Avoiding the Plugin Sting
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Riding The Wave
It's Episode 522 – We have plugins for Image Comparison, Critters, Rolling The Dice, Avatars, Replacing media … and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
Advanced Image Comparison for Elementor, Cute Animals, Reward Dice by PreciseFunnels WooCommerce Exit Intent Popup with an Email Optin Form, Dice Roller, Avatar Manager, Enable Media Replace……. and ClassicPress options on Episode 522.
John's Intro:
The new magik number is 66, July 1 is the new majik day. Trust the plan.
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 #30 of 52 episodes for 2021. Its Episode 522! Time to get yourself outside and enjoy the last of that nice weather!
If you have the time, get yourself out for a walk, or maybe take the kids out swimming in a lake or river. Perhaps you can get out camping for a few days even!
And if you don't have the time for camping or swimming, just find some time to chill out to some good music, or a good book. Open a window and let some fresh summer air in, I feel pretty certain that it will help. Just be sure to turn off all that social media and news stuff for your chill out time – after all, if you watch too much of that stuff you might go blind.
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:
This one was sent in by a listener:
‘Praying Mantis' threat actor targeting Windows Internet-Facing Servers with malware – This one seems to have been made by someone who likely helped to create Windows – it gets into the memory, leaving little to no trace, and uses the internet facing servers to get into networks. I can see this one being a huge issue for Window's…
Woo Commerce has sent out version 5.5.2 – fixing the issues that had been brought up by the forced security update that happened not too long ago.
Tips Tuesday with MayAnna – This week she covers the issues found so far on WP 5.8, new tutorials for testing and fixing schema markup, a new way to get your videos into Google Search, and more!
A reason to update all Mac products right now – The most recent update has security patches for vulnerabilities found in Mac products that were recently found alongside basic bug patches. These vulnerabilities ‘may have already been actively exploited' says Apple.
Component shortages not going away any time soon says Microsoft. This has been an issue for a while as anyone who builds computers is already aware – and it seems that the supply chain has not been able to recover, and likely won't for a while yet.
How to read like a Vampire and improve your skills as a WP Professional – awesome title right? It's actually a pretty good article – read like a Vampire as in read a lot and still have personal time. The books listed here are very useful if you are in the WP Industry!
Alexa is becoming anti Windows – The king of entertaining, but also interesting as the AI seems to be developing a bit of a personality!
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
Colorado becomes the first state to require accessibility standards to be met at both state and local government levels for sites online.
MyAnna with how your theme can be having an impact on your SEO – If you find that you are having issues with your SEO, look at your theme. MayAnna goes through and explains the process really well.
is the growth of active installs of WP Plugins declining in 2021? – An interesting article going over the decline in active installations on WP. Perhaps just due to the fact that they are only paying attention to the popular ones, and everyone already has those? Or is there another reason? Read on to find out more!
A bit about the booming spyware industry – A look at the spyware industry, how and where it is booming, and where it is most likely being used (and abused).
Building and keeping your professional network – A great basic guide on how to build and keep your network, as well as find great hires!
Google requiring workers to get vax to return to office – This could cause a few issues for people who either cannot or will not get the vax.
Average time to fix high severity vulnerabilities goes from 197 days to 246 days – It is becoming harder and harder to fix these vulnerabilities that are being found within industries.
Biden: Major cyber attack could lead to a ‘real shooting war' – Issues between USA and Russia are coming to a head over the cyber attacks that have been made, and unless resolved could possibly lead to more physical head on collisions.
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
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
This week's Executive Producer/'s are:
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:
The First Release Candidate for ClassicPress 1.3.0 is available!
For more information about what's included, and how to help, checkout https://forums.classicpress.net/…/classicpress-1-3…/3356
Happy Testing!
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/
John's Plugin
Advanced Image Comparison for Elementor
https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-image-comparison-for-elementor/
The Lowdown:
This is an interesting plugin that can be used by many different people from photographers to real estate agencies, also is it good for those who do renovations or create stuff to show before and after picture in a comparison slider. I have seen this used on historical sites to show pictures of how a city looks now, and how it looked then.
Rating 5 dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Dice Roller
https://wordpress.org/plugins/dice-widget/
The Lowdown:
Dice are something that I really like. I have dice made from Ivory, meteor, wood, metal… I like dice. So when I saw this plugin I thought this would be really cool for my fellow dice lovers! I was looking forward to seeing dice roll across the top of the page or something!
So, I activated this, used the widget it creates for you, and set it up so that I had 7 D6 that would roll, exploding on maximum roll, with a reroll of the dice on a minimum roll.
Unfortunately… it's a simple word statement of 7e6 = 42 (3 explosions). No pictures, no dice… just words. I was honestly pretty disappointed with this. I was all psyched up to see dice roll and explode!!
I suppose to be fair, they didn't exactly say that there were actual dice rolling across your screen or anything. It's just what popped into my head from the title.
