Going Retro on ya! With WordPress Plugins!
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Going Retro on ya! With WordPress Plugins!
It's Episode 529 – We have plugins for Stats, Making It Rain, Killer Zombies, Retro Games, Related Posts, Getting Spicy … and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
WooHeat!, Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin for WordPress, WP Statistics, Let It Rain, Shoot the Zombie, Retro Game Emulator……. and ClassicPress options on Episode 529.
John's Intro:
The Change is Upon Us..
With great appreciation for the No Agenda Show for their inspiration of ideas and the occasional stolen sound clip.
This is a value for value show and I look forward to everyone providing some value back.
Before I get started, you will want to hang around to the end of the show for our Q & A segment with Amber…. and to those listening on the podcast, you may want to check out the YouTube version which has some great discussions before the show starts…
Producer Credits:
Executive producer:
Nobody this week. Maybe next week!
Show Art:
Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth) — https://gregsgraphics.com
All the show notes can be found at: WPPluginsAtoZ.com
Check out all the art work at https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/
Ambers' Rant:
This is #36 of 52 episodes for 2021! Can you smell the coming of Halloween??? I can! Fall always smells like candles, leaves, and wood smoke.
Not sure what it is, but I have been listening to the music of my teens a lot lately – and I realized, a lot of it actually has some pretty good messages in there. It also has some really good sound to it! Mind you, the music of my teens ranges from Cherry Poppin Daddies, to The Beatles. Soooo… there's quite of bit in between – but I was thinking that maybe everyone should take about a week or so, and rediscover the music of their teens/childhood!
I think it could be a great idea to go down the rabbit hole of rediscovering your music from years abound – I have found that it has nearly drowned me in content and hilarity as I remember singing HORRIBLY to this song or that with friends, or developing film to System of a Down blaring. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded of the carefree version of ourselves, so that we can move forward a little lighter.
Also, we can (legally) drink beer to the same songs – and it's way better beer this time around!
Rinse and repeat as often as needed.
We have some news from the world of WordPress for you today as well as some great plugins.
News this week:
What will the future of WordPress searches look like after COVID-19? – Recent update in the monthly volume of WordPress Search Trends for those that rely on this kind of information.
Benefits of cloud computing: The pros and cons – This is a great article to check out for people who are on the fence about whether or not to enter into the cloud universe, or those who are questioning being there already. Things like: Pro – unlimited storage space. Con – Completely reliant upon internet connection in order to access.
Nomophobe = unhealthy – article on the uptick by 40% – 70% in use of smart phones since the pandemic started, and how it is raising anxiety and depression. (Need to unplug!)
Open collective launches new way to support open source through public stock shares – This is interesting, I believe they are saying that they are getting companies to donate stocks in order to support open source without having to pay capital gains taxes… very interesting.
WordPress contributor teams seek to curb spam pledges in five for the future program – The idea is that the ‘Five For The Future' program is going to get rid of the spam, and outdated pledges that appear on the programs dedicated website. For those of you who use this, here's hoping that the messages will be gone soon!
Gravity Forms launches INPUT YouTube Channel and Podcast – They launched this in hopes that by focusing on sharing the stories and experiences of the people both in and outside of the WordPress ecosystem that they will help a lot of those out there! So far, it seems to be going off without a hitch, and people seem to like it! They are also discussing the changes that GutenBerg are bringing for them.
The extras – for even more extra news, check out our Facebook, or Twitter page!
This is the extra news stuff that someone out there might find interesting. To read more, you can head on over to the show notes or newsletter and check it out! If you find something to add for next show, send me a link at amber@wppro.ca
Multi-party breaches causing 26-times damage of worse single breach report – The report goes through a decent explanation of how there were more than 2,726 cyber events between 2008 and 2021. Over half of the ripple events from that time period were identified between 2019 and 2020. This is quite the article, goes into great depth.
4 months later, Alaska's health department still recovering from sophisticated cyberattack – The potential breach of personal information from this attack has only just been revealed, and Alaska Health Department is dealing with the fallout still. This article goes on to explain how the attack was completed, and what is going on right now from the attack.
