(update 2-22-2007)A lot of stuff has changed since the last update... this page will probably stay as is... permanent.

(update 12-9-2006) Something Happened: I'm pretty sure it was caused by me trying to install the diggdugg plugin, but now the cache doesn't work, so my digg defender doesn't work either. So I disabled and deleted them and went out hunting for another digg-related wordpress plugin. I found Gregarious and it's pretty sweet, although I won't use it much.

After reading on digg about a wordpress plugin that would auto-redirect to a coral cache version of the site when the blog is inundated with requests I decided to go check out the world of Wordpress Plugins. I decided to wait on installing the cache feature until the first time I get slashdotted or dugg, but I did decide to get some other plugins.
(minorupdate 9/4/06: Well, it's been a few months and now I've decided to 'be prepared' as the BoyScouts say. Read below my initial plugin report for the digg stuff.)

A commenter in the digg comments gave up a link to a wordpress plugins site and I found a few that seemed interesting. There's Sociable, which adds the 'share & enjoy' buttons at the bottom of each post. Each button corresponds to a social bookmarking sites, mouseover to view the names. Akismet has been very useful in blocking spam comment posts, and makes it very easy to delete them all with just one click. (As a sidenote, I haven't had any false positives with it, but haven't had many legit comments either.) I also have a live calendar plugin that uses ajax so the whole page doesn't refresh when clicking through the calendar months and years.

(majorupdate 9/4/06:)
So now lets turn back to the original quandry: What to do if I get dugg, or slashdotted?
The aforementioned WP plugin that would redirect users to a cached version of the site is Digg Defender wich the author mentioned would work with another WP plugin WP-Cache. WP-Cache creates a static html formatted page to serve to users, instead of generating it each time through the php code of Wordpress. Theoretically, this lowers the server's processor usage, allowing more users to view quicker. The idea is that when enough people view the site to overload the server it will switch to serving up the cached version on the pages being requested.

You'll also notice that I've added the Digg Button to some posts. I had tried on my own to insert the correct code, but it wasn't working out very well. For some reason the button didn't align to the top, but the bottom instead. I found the Digg Button plugin by searching google and the rest was history. Well actually I'd never inserted a 'Custom Field' ever before in to my wordpress posts, but I figured that out in short order.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to use all those other digg badges I downloaded the other day.