Ah well. I'll just have to keep my eyes open for a plugin that will give me dice that roll.
Rating 2 Dragons
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John's plugin
Cute Animals
https://wordpress.org/plugins/cute-animals/
The Lowdown:
This is a simple plugin to add some cuteness to your site just choose your animal such as spiders, cats, birds and more. Its just a little fun.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's plugin
Avatar Manager
https://wordpress.org/plugins/avatar-manager/
The Lowdown:
This is pretty cool! This plugin adds in options for your customers to use their own avatar, or choose from one already there for them.
Once activated, look beneath ‘Discussions –> Settings', towards the bottom of the page.
There you can choose which available avatar is default, and whether or not you will allow anyone to upload an avatar.
Pretty nifty, easy to use, and well done! The pictures are even good!
Rating 5 Dragons
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John's plugin
Reward Dice by PreciseFunnels – WooCommerce Exit Intent Popup with an Email Optin Form
https://wordpress.org/plugins/reward-dice-by-precisefunnels/
The Lowdown:
This is a plugin that could help you catch those who came to your store and decide to leave. They get to roll the dice for a discount code and you collect an email for future marketing.
The one drawback is the 3rd party service and that it is only free if you have 5k visitors or less to your site.
Rating 4 Dragons
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Amber's plugin
Enable Media Replace
https://wordpress.org/plugins/enable-media-replace/
The Lowdown:
This seems to be a great plugin if you are working with a limited amount of space on your site – it allows for more easily replacement of any media file in any post or page. Rather than having to go through and do the whole thing of replacement we are all used to, you can simply click ‘upload a new file'.
What this does though, is it deletes the current media file there and replaces it with whatever you are wanting. You need to make sure it is the same kind of picture though – for instance, make sure they are both a PNG. You can choose whether or not the file name, date and links are kept the same, or if they are deleted and replaced with all new. That's a neat addition I think.
However, if you are using something like Elementor, and you try using this – it will take you off your page in order to do this. So, great so long as you are not using anything like Elementor to build your site.
Rating 4 Dragons
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Random links for plugins
WordPress plugins crafted from love and experience
https://codeat.co/
——————————————
Listener Feedback
Feel free to send in your thoughts to us – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly – we'll take them all!
Hey there!
I'm Peter. Recently I was digging around searching for the best weather widget for my website. That's how I came upon your page https://wppluginsatoz.com/page-speed-city-events-world-weather-auto-log-off-plugins-in-episode-391/
It was good and informative, so I checked the links you shared as well. Unfortunately, I didn't find what I wanted, so I kept my research. And my time has paid off, here's what I encountered:
https://www.tomorrow.io/weather/widget/
(The easiest to use, and the clearest weather widget I've ever seen 🙂 100% customized).
I thought you might be interested to check it and maybe share that page with your readers since it's a really great addition for many webmasters!
I could save a lot of time if I'd see it among your resources ;-]
Thanks a lot for your work, keep it up!
Regards,
Peter
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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.
Congratulation to Dale, the winner of the One Year Unlimited Licence for Perfmatters valued at $149. Check your email to claim your prize.
Our newest contest is for
Advanced Database Cleaner Pro
Starter Lifetime Licence valued at $39
https://sigmaplugin.com/downloads/wordpress-advanced-database-cleaner/
Do you know that even after deleting a plugin/theme from your WordPress website, some of its leftovers may remain in your database? Such as orphan options, orphan tables, and orphan cron tasks. As you may know, not all plugins/themes care about the housekeeping of your WordPress database. Let Advanced Database Cleaner Pro clean up the leftovers and improve efficiency when accessing tables. In addition, your backup files will be quicker and smaller.
Enter for your chance to win a Starter Lifetime Licence valued at $39 for Advanced Database Cleaner Pro! Speed up your website by cleaning up your database. (https://wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway/advanced-database-cleaner-pro-starter-lifetime-license-giveaway/)
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/advanced-database-cleaner-pro-starter-lifetime-license-giveaway @sigmaplugin #sigmaplugin #WordPress… Click To Tweet
Check out our contest page for all the details and to enter for your chance to win!!
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: Advanced Image Comparison for Elementor – 5, Cute Animals – 5, Reward Dice by PreciseFunnels – WooCommerce Exit Intent Popup with an Email Optin Form – 4
Amber's Plugins: Dice Roller – 2, Avatar Manager – 5, Enable Media Replace – 4
Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
Reminders / Commercial / Promotions:
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!
- What's the difference between reCaptcha with Google and other companies? Isn't it all just reCaptcha?
- If two plugins appear to do the same thing, is there a way to tell which one is better? Or do you just need to try them both and see which one works better for you?
- When a plugin gets older, or is sold off to another company, it can change or simply stop working the way it was meant to work. Are there signs you can keep an eye out for so that you know when to simply delete or replace and move on from that particular plugin?
Closing out this Episode
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Amber can be contacted at:
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