Tips Tuesday with MayAnna! – Storyboarding for posts and videos, Cloudflare bad bot blocking, Apples new privacy protection and its impacts on you, and much more!
Future Proofing the Branch Network – Considering that most are going back to work as partially online from home, this is an interesting and likely important read! The article goes through and talks about the things that will effect the network, likely trends, likely issues, so on and so forth.
From TNW's Neural – Head Transplants and Brain Implants – Really quite an interesting read!! I had no idea about Sercio Canavero, a scientist who was determined to swap heads successfully on patients by 2019 – didn't happen, but you know, it's still interesting!
One machine to rule them all: A ‘Master Algorithm' may emerge sooner than you think – A little out there, but based in fact!
The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/
Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
Support the show
This Show will not work without you, the producers, as it is a Value for Value model, meaning if you're getting any value out of it then give some value back and help the show out.
Start by subscribing to the newsletter for additional information and get out there round them up and rope them all in, belly up to the bar and enjoy. Spread the word about WP Plugins A to Z and catch it live every Thursday at noon PST on our YouTube Channel.
Show Producers
We'd like to acknowledge all the producers who have supported the show in the various ways over the last week.
This weeks show Art Work comes from:
Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth) — https://gregsgraphics.com
Check out all the art work at https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/
This week's Executive Producer/'s are:
Nobody this week. Maybe next week!
A big thank you to all the Producers who came in under $50 and to those who have set up weekly subscriptions they will remain anonymous and I thank you very much.
All these small subscriptions really help the show out.
A big thank you to those who have hired me because of the Podcast, thank you that is as good as donating to the show.
You can Support the Show by:
Yes, I am pimping out my daughter here, if you want to see her very pretty mug in the live stream it is now up to a $500 donation and until it happens that price will continue to go up… At the rate it is going she will never be live. Someone may want to start a Go Fund Me to make her mug live.
Donating money to help the show Donations of $50 and over are credited with an Executive Producer Credit in the Show Notes, and their note is read out on the show.
Submitting art work at the WP Plugins Art generator,
Submit articles news and information
Submit plugin suggestions for reviews
You can also create a monthly donation at Patreon
Or something I may not have thought of.
If you would like to send something to WP Plugins A to Z you can send to the following address:
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
Off we go into the meat and potatoes, Into the depths of plugin depravity…..
ClassicPress Options
ClassicPress is growing really well, but I just don't have the time to add reviews on ClassicPress myself. I am always open to reviews sent in by listeners; though unless there is a review sent into me on ClassicPress, I am not going to do more than mention that ClassicPress is a thing, and here are some resources. I hope some listeners out there find this information useful!
One thing I am looking forward to in the ClassicPress World is the expansion of the number of ClassicPress specific plugins and their own repository. There are a few plugins specifically for ClassicPress and all plugins for WordPress 4.9.9 work well on it. I do believe it has a future, I just have not time to help them in getting it out there.
ClassicPress News:
Gary Pendergast Praises ClassicPress, Extends Invitation for Collaboration
(Article from August 29, 2021 but still interesting.)
Gutenberg and WordPress core contributor Gary Pendergast has weighed in with this thoughts on ClassicPress, a fork of WordPress created by Scott Bowler.
ClassicPress alternatives for popular WordPress plugins
https://www.classicpress.net/classicpress-alternatives-for-popular-wordpress-plugins/
ClassicPress Usage Report – September 2021
One of the most frequently asked questions about ClassicPress is “how many websites are using it?”
It’s a fair question.
https://www.classicpress.net/classicpress-usage-report-september-2021/
Using the Update Manager to handle updates
Anyone developing a CP-specific plugin needs to be aware that (for now) it’s the developer’s job to process the updates.
https://www.classicpress.net/using-the-update-manager-to-handle-updates/
For some up to date news on ClassicPress check out the ClassicPress Blog.
