WordPress's Dramatic Leap Forward: From Well-Knitted Sweater to Soap Opera Star

 

‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from …'

 

Salutations and Some Reminders:

Welcome to Episode 636 – WordPress's Dramatic Leap Forward: From Well-Knitted Sweater to Soap Opera Star – 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!

Hello one and all, May your Remembrance Day Experience Be Pleasant!! Hope everyone is keeping warm and dry – I know in the Northern area of our beautiful land, they are already battling the snow, and that kinda sucks, but at least it's drier snow then what we get down here! For those down here with me where it is raining non stop, be sure to keep yourselves dry as possible. Change out of those wet clothes when you get home, maybe the adults can grab a nip of whiskey in your hot chocolate once you're home and dry too!

 

A few reminders before we start the show today….

Reminders:

• Be sure to check out our newer news thing called N3w$ 4 Y0u! You can find it on our homepage right next to the latest podcast, and on our left-hand menu!
• 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 as we have some awesome Q&A coming up at the end! Sometimes they are questions specifically designed to help people new to the industry out, sometimes they are more intricate questiions designed to help those with a little more experience out, or at least get people thinking. Worth checking out!

...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!

 

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Let's start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:

Artist: 

Grok! You can check him and his artistic talents out by going here and following the directions.
You will wind up being re-routed to here, and although you are getting a sort of lame version you will at least be getting an idea of the real Grok!
The other option, and the best one really 'cause you will be able to get the full version of Grok, is to go to the X (formally Twitter) site and pay for premium for proper access to 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!

 

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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
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-november-6-2024/) – In this report there are 285 vulnerabilities; 285 of these are Plugins – 99 plugins have been patched so far.
There are no Themes needing patching this week.

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, most recent issue was ‘Form Maker by 10Web' with a cross-site scripting via add_query_arg parameter vulnerability. This is a plugin. Be sure to look through the entire list for yourself!

WordPress 6.7 release candidate 3
(https://wordpress.org/news/2024/11/wordpress-6-7-release-candidate-3/) – This is the third release candidate (RC3) for WordPress 6.7, and it is now ready for download and testing! For those who like to live on the cutting edge of the WordPress experience this is exciting news! For those who are not in the know, this version of WordPress is still under development, so do not put this onto a working live site that you rely on for anything at all. this is for checking out and testing.

WooCommerce set to launch New Logo in 2025
(https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-set-to-launch-new-logo-in-2025) – WooCommers is rolling out a brand new logo in early 2025. Tamara Niesen, Chief Marketing Officer at Woo told WP Tavern, “We saw an opportunity to evolve the brand so it aligns with our new product vision and gives us a solid foundation for continuing to grow our business. The new direction helps us stand out. It’s bold, fresh, and communicates what we do and who we’re for.”
You can check out the new logo here.

Matt Mullenweg's State of the Word Address 2024: How to watch live and what to expect
(https://wplift.com/matt-mullenwegs-state-of-the-word-address-2024/) – Matt Mullenweg is set to present his State of the World address live from Tokyo, Japan on December 16, 2024. The community is rather expecting something a wee bit explosive to happen considering what's been going on for the last few months – perhaps this will be the most exciting one he has ever done yet! You can find the details on how to watch live in the article.

Apophis: a European space mission gets up close with an asteroid set to brush by Earth
(https://thenextweb.com/news/apophis-a-european-space-mission-gets-up-close-with-an-asteroid-set-to-brush-by-earth) – This mission is about learning how to deflect a potential asteroid threat, and it's really cool! The mission is set to visit an asteroid called (99942) Apophis. If approved, the mission known as Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses) will rendezvous with the asteroid in February of 2029. And don't worry, Apophis is not going to run into Earth, it's path will lead it by Earth safely at a distance of 19,794 miles (31,860 Kilometers), which is about one-twelfth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. You will be able to SEE the asteroid, but don't worry, it'll be fine.

Some Extras

Check out the N3W$ 4 Y0U coming out on Weds for more, or you can check out our Facebook or Twitter!

Automattic and Matt Mullenweg push for dismissal of key claims in WP Engine Lawsuit
(https://wptavern.com/automattic-and-matt-mullenweg-push-for-dismissal-of-key-claims-in-wp-engine-lawsuit)

WordCamp Asia and WordCamp Europe added to Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship Program
(https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-asia-and-wordcamp-europe-added-to-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship-program)

WordCamp Europe seeks new host city for 2026
(https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-europe-seeks-new-host-city-for-2026)

WPBeginner spotlight 05: WordPress Drama, new AI features + major plugin updates
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/wpbeginner-spotlight-05-wordpress-drama-new-ai-features-major-plugin-updates/)

Introducing OnePageGA: Google Analytics Reports made easy
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/introducing-onepagega-google-analytics-reports-made-easy/)

Theory vs. data: Team tests Einstein's predictions by calculating the distortion of time and space
(https://phys.org/news/2024-11-theory-team-einstein-distortion-space.html)

 

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John's News and Other Odd & Ends Info Additions

Is WordPress users starting to suffer subscription fatigue this is becoming a really effect all over now. Streaming services, software windows, office adobe the list goes on and on. Is is for support or the code that you got.
https://jonchristopher.us/blog/rethinking-wordpress-product-pricing-models/

https://thewpminute.com/all-of-these-stolen-wordpress-themes-plugins-for-9-month/
it all started here https://www.therepository.email/festinger-vault-crowdfunding-legal-battle-with-automattic-after-contrentious-sites-shutdow

 

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Dragon Rating Time!

