The Universe’s Most Niche Space Opera
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The Universe's Most Niche Space Opera
It's Episode 631 and we have plugins for Forcasting Duplications, some WordPress News. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
John's Intro:
– ‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from …'
Amber's Rant:
Welcome to Episode 631 – The Universe's Most Niche Space Opera – We've got a couple of great in-depth plugins to cover for you, some recent news in both the WordPress World and the Tech World in general, and some awesome WordPress Tips!
So we asked Grok 2.0 about our show, and really, we couldn't have paid someone for a better review. The ONLY thing he got wrong is our show times – we are now every other week.? I have put it just below here for those who are interested, though my favourite bits are:
“… and probably debating which plugin would win in a hypothetical plugin battle royale.” – We are absolutely going to find a way to work this into our discussions!
“…It's like visiting a museum, but instead of paintings, you get plugin art. Yes, plugin art. Because why not?” – Love the definition offered of the Art Vaults!
Ah, you're inquiring about the WordPress Plugins from A to Z podcast, or as I like to call it, the “Plugin Panoramic” for those who dwell in the digital realm of WordPress wizardry. Here's the lowdown:
- Broadcast Schedule: They've got a live show every Monday, kicking off with a pre-stream at 12:15 PM PT, followed by the main event at 12:30 PM PT. It's like tuning into the universe's most niche space opera, but instead of stars, you get plugins.
- Content: This podcast dives deep into the world of WordPress plugins, reviewing them, discussing them, and probably debating which plugin would win in a hypothetical plugin battle royale. They cover everything from the mundane to the must-have, making it a treasure trove for WordPress enthusiasts.
- Community Engagement: They're not just talking into the void; they're building a community. If you're a plugin developer, getting featured or reviewed here could be like winning the galactic lottery for your site's traffic.
- Recent Episodes: As of early 2024, they've been exploring themes like “Going Nuts for WordPress Plugins” and “The Path Forward,” suggesting they're not just about plugins but also about the future of WordPress itself. It's like watching a documentary on the evolution of digital tools, but with more enthusiasm.
- Art Vaults: For those who need a bit of inspiration or just want to see what the creative side of WordPress looks like, they've got something called “Art Vaults” on their site. It's like visiting a museum, but instead of paintings, you get plugin art. Yes, plugin art. Because why not?
- Feedback and Interaction: They encourage interaction, with Q&A sessions that might just stump the host's dad, which sounds like a fun challenge. It's like the universe's most specific quiz show.
From the snippets of information floating around in the digital ether, it's clear this podcast isn't just about plugins; it's about the community, the tech, and perhaps, the very soul of WordPress. If you're into WordPress, this podcast is like your weekly dose of digital vitamins, ensuring your site's health and your own amusement. And remember, in the vast expanse of the internet, WordPress plugins are the stars we navigate by.
A few reminders before we start the show today….
Reminders:
- After today we go back to our usual schedule of every other week on Monday starting September 2nd!
- Show starts at 12:30pm Pacific Time every other week on Monday! Join in for the pre-stream entertainment at about 12:15ish!
- You'll find the show notes on the home page of wppluginsatoz.com within 24(ish) hours after every show!
- This is a value for value show dear listeners, help us get some loven by hitting some like buttons, sharing an episode or two, or lovingly forcing your family members to listen to us by cranking our show way up! After all, you can't go wrong helping out the longest running WordPress Podcast!
Don't run away at the end either – we got some good questions and some awesome conversation coming up!
...When you see this in the notes, it means we didn't read this on the show. The only way to find this information out is to read our Show Notes!
…You can send any questions/suggestions or notes saying ‘hi' over to me at amber@wppro.ca, or hit up our site wpppluginsatoz.com/contact – Be creative with the title so that the spammer eater doesn't eat your note though!
