Client From the Ground Up or Use … Ekhm … a Helper? - What's your approach to client sites?
• WordPress Beyond Boundaries: A Recap of WordCamp Europe 2014 - Sarah at WPTavern visited WordCamp Europe, here is her write-up about the event.
• Turning WordPress into a Self-Hosted Business Powerhouse - Using WordPress as an alternative to cloud-based apps for running your business.

Tutorials and How-Tos

• Display an Error if a File Is Too Large for WordPress  - Tutorial to display an error if a file uploaded to WP is too large.
• This Is How You Need to Monitor Your WordPress Site’s Uptime - How to get notified if your WordPress site is down.
• Using New Relic to Monitor WordPress Performance - A guide to using New Relic to monitor your WP site.
• Creating a Custom WordPress Registration Form Plugin - Great tutorial for creating custom registrations in WordPress.
• Creating Maintainable WordPress Meta Boxes: The Layout - Tom shows you how to create Meta boxes.
• How To Invoice Your Clients Using WordPress - A guide to client invoicing in WordPress on the ElegantThemes blog.

Resources & Freebies

• Free Theme: CleanPort, Flat Design WordPress Theme for Business, Portfolio or Blogging - My new free theme release CleanPort was added to the WordPress directory this week.
• DesignModo Startup Framework for WordPress - I reviewed a really well-made visual theme builder for WordPress by DesignModo.
• VideoRobot: Powerful Plugin to Automate YouTube Video Posting to WordPress - Great plugin for handling the automated import of videos from YouTube.
• 10 Fresh Portfolio Themes For Graphic Designers - New blog, WPScope looks at 10 themes for Graphic Designers ( Thanks for inclusing my Capiton Theme!)
• 14 Completely Free CDN Solutions for WordPress Users - WPCentury looks at some free plugins for WordPress CDN services.