John's Plugin

Reply-To for WP_Mail

https://wordpress.org/plugins/replyto/

The Lowdown:

The ‘Reply-To for WP_Mail' plugin allows you to easily manage the “Reply-To” header for all emails sent from your WordPress site. With this plugin, you can specify a custom email address that recipients will use when replying to your site’s emails, ensuring that responses go to the correct inbox.

Rating: 5 Dragons

 

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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

When you are feeling a little tired of working, like you need a change – go ahead and change something up!

Something I have learned in this industry is that there are so many different things you can do, and so many different ways you can do the same thing, it's really and truly amazing! I mean, how do we ever get anything done, and how do we ever understand other people's work, when there are so many different ways to do the very same thing?

Don't allow yourself to become bored. If you are bored, just add in something new – like learn a new coding language. Or learn a new aspect of your work – like diving into something as bottomless as SEO – or you can dive into something as exciting as Gaming! That particular section of this industry is so fascinating!

People will always start to feel the pull of boredom as they do the same thing over and over again. Being in this industry though, you will always have so many opportunities to learn something new, check something totally different from your usual out, try out something near opposite of what you are currently doing – and yet you will still be within the same industry so it actually counts as getting work done – and furthering your skills overall!!

No wonder so many people with ADHD wind up in this industry…

…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/

 

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Amber's Plugin

EZ Horoscope

https://wordpress.org/plugins/ez-horoscope/

The Lowdown:

I was feeling rather skeptical when I first saw this, because really there are just so many poorly made horoscope plugins and ‘quizzes' out there, I've become a little jaded over the years.

However, this one actually is pretty awesome! And REALLY easy to add into your site! Just make sure that there is not many other things on that page as you wind up getting a very detailed description of whatever zodiac sign you choose.

Once you have downloaded and activated this, you will find it under ‘Settings' then ‘Horoscope Settings' in your left hand menu.

On this page at the very top you will see the shortcode you use to get the information into your page. I personally missed this at first and had to go to the WordPress page – My personal request to them is that they make the shortcode information a little more central to the page for those like me who just sort of ignore the top where all of the notifications come in…

Below where the shortcode is hanging out, you will see the customization options:
Background colour – This is set to… peach? and you can choose whether to change it to a preset colour, or choose your own through adding a Hex, or clicking on the palette.
Font: This is set to ‘Ariel', though you can change it to anything available on your site.
Font Size: Set to 14px, although again you can change it to whatever suits your site.
Font Colour: Same idea with the colour palette, or adding in a hex.
Include Backlink: Here you can click a check box to choose whether or not there is a backlink added onto your site leading to enneagramzoom.com – this is the people who made this and it could be nice of you to make sure that they get some traffic for their efforts of keeping your site updated!

Regarding the shortcode, this is just one shortcode, and you change the spot where it says ‘zodiacsign' in the code to whichever one you want, Leo, Scorpio, whichever, and you have the info you want on that page!

This looks great, and the information is pretty good, not that silly ‘you will find your great love a week from now while walking down the street, and you will know immediately!' I like this a lot and think it is worth checking out for anyone who likes having horoscopes hanging around.

There IS an option to upgrade, although the free version gives you the basics for just giving people a general overview of the information desired, and some basic control over the look and feel.

Rating: 5 Dragon

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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.

 

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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 Romania – November 14-15

WordCamp Port Harcourt – November 16

WordCamp Malaysia – November 22 – 23

WordCamp Wroclaw – November 22 – 24

WordCamp Griñón – Novemebr 23 – 34

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!

 

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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

 

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Today's Plugins we covered were:

John’s Plugin:

Reply-To for WP_Mail By Javier Casares

• Allows easy management of the “Reply-To” header for all emails sent from your WordPress site.
• Can specify custom email address that recipients will use when replying to your site's emails
• Can ensure all responses go to the correct inbox

Rating: 5 Dragons

 

Amber's Plugin: 

EZ Horoscope by EZ Horoscope

• Easily add fantastic Horoscopes to your pages
• Daily fresh insights
• Customizable Design

Rating: 5 Dragon

 

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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!

• What do you look for to know WHEN to check to see if your plugin is getting anymore updates?

• How do you check to see if your plugin is getting anymore updates?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• How can you figure out which plugin is doing what when it comes to pop up creators, code creators (like pretty links) and others of the like when there are more then 2 of said plugins?

• Is there a trick to finding a plugin to replace your old and outdated one?

 

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