Automattic, the people behind WordPress have released a live blogging plugin for those of you who are using the self-hosted version of the platform.
The plugin, unsurprisingly called Liveblog, does exactly what you would expect and seems to do it very well and very simply. Granted it does’t have all the bells and whistles of some of the, now paid for platforms live Coveritlive, but for a blogger who wants to live blog an event it is perfectly adequate for the job.
Once you have installed and activated the plugin all you need to do is create a new post and tick the box in the live blog widget on the post page, press publish and your Liveblog is running.
If you go and view the post logged in users will see a text entry box
all you need to do is type your update in to the box and press the Publish Update button and your entry is live on the page, viewers of the live blog will see your entry without the need to refresh the page.
Want to add an image? No problem, simply drag it in to the text entry box and press publish.
All in all it is a nice little plugin that does enough for most Hyperlocal bloggers and probably even more serious live bloggers.
One word of warning, I have seen a report of people losing the whole text of a live blog by going and editing the post. It seems that WordPress have confirmed that this is a bug and is being worked on, so given the way WordPress devs work, it should be fixed very soon and in my opinion it shouldn’t stop you using it, just remember to not edit the live blog post!
Mike Rawlins
Away from Talk About Local I take photos, fly my quadcopter and walk my two Beagles.
If I'm not doing any of the above then you'll find me volunteering at my local RNLI station as a press officer.
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