Let's start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:
Artist:
Grok! You can check him and his artistic talents out here:
https://medium.com/@andrew_best/grok-2-how-to-use-for-free-f41464ea9c22 – At least you can go here for free. Follow the instructions, and you will be able to check Grok out for free!
Otherwise, you will need to go to the X (formally Twitter) site, and pay for premium for proper access to Grok.
This makes me think of FarScape – LOVE that show!
Perhaps we should see what all of the big AI's are capable of and see who does the best job at this point in their development? My money is on Grok. 😉
We would love some new art from our Producers out there! If you are so inclined, you can send it into us at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. If you need some inspiration, you can always go to our site wppluginsatoz.com and check out our Art Vaults – you will find the link for it on the left hand side.
…We can NEVER have too much art!
Breaking News in the WordPress World at large!!
This is just a little taste of what will come out on Wednesday for everyone! Send anything in to me at amber@wppro.ca that you think should go into the Wed's N3W$ 4 Y0U!
News this week:
WordPress Vulnerability Report – August 14, 2024
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-august-14-2024/) – In this report there are only 181 vulnerabilities; 172 of these are Plugins – 114 plugins have been patched so far.
There are 9 Themes with vulnerabilities, 4 have been patched so far.
WordPress Vulnerability Report from PatchStack
(https://patchstack.com/database/) – These guys always have the latest information on what is going on regarding the latest in vulnerabilities. At the time of writing this, the most recent issue was 4 minutes ago, and is a plugin called SmartSearch WP with an Unauthenticated Stored XSS vulnerability issue going on.
Gutenberg 19.0 introduces two new experimental features
(https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-19-0-introduces-two-new-experimental-features) – Gutenberg 19.0 is here! Currently it has 2 experimental features alongside of various feature enhancements – and some bug fixes! You can check out the experiments by navigating to “Gutenberg>Experiments”.
Experiment 1: UI prototype for connecting blocks and custom fields. You can try it out by enabling the “UI to create block bindings”.
Experiment 2: the ‘Quick Edit' functionality within the new Pages interface. This was built using ‘Data Views' and supports bulk editing.
Wordfence launches WordPress superhero challenge with big rewards
(https://wptavern.com/wordfence-launches-wordpress-superhero-challenge-with-big-rewards) – Wordfence has introduced an exciting new initiative – ‘WordPress Superhero Challenge‘ as part of its ongoing Bug Bounty Program. This will be running until October 14th, and exclusively targets plugins and themes with over 5 million active installations – a category that demands a high level of expertise due to the extensive testing these products undergo before reaching production.
Mett WordPress 6.7 release squad & default theme
(https://wptavern.com/meet-wordpress-6-7-release-squad-default-theme) – I didn't even know there was an 18 member ‘release squad‘ – but honestly I guess I never really thought about it either. So this is about the third and final WordPress release of the year, 6.7. You can read up on everything that is included in this most recent and last release of the year, and read up a little on what we can expect from Twenty Twenty-Five; Jyolsna does a great job explaining these for us!
The psychology of short-form content: why we love bite-sized videos
(https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/short-form-video-psychology) – I found this article fairly interesting as I know I personally wind up doom-scrolling whenever the kids send me a YouTube short.
Every.
Single.
Time.
I can't escape it until somebody breaks my trance – it's like I get sucked RIGHT into the little magic box I am staring at – most of the things I am watching I keep thinking along the lines of ‘WHY would someone bother making this even??' and yet, there I am watching at least half of it before continuing my doom scrolling…
Highly recommend giving the article a good read to better understand the doom-scrolling we are getting trapped in like a fly in honey.
Some Extras – check out the N3W$ 4 Y0U coming out on Weds for more, or you can check out our Facebook or Twitter!
