category__not_in — anyway to use category name instead of id?

You can use List Category Posts (Disclaimer: I’m the author of List Category Posts) or you can code this yourself:

$category_id = get_cat_ID($category_name);

This way you can get the id and exclude it from the loop with the minus sign. Example:

get_posts(cat=-1);

Related Posts:

  1. Get date of last update outside of loop
  2. How do I get the attributes of a short code from a post?
  3. Changing behavior of the loop twice in one page
  4. Show scheduled posts in archive page
  5. post__in – Placing content from a foreach loop inside of an array
  6. loop query exclude meta_key with meta_value
  7. “Blog pages show at most” in The Loop
  8. wp_insert_posts Fatal error: Maximum function nesting level of ‘100’ reached, aborting!
  9. Post Loop not Returning Permalink
  10. Displaying child page content of a certain parent
  11. Pagination adding extra posts only on page 2
  12. If Loop has odd number of posts on last page Custom style for last post in it
  13. Custom page template
  14. Get posts that matches specific terms of multiple custom taxonomies
  15. Output shows a page instead of a list of blog postings
  16. How to add “time” data this?
  17. multiple loops with pagination on the same page
  18. Loop through all media library images and return those where caption contains the text carousel
  19. Custom search form to display users only
  20. Multiple loops on the same page removing post tags
  21. Pages inside a page (with thumbnails)
  22. How to make post content from each post display within the same div
  23. Displaying the last page of posts
  24. How to order posts by meta_value created inside loop?
  25. How to get_posts where ‘menu_order’ is more than 0/zero?
  26. WordPress Redirects on Install
  27. How to load all pages into one page with their templates
  28. How to return only one instance of each, from the entire loop
  29. Problems with loop
  30. Repeating Loop on my Posts Page
  31. Shortcode with a foreach and arguments
  32. Calling & display certain product category loop and pagination on the homepage
  33. Detect if current page is front page within custom query
  34. Display Authors in a grid loop
  35. Infinite Scroll and DFP
  36. Blog’s post count cause irratic behavior
  37. Sanitize Custom Field Value in Meta Query
  38. show random image in loop if image is not set
  39. Get Page content to displayin Bootstrap Modal
  40. Pagination – works on local but not live dev!
  41. need help looping add_action in wp
  42. Combine the results of two loops [closed]
  43. How to show more random posts if Tag has less than 3 posts
  44. How to display pending posts on the homepage only for editors
  45. How can I improve the performance of this query_posts loop?
  46. Add leading zero to current post display [closed]
  47. Distribute Gallery Images Every nth in Loop
  48. WordPress Image Slider Looping Title Not Working
  49. Is there any good reason for two CSS files to @import each other?
  50. Adding div after every two post on main loop! Why will first post not get counted?
  51. Second Loop Showing Only One Post on Single Post Page
  52. Pulling in featured image into default recent posts widget
  53. Random post link generator messes up the loop
  54. Modify loop output for a specific list of categories
  55. how can i order the category by date
  56. Change position of entry title
  57. Print the whole page?
  58. excerpt not showing up
  59. Announces with different formatting dependently on a number
  60. Override orderby to create list of users by custom meta_value
  61. Loop info in jquery Tabs – loop into a variable?
  62. Thumbnail Image Rounded Corners w CSS (or any other good method)
  63. Several loops in sidebar issues
  64. List page is showing 404
  65. Duplicated tag in loop
  66. Insert content above an embedded video inside Wordress’ php the_content
  67. Loop only shows first two posts
  68. Why is my archive page looping through all but one post?
  69. Loop two different category WP_Query
  70. Use ACF Category Image for all Taxonomy Archive Views
  71. Loop with custom posts, to include information from different custom post type
  72. the loop printing post in one grid
  73. Check value of post meta within IF statement
  74. Transient not working for external data
  75. adding tax_query to $query_string
  76. Get Sticky User in user loop based on user role
  77. Remove posts_orderby filter then add it back in
  78. the_title() Returns the page title instead of the post
  79. WP update_post_meta link loop
  80. How do I aproach this?(for sale, for lease, sold->move something from a category to another)
  81. How to fix pagination for custom loops?
  82. query_posts ignores the argument
  83. Need some help with “the_widget()” function
  84. Conditional Check in The Loop’s Parameters
  85. How does the JSON API work to parse incoming JSON and fetch a post based on an ID?
  86. How to add excerpt in loop in Twenty Eleven theme?
  87. show posts from one category with comments only
  88. Loop from another WP site onto mine
  89. Having issue with WordPress loop
  90. How to implement template file and the loop
  91. Show only posts from todays date [duplicate]
  92. I need to update the post query? [closed]
  93. Wrap every 2 divs in row – for each loop [closed]
  94. How to add class to the last image of the last post in a loop
  95. Multiple loop with pagination in same page
  96. Why did my most recent article fall behind an older one on my site?
  97. wp_mail sending only once inside foreach loop
  98. How to use orderby on meta_value when using Pods custom database table storage
  99. wp_mail function not working in user query loop
  100. How to set and retrieve cookies while in the loop