Sara Ford's Weblog

Yep, it’s a bold statement to make, but I like to live life in capital letters. Last week at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention was truly epic. The Community Leadership Summit + OSCON 2009 epitomized everything I’ve ever wanted to do in community as...

Petition is here: http://twtpoll.com/iuz95p and closes Aug 5. When I was 3 years old, I invented the “Koala bear game.” You hide the Koala bear behind your back, then run up to the adults asking them “guess what i’ve got behind my back?” I played night...

Jono Bacon , the community manager for the global Ubuntu community, organized the first Community Leadership Summit for community managers to come together and share ideas. I loved the fact it was run as an unconference or open space. I get so much more...

a few more macros to the collection… Superscript: ^^I am superscript^^ Subscript: ,,I am subscript,, Strikethrough ~~I am strikethrough~~ And a freebee for reading this far! Horizontal rule (4 dashes on single line) Technorati Tags: CodePlex Tips

You can now link directly to the latest version in source control for downloading or browsing. For example, to browse whatever the latest version checked into source control for my Stick Figure Karate Fighter, you’ll use this URL: http://stickfigurekarate...

During our last deployment, we added the ability to insert code snippets into the discussion boards. This will display a window for you to post in your code and to preview with syntax highlighting. Technorati Tags: CodePlex Tips

In a recent deployment, project owners can now use advertisements from The Lounge using a single click. Project owner can see advertisements appear on the Home tab, the Downloads tab, the Discussions tab, and the Issue Tracker. The CodePlex documentation...

And just yesterday i was thinking, “is the best use of my blog posting tips about CodePlex?” And then I saw Devon’s blog post today . Guess that answers my question. Let’s just say I took June off and now I’m back. Currently, we don’t have any UI that...

Last week, I attended the Open Source Bridge conference in Portland. It’s a volunteer-run conference that came about because OSCON moved to San Jose this year. They had a great turnout and the organizers did an amazing job, especially for a first time...

At the INETA party during TechEd 09, I told my “Uncle Jimmy Stories” for nearly 4 hours. Since I’ve had quite a few people ask me to blog these stories (and even more ask me to share photos), I’d thought I’d share my “kick-off” story of my childhood ...

If this tip comes as a surprise to anyone, please let me know, as we have a major usability issue on our hands =D For any CodePlex project, you can go to the stats tab, and select “project lifetime” And you can get total traffic summary info at the bottom...

Last week, I spoke at Microsoft DevDays 2009 in The Netherlands. After the conference, I was able to do a little sightseeing in Amsterdam on my own, which included buying a small souvenir from the Heineken Plant , a CodePlex labeled Heineken bottle. The...

Currently, there isn’t a way on the site to search for users via their usernames. However, if you know someone’s username, you can access their profile directly by typing in http://www.codeplex.com/site/users/view/ <username> Or, if you’re like...

When you edit your release notes, you can use the wiki markup from the homepage, in case you want bulleted lists, bolded text, hyperlinks, etc. Technorati Tags: CodePlex Tips

Thanks to Martin Hinshelwood , a Team System MVP, for sharing the following workaround with all of us! This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/29/how-to-connect-to-a-codeplex-tfs-server-using-visual-studio-2010-beta-1-040/

Whenever you create or edit a public release (show to public = yes), there’s the Default Release option. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/28/how-and-why-to-set-a-default-release-039/

Tip #0 Know your Keybindings! General Development Settings Searching Tips This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/28/devdays-09-24-visual-studio-tips/

Yesterday’s tip discussed how to create a planned release. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/27/you-can-assign-work-items-to-a-planned-release-038/

When I first got started in the OSS world, I learned that This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/26/how-to-create-a-planned-release-037/

You can create a hidden release in case you need to archive older releases. Only project members can view hidden releases. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/25/how-to-create-a-hidden-release-036/

Okay, you can’t really customize the work item template. But, This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/22/how-to-customize-your-codeplex-work-item-template-in-a-way-035/

Previously, I mentioned that you can sort by top rated release on CodePlex. But it is also interesting to know you can sort by most downloaded project in the past 7 days. We do past 7 days so that active projects are listed first.   Technorati Tags...

Prior to the April 9, 2009 deployment, the only way for users to find out about updates to work items was through RSS. I’m one of those people who will give up email when you pry it from my hands. This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net...

Laurel Ruma from O'Reilly and I discuss how to speak New Orleans for TechEd 2010 in this 1 minute video… This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/15/how-to-speak-new-orleans-for-teched-2010/

My video Embrace Open Source on CodePlex from Teched 2009 is now live (for teched attendees only, sorry) at This blog post has moved to http://saraford.net/2009/05/15/watch-my-teched-2009-talk-on-codeplex/