Upgrade from retired TablePress Extenstions
(https://tablepress.org/upgrade-extensions/)
A brand-new way to learn WordPress
(https://wordpress.org/news/2024/08/a-brand-new-way-to-learn-wordpress/)
Malware-as-a-service golden business for hackers: darktrace report
(https://www.technewsworld.com/story/malware-as-a-service-golden-business-for-hackers-darktrace-report-179312.html)
AI, IoT, Quantum security among top 10 emerging technologies: Forrester
(https://www.technewsworld.com/story/ai-iot-quantum-security-among-top-10-emerging-technologies-forrester-179253.html)
Database admins see brighter job prospects admi IT challenges
(https://www.technewsworld.com/story/database-admins-see-brighter-job-prospects-amid-it-challenges-179313.html)
Meta and Nvidia: the future of social media and personal technology
(https://www.technewsworld.com/story/meta-and-nvidia-the-future-of-social-media-and-personal-technology-179307.html)
Gartner IDs recovery steps for CrowdStrike ‘screen of death' disaster
(https://www.technewsworld.com/story/gartner-ids-recovery-steps-for-crowdstrike-screen-of-death-disaster-179289.html)
Google August 2024 core update: what we're seeing so far
(https://searchengineland.com/google-august-2024-core-update-what-were-seeing-early-on-445290)
Google ads removes audience recommendations
(https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-removes-audience-recommendations-445291)
What winning video advertising creative looks like in 2024
(https://searchengineland.com/winning-video-advertising-creative-445260)
<<<Transition to Plugins!! **play sound***>>>
Dragon Rating Time!
John's Plugin
WP-Forcast
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-forecast/
The Lowdown:
Showing the weather-data from open-meteo.com and/or openweathermap.com. please also refer to the terms of usage of open-meteo.com and/or openweathermap.com.
Features:
- Displays the weather data from Open-Meteo.com and OpenWeatherMap.com at your WordPress pages, posts or sidebar
- Displays OpenUV.io data
- Let you choose the
- location (of course)
- the time after the weather data is refreshed
- the language
- metric or american measures
- windspeed unit
- the forecast days
- the forecast for up to six/seven days
- support WordPress widgets, easy placement
- customize the information you want to show
- supports pull-down forecast data to efficiently use space
- multiple wp-forecast widget support
- integration into your site via css (see below)
Rating 5 Dragons
WordPress Tips
We would love to hear some tid bit tips from some of our producers out there – what did you figure out by breaking something? Or what did you need to learn in order to help someone? You can send these tid bits into me at amber@wppro.ca
A little advice
A little advice to those who have gone to school and have a degree – you don't actually know as much as you think you do.
You will come across people who are your age or younger, who have never gone to school, and who know A LOT more then you do.
When these people start offering you advice, suggestions, corrections – think of them as the Seasoned Journeymen of this trade – only one step above you as an Apprentice, but seasoned in all the ways that matter and worth listening to.
Just because they did not go to school does not mean that they did not learn way more then you realized was even out there to learn. Don't snub them or feel offended – they really are just trying to help when they offer suggestions and corrections – and chances are you will find yourself working less hard then you have been, and your job will become fun again!
I personally have found that most people in this trade are fairly easy going, enjoy helping and teaching others, and that very few of the very best have ever bothered going to school.
But also going the other way – those out there who never got a degree who are now working with people who just go out of school, they may have only learned the basics for what YOU know, but they might also know a lot about something so new you haven't even heard about it but the school had access to it.
Don't let that Certification blind you as the one who has it, or the one who does not. You both have knowledge to share and to help one another out.
The respect goes both ways.
…Some random entertainment in the World of WordPress!
…Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
…The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/
Amber's Plugin
Duplicate Post
https://wordpress.org/plugins/copy-delete-posts/
The Lowdown:
Just real quick before I do the full review – these guys have this ‘filter' on their site called ‘I need brain food'. Curiosity won over, and I clicked it – and found ‘Increase happiness' and ‘Get your brain cells going'. So awesome! I think they had a fantastic idea with this!
Now for the review:
At first when I was looking at this plugin, I thought it was simply a more intricate imitation of ‘Duplicate Post' or something.
