This post was contributed by Aaron Brazell, a regular ProBlogger contributor.
Update: A new version of the plugin has been uploaded.
I accidentally published this early and had to pull it back because it wasn’t ready-for-live yet. RSS subscribers, you got a sneak peek early but I wasn’t ready. Now we’re ready. :-)
Last week I passed my two year birthday as a blogger. Much fun and joyfulness were had by at least three readers. Such milestones tend to make me think about where I’ve come as a blogger and where I’m going. Though I have not always produced wonderfully excellent content, it’s really beneficial to highlight where I’ve been… especially as the really early stuff begins to fade away.
Finding a way to highlight older content adds a new dimension to your blog. Typically, a blog is single dimensional – that is, it is read from top down and unless some creative means are put in place to connect other aspects of your blog, readers may never experience them. Since I hate content to disappear into archive purgatory, I put a feature on my blog a few months ago called “The Timecapsule”.
I don’t know how it is in other parts of the world, but in the United States, folks looking to preserve historical moments and memories, will encase a “time capsule” in the cornerstone of a building when the ground is first broke for building. It’s the symbolic memorializing of “that which once was” which preserves memories for future generations.
As with memories buried inside a building cornerstone, a timecapsule on a blog can reveal to readers “that which once was” and can serve as a wonderful reminder of where you have come as a blogger.
I’ve taken the feature from Technosailor and wrapped it into a single WordPress plugin simply called Timecapsule – of course, notoriously, the first ProBlogger plugin release. :) This plugin was built on WordPress 2.x, but I don’t see any reason why it would not work on earlier versions of WordPress. I just haven’t tested it.
Instructions are really simple:
- Download (link fixed) and extract the plugin.
- Upload timecapsule.php to your plugins folder.
- Login to wp-admin and activate.
- Configuration can be made in the Time Capsule submenu under the Manage tab.
- Drop
<?php timecapsule(); ?>where you want to display the timecapsule.
Changelog
2006-06-01
– Initial Release (1.0.1)
2006-06-01
– Bugfix release (1.0.2)
– Fixed Bug with Number of posts displaying incorrectly
– Added ability to customize ‘no posts’ message
– Added ability to turn off ‘no posts’ message
