On: 2007/12/28
Shorter URL for this page: http://ozh.in/li

In the WordPress hackers mailing list, there has been a (quite pointless, if you ask me) debate about the word "Howdy" you should read in the upper right corner of your WordPress admin area (if you're not using a translated version of it). Some people are not liking this word, complaining that it sounds too American, or too something, for their liking.

To put an end to this thread, I wrote a very simple plugin which purpose is simply to replace this word, "Howdy", with anything you like better: Hola, Hello, Bonjour, What's Up, whatever. Yes, a plugin, to replace one word. Go figure :)

Download

Download the plugin :

Usage

Edit the beginning of the script, and replace the value of $nohowdy with what makes you happy. Activate. Sit back and never see this oh-so-horrible "Howdy" again. Well, if you really find it horrible, anyway.

Disclaimer

This plugin is obviously a total overkill, as it is designed, and loads the jQuery library, just to change one word. I really wanted to cut those whiners whining :)
Needless to say, I won't support anything about this plugin :)

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Metastuff

This page "No Howdy! A Plugin for WordPress" was posted on 28/12/2007 at 8:20 pm
Watch this discussion : Comments RSS 2.0.

24 Blablas

  1. NoHowdy plugin?

    What's wrong with Howdy? What's with the Howdy discrimination?

    I now hereby declare a new term. Howdyphobeâ„¢.

  2. SJ says:

    Thank you. I HATE the word Howdy. It sounds redneck and ignorant to me. I'm happy to go to all this trouble to eliminate it from the otherwise-elegant WordPress interface.

  3. bubazoo says:

    I think this is just TOO funny! funny that people actually care about that tiny little word in the admin panel that nobody sees anyway, LOL!! I mean, I don't even look at it. who cares guys! sheesh! :) hehe

    Ya know, I was looking at this plugin, how its constructed. I've been trying to learn how to write wordpress plugins for awhile now, and have not grasped the concept yet. I can do PHP blindfolded, but I don't get plugin writing for wordpress at all, so I looked at this plugin, hoping I would understand a basic skeleton like this, and I am STILL lost even looking at a basic skeleton. I mean u can't get any simplier then this and I'm still lost on writing plugins. thats whats sad. hehe

  4. bubazoo says:

    wow!! OMG, your gravatar plugin actually works, which plugin are you using for gravatars? because mine isn't working anywhere else but here, and on the gravatar.com site. can't get my gravatar to work on my own site either :(

  5. Ozh says:

    bubazoo » I'm not using any plugin. It's just, more or less, the PHP implementation in my theme, using this background image trick to speed up page loading time & avoid "broken image" icons when gravatar.com goes offline or unreachable.

  6. nathan says:

    I think them there folks who don't like us here folk to use howdy are insensitive to us's needs. There ain't nothing wrong with howdy, and y'all should all not no more complain bout it.

  7. Dave Q says:

    I'd love to see WordPress greeting us in different languages. Something like what flickr has been doing for a very long time.

    Now that's truly fair for everyone & very international :)

  8. Jason says:

    Lol, you have my kind of sense of humor.

  9. Hava says:

    Okay, I had no clue of what you were talking about. "Howdy"? I had to go to my Admin page to see (curiosity killed the cat and all that) and sure enough, there it was. I have been using WP for almost a year now, and didn't have a clue.

    Of course, I'm from Idaho, so the word "howdy" is not exactly foreign to me. ;-) I think it's rather funny that people even care. I say "y'all" all the time too. Does that make me the worst kind of hick there is?

    Don't answer that.

  10. Milorad says:

    I'm really glad there are still people around who are bothered by regional colloquialisms.

    Thanks for this, mate ;)

  11. AJ says:

    Hi, hello, g'day, bonjour, hej, hola,
    It didn't work for me.
    I know you aren't supporting it, so I don't expect any.

  12. Christa says:

    You gotta be kidding? LOL
    People have been annoyed about THAT? I really had to look for the word to find it and I've used WordPress for several years now.
    I can't even imagine how anyone can read that greeting. The font can't be more than max 10 pixel :p

    Funnies plugin I've seen in some time :D

  13. GoutPal says:

    This is sensational – it works with any HTML.

    Can't say I was bothered one way or t'other about Howdy, but I love being able to change it to some useful code. Mine's showing the beginnings of a little custom menubar. The possibilities are endless.

    Overkill? Never

  14. […] Version: n/a – License: GPL – Author: Planetozh – Plugin Page – » Download […]

  15. Garrett says:

    It's very nice to have a plugin for this. I've edited the admin template to change it before, but changes are lost with upgrades. I now have a more pleasant, professional "Welcome", which will hopefully remain for many upgrades to come.

  16. Kieran says:

    The reason the word "Howdy" is used is probably just a small bit of humour from Matthew Mullenweg born and raised in Houston, Texas and the founding developer of WordPress. It's his native tongue…

  17. […] dem No Howdy Plugin von Ozh kann die Willkommen Meldung oben rechts in der Administration durch einen beliebigen […]

  18. Andy says:

    There is, as I have argued before, a slightly more serious side to this. I have witnessed at least once, someone contemplating WP for their business CMS taking one look at 'Howdy' and gaining the immediate impression they are dealing with some unprofessional 'kiddie' system. 'Blogroll' used to have the same effect.
    All they really needed to do was put a span around it after all. So yes – this is overkill but could be popular with those trying to make a living out of WP in business circles.

  19. […] create a very small (probably useless) Plugin called No Browse Happy Plugin. This is similar to the No Howdy Plugin by Ozh, very useless in my point of view but might matter a lot for […]

  20. Joey says:

    Thanks..
    I really hate the word "Howdy"

    Cheers,
    Forex Trading Easy

  21. […] urarea respectiv? prea americaneasc? ?i pentru ace?tia, mai speciali de felul lor, exist? No Howdy! A Plugin for WordPress care o elimin?. Dac? folose?te cineva traducerea în limba român? sunt curios cum a fost […]

  22. David says:

    Using Howdy is just unprofessional and other people do see this greeting if you have a multiple author blog or are using the CMS platform for something else like me! The greeting line is not very easy to modify at all. Using a JS Query doesn't always work and altering the core is problematic – Changes are lost when the software is upgraded. I wish the wordpress developers would make the welcome line a customised option.

  23. Hi Ozh, good work, I love all your stuff, though wondering if this still works with 3.0? I have an issue when a user goes to add or edit a post and use the media buttons to add an image, the thickbox just loads and loads, but doesnt open. Any ideas? I do have some other custom stuff going on like deregistering some scripts and styles but not these ones. Hmmmm

  24. Ozh says:

    David Alexander » It's so simple it probably works, yes. It's so simple I doubt it can even conflict with something else :)

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