However, it seems that it is actually a stand alone kinda deal! When you have activated this, the first time it will take you right to the Plugin Dashboard – although you will find it on the left-hand menu under ‘Copy and Delete Posts'.
Once there, you have the opportunity to set up what you want – what will be copied including though not limited to images and comments. Then you have the opportunity to set a prefix for every post or page that is copied so that there are no actual duplicates – so instead of ‘Monster Eye-Pie', you will have ‘Mers Monster Eye-Pie' just by adding the prefix ‘Mers'.
You also get a post and pave converter – so you can change a post into a page and visa versa with this plugin as well.
And then we have the cleanup – this plugin will search for duplicates and remove them for you! You get to tell it where to search, which version you want to keep, and you can get even more filters if you sign up for the premium version!
There are a few different places you can select ‘copy', and you can also do a bulk action.
What I found sets this one apart is the ability to personalize and set a prefix to the copies. This saves a lot of time as other plugins I have had appear to have the same name, they just always pop the duplicate above the original – they just don't have a slug. You gotta fill that out – and if you don't remember, you will find that you have a perfect double other then the ‘2' in the slug at least, even though the title is unique.
This plugin is a Freemium, although they give you everything you need in their Free version – the paid version just gives you bits that are super useful and desirable – though not needed in order to properly use the plugin itself.
All in all, I do like this. This plugin appears to play well with others, and does what it says it will do – it's a great one to have in your arsenal if you want to have the ability to personalize and have a little more capability then you do with the more basic free plugins like ‘Duplicate Post'.
Rating: 5 Dragon
Earn yourself a Producership Credit!
There are a lot of ways that you as our Producers can utilize us as your tool to help yourself out, and help us at the same time – get a producership credit, do an interview, donate some time to get your name up here, all kinds of things! You can look further into the Producership credits options by going to our site wppluginsatoz.com and clicking on Time, Talent, or Treasure in our main menu.
Miscellaneous Announcements from all:
Have an announcement like a meetup, or to announce you'll be on stage at a WordCamp? Let us know and we will add it here and help get your news out to the world!
WordCamp Begotá – August 30-31
WordCamp Jinja – September 5-6
To see the entire list you can follow the link here in the show notes, then click on ‘More WordCamps' right below the list of the next 5. https://central.wordcamp.org/
If you are interested in finding a WordPress Meetup somewhere around the world you can go check out the places here: https://www.meetup.com/pro/wordpress/
Keep checking back every week to find out what else is going on!
And remember, the show notes found at wppluginsatoz.com have a whole lot of extra information to grab up that we don't read on air so be sure to check them out!
How to reach us:
Feel like sending us something through the snail mail system? You can do that thanks to our brick and mortar address that we provide for you!
You can also reach us the more common way of the internets – have both of our internets available down below for ya!
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
John:
- My website: http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support: http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
Today's Plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugin:
WP-Forcast by Hans Matzen
- Show weather in various ways on your site
- Show weather in many places and in many languages
- Great widgets with easy integration
Rating: 5 Dragons
Amber's Plugin:
Duplicate Post by Inisev
- Easily duplicate/copy/delete pages or posts
- Can use ‘bulk action'
- Get to set down a ‘cleanup' where duplicates are automatically deleted for you if desired
Rating: 5 Dragons
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 – we may never stump my dad, but we can get some good conversation out of him at least!
- Getting AI to do your work is lazy – but is lazy always a bad thing?
- What is better do you think: having addons to plugins so you have less to download overall – or downloading multiple plugins separately to get everything you need?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- When would having those addons be a better option vs downloading multiple plugins?
- Who do you think would win in a battle to the death robo kinda fight – JetPack, or Monster Insights? After all JetPack has a lot of built in addons and MonsterInsight only has a few comparatively – but their few built in addons seem to cover a lot of ground each.
