
Easter eggs are intentional hidden messages, inside jokes, or features in a computer program or web page. The term was reportedly coined by Atari after the discovery of a secret message left by Warren Robinett in the game Adventure. The name reminds us of a traditional Easter egg hunt. Easter eggs are secret responses that occur in reaction to an undocumented set of commands. The results can vary from a simple message or image, to a page of programmer credits or a small video game hidden inside an otherwise serious piece of software.
WordPress is a serious piece of software with a global following. But as an open source system, it's developed by the community and for the community. Is it any wonder that it contains an Easter egg or two? I only know of one for sure, the one I'm about to show you, but there may be more. If you find another one, please let us know.
Easter Egg Instructions1
This Easter egg takes about 30 seconds to run through its message. To uncover it, follow these steps:
- Login to your admin area and go to the edit screen for one of your pages (doesn’t matter which one, just not a new one).
- Scroll down to the Revisions box, and click on any revision
- Scroll down and click both radio buttons as you see in the picture below (You are comparing a revision to itself)
- Click “Compare Revisions”
Now that was fun, wasn't it?
Note: It may be possible that the Revisions box is hidden on your screen or that revisions are turned off for your installation. If you don't see the Revisions box, follow these additional steps after you log into the admin area:
- Click Screen Options in the upper right corner of your display
- Make sure Revisions is checked
- Scroll down to the Revisions box and pick up on the instructions above
If Revisions are turned off for your installation and you are in a free hosting environment, your only option is to watch my YouTube video:
1Author's note: This Easter Egg is apparently gone from WordPress 3.8. Please let me know if you find any other WordPress Easter Eggs.
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