ClassicPress Resources:
“Must Have” Plugins List
https://forums.classicpress.net/t/must-have-plugins-list/1163
It seems ClassicPress now has it own repository you can check it here https://directory.classicpress.net/plugins they now have 72 plugins available.
CodePotent's plugin directory
https://codepotent.com/classicpress/plugins/
WordPress Plugins
Are you looking for some great newly released plugins check this link
https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/new/
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John's Plugin
WP Statistics
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-statistics/
The Lowdown:
This is a plugin that will let you look at the stats on your site and keep them local.
You can get all this and more:
- Visitor Data Records including IP, Referring Site, Browser, Search Engine, OS, Country and City
- Stunning Graphs and Visual Statistics
- Visitor’s Country Recognition
- Visitor’s City Recognition
- The number of Visitors coming from each Search Engine
- The number of Referrals from each Referring Site
- Top 10 common browsers; Top 10 countries with most visitors; Top 10 most-visited pages; Top 10 referring sites
- Hits Time-Based Filtering
- Statistics on Contents based on Categories, Tags, and Writers
- Widget Support for showing Statistics
- Data Export in TSV, XML, and CSV formats
- Statistical Reporting Emails
- [Premium] Real-time stats
- [Premium] More Advanced reporting
- And much more information represented in graphs & charts along with data filtering
Rating 4 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Retro Game Emulator
https://wordpress.org/plugins/retro-game-emulator/#description
The Lowdown:
SO COOL! Updated 9 months ago, this is what you do:
Install, find the settings under ‘settings' heading on your menu – than you upload your roms. You need to make sure that they have a .nes extension, or it won't work.
The roms are stored in /home/sandboxpage2/public_html/wp-content/uploads/retro-game-emulator/ for your convenience – and you are able to get it onto your site!
I think this is just AWESOME! I don't know how many people could use this out there, but I certainly think this is awesome!!
Rating 5 Dragons
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John's Plugin
Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin for WordPress
https://wordpress.org/plugins/related-posts-thumbnails/
The Lowdown:
Related Posts by WPBrigade will add related posts thumbnails after the post. This Related Posts Plugin allows you to customize thumbnail sizes, display settings and type of relation. This is an interesting plugin to add if you don't already have a related posts plugin.
Rating 4 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Shoot the Zombie
https://wordpress.org/plugins/shoot-the-zombie/
The Lowdown:
The song ‘zombie' by Bad Wolves was playing while I was trying to get this one to work – Honestly I didn't plan it!!
Unfortunately, when I decided to try this one out, I did not think to look at the age of it, or its last update…. last update was 7 years ago…..
It doesn't work anymore. What it was supposed to do, is generate a short code for you to put onto your site, creating a ‘fun button' that when clicked, generates zombies for you to shoot!
Totally awesome plugin that seriously needs to be brought back!!! If any of our listeners have the know how on bringing plugins back from the dead, and you decide to bring back this zombie shooting game plugin, let me know! I would LOVE to add this to our site!!
Extra point for total awesomeness!
Rating 2 Dragon
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John's Plugin
wooHeat!
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wooheat/
The Lowdown:
This is a plugin for stores like https://TheRoguesTavern.com/store where I will be having differnet levels of heat for some of my spices, hot sauce and salsa. Also for the varying pepper seeds and plants I will be selling. And you can use either a basic mild, medium or hot rating or use the Scoville scale.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Let it Rain
https://wordpress.org/plugins/let-it-rain/
The Lowdown:
I was pretty excited for this, you put in whatever emoji, or the html code for the emoji, and this plugin is supposed to rain it down all over your site!
Unfortunately, I don't think it works anymore due to it's lack of updates for the past couple of years…
You put your chosen emoji from the site provided into the settings page of the plugin, then go and check out your site – and if you have recent installations, you get this line on the left hand site appearing for a moment before the page loads…. and that's it.
Really too bad, because I thought this was a fantastic idea! Make your site rain anything you want – Halloween, X-mas, birthday stuff, engagement stuff…. anything! Unfortunately though, I believe that the creator of this plugin sort of forgot about it.
Extra point for a really cool idea though.
Rating 2 Dragon
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Random links for plugins
WordPress plugins crafted from love and experience
https://codeat.co/
Listener Feedback / Audio Clips
Feel free to send in your thoughts to us – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – we'll take them all!
Listener Questions
If you have any you would like to have asked, please feel free to send them in! Remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question!
Enter The Contest to Win!!
Contests Powered by Simple Giveaways who kindly provides us with the premium version for our contests.
Steve Goodtime & Brant Matthews created a new jingle for us for contests.
I do want to thank Charlie for coming to the aid of the show and getting our contests all organized. I also want to thank all the developers again for supporting our show with their plugin donations! Please check them out.
Short note about participating in the contests folks. Remember we go to great efforts to get these licenses and look for more participation from you the producers.
Our contest is for:
Codeixer Deposits for WooCommerce Single Domain Lifetime License
Single Domain Lifetime License valued at $179
https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/codeixer-deposits-for-woocommerce-single-domain-lifetime-license/
There are 6 days left to enter for your chance to win!!!!
Are you currently running an online store? If so, you may explore various methods that can support your conversions and sales. One of the best methods you can use is by providing partial payment options to all your customers.
Doing this will let your customers not having to pay the total product price while they buy. What’s more, it allows you to give an amount they need to pay upfront and then collect the rest of the amount at predefined intervals.
Enter for your chance to win a Single Domain Lifetime License valued at $179! It’s time to let your customers divide an order payment, leave a deposit, and pay the remaining balance later. (https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/codeixer-deposits-for-woocommerce-single-domain-lifetime-license/) The contest will run until September 30th!!
Let your friends know about the giveaway!
WP Plugins A to Z Giveaway to Starter Lifetime Licence for Advanced Database Cleaner Pro. https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/codeixer-deposits-for-woocommerce-single-domain-lifetime-license @codeixer #codeixer #WordPress… Click To Tweet Check out our contest page for all the details and to enter for your chance to win!!
The contest will run until September 30th!!
Visit http://WPPluginsAtoZ.com/contests for more info.
For all developers who would like to support the show. You can donate a premium license to be used in a future contest, please go to WPPluginsAtoZ.com/PluginContest
The plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugins: wooHeat! – 5, Related Posts Thumbnails Plugin for WordPress – 4, WP Statistics – 4
Amber's Plugins: Let it Rain – 2, Shoot the zombie – 2, Retro Game Emulator – 5
Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
Reminders / Commercial / Promotions:
Next Week:
No meetup planned at the moment but you can keep tabs on this at https://wppluginsatoz.com/meetup
If you're not getting enough of us, you can join us for the new Podcast and Live Stream of The Rogues Tavern **Shooting the Shit at The Rogues Tavern** Tuesday evening's at 8 pm PDT, check us out there TheRoguesTavern.com/live
Would you like to be on an interview show? Simply connect at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview
If you have suggestions on plugins you would like to have reviewed please submit them on the website at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/
Q & A Time with Amber ——– Catch this info on our YouTube Channel
If you have questions you would like to have asked on the show, send them in to me at Amber@WPPro.ca and we will answer to the best of our ability!
My first two questions are to both our listeners, and to you. I would LOVE to hear feedback on these two questions from people who are coders/techs!
- How often do coders/computer techs need to change their keyboards due to the CTRL button or random letter keys failing?
- Do coders actually remember ALL this coding, the same way we remember all the words in order to write things like these notes???
These two questions are specifically pointed at you, though I am always stoked to hear Hemdian's responses as well as anyone else out there who would like to put their two cents in!
- What does your PHP being out of date actually do to your site, plugins, and theme?
- What would updating your PHP before you update your site do?
Closing out this Episode
Be sure and subscribe to our Newsletter!
Just some reminders:
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How to Contact Us:
John can be contacted at:
- on my website @ http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber can be contacted at:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
