Clean & Clear Solutions
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Clean & Clear Solutions
John's Intro:
It's Episode 629 and we have plugins for Premo Elementor Addons with ReCrawling… and WordPress News. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
– ‘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 629 – Clean & Clear Solutions – 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!
Hoping everyone is getting a chance to get outside into the warm weather out there! Managed to get the kidlets out and into the lake this last weekend – I am still feeling cold… that lake is NOT warm yet!
A few reminders before we start the show today….
Reminders:
- For July and August this summer we will only be appearing once a month – July 29th and August 19th. Back to normal in September!
- Remember our show is every other week starting at 12:30 PM Pacific Time, with a pre-stream starting around 12:15 PM Pacific Time. Join in for some entertainment!
- Our show notes for each episode can be found at wppluginsatoz.com – the newest show notes will be up within 24 hours and on our front page!
- Don't forget that this is a value for value show, and that you are a big part of it's creation! You are our producers, and we need you to help us produce! Get out there and hit some like buttons, share an episode or two, and let people know that you help to produce the longest running WordPress Plugins podcast!
That's it for reminders, don't forget to stick around until the end of the show for the Q&A – today might be the day we stump my dad!
...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:
Sir Rogue of the Tavern – Barron of the Cowichan Valley
https://theroguesoasis.com/
This is random as toddler drawings – but pretty fun looking! Can never have too much randomness in your life – keeps you on your toes!
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!!
…If I missed something, shoot me a link at amber@wppro.ca – it may show up on the next show!
News this week:
WordPress Vulnerability Report – May 22, 2024
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-may-22-2024/) – In this report there are 153 vulnerabilities, though there are so far 119 patches made for the plugins.
The 34 plugins needing patching are up at the top making it easy to figure out what to pay attention to. Be sure to follow the link and have a look through for your own or your clients sites!
Themes currently with vulnerabilities: ‘ImageMagick Sharpen Resized Images' – the rest have been patched.
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 5 hours ago and is a plugin called ‘KKProgressbar2 Free' – it has a CSRF vulnerability – which means it could allow a malicious actor to force higher privileged users to execute unwanted actions under their current authentication – like give a writer admin capabilities.
WordPress 6.5.4 Maintenance Release
(https://wordpress.org/news/2024/06/wordpress-6-5-4-maintenance-release/) – This minor release features 5 bug fixes in the core. Check out the link in our show notes to find a much more detailed summary of the fixes in Release Candidate Announcement. Heads up, the next major release has been decided for July – so be sure to keep an eye out for that!
WordPress 6.6 Beta 1
(https://wordpress.org/news/2024/06/wordpress-6-6-beta-1/) – For those who like to be on the leading edge of WordPress, you can now check out 6.6 Beta 1! Figure out all those kinks and issues to be solved before the release – at least that's the idea. If you are interested, you can find the link here in our show notes!
MA.TT WP21 (Matt Mullenweg's thoughts on going back to basics)
(https://ma.tt/2024/05/wp21/) – It seems that the 21st birthday of WordPress has caused Matt to really hear what people have been saying for a little while now – let's get back to basics! It appears that Mullenweg is focusing on what made WordPress popular during the first 11 years and thinking about doing a bit of a throwback regarding what to focus on. Personally, I think this is great!
Apple AI on its way
(https://mybroadband.co.za/news/software/540279-apple-ai-on-its-way.html) – I wanted to bring this to the show just because everyone has been developing and releasing so called AI, and now Apple is going to release it's own version of Grok and ChatGpt. I can't help but wonder how this AI is going to stand up, and whether or not each of these AI's are going to specialize, or if they will simply all wind up being the same thing like Microsoft, Apple, and Google are really just all the same thing now?
It should be interesting to see how they decided to develop their AI anyways. Google has messed up their algorithm in the search industry by releasing their Kraken too early – it's not fully developed. ChatGPT has turned out to have some serious issues, just scroll through X and Reddit and you will see what I mean. What sort of issues will this one have I wonder?
The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!
Check this out just for fun! It's NoteGPT AI – not all that great honestly, but so much fun to mess around with! You get 10 songs to create a day – it says 20, but since the thing creates two versions of everything, really you get 10. Have fun!
(https://notegpt.io/ai-music-generator)
WordCamp Europe 2024: Mid-Year Update and Q&A with Matt Mullenweg
(https://wordpress.org/news/2024/05/wordcamp-europe-2024-mid-year-update-and-qa-with-matt-mullenweg/)
WordPress is Exciting Again!
(https://thewpminute.com/wordpress-is-exciting-again/)
Automattic for agencies: A new way to monetize WordPress
(https://www.searchenginejournal.com/automattic-for-agencies/518688/)
How to protect deep work time and retain focus as an SEO
(https://searchengineland.com/deep-work-time-focus-seo-443021)
5 reasons why your content isn't working and how to create helpful content Google wants to rank
(https://searchengineland.com/why-content-isnt-working-create-helpful-content-google-rank-443035)
Microsoft make major Windows 10 U-turn ahead of end-of-support in 2025
(https://www.laptopmag.com/laptops/windows-laptops/microsoft-make-major-windows-10-u-turn-ahead-of-end-of-support-in-2025)
FBI takes down huge global army of zombie computer devices
(https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-takes-down-massive-global-192248605.html)
Mystery malware destroys 600,000 routers from single ISP during 72-hour span
(https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/05/mystery-malware-destroys-600000-routers-from-a-single-isp-during-72-hour-span/)
Microsoft might be spooked by Windows 10 user numbers – but will making upgrading to Windows 11 be the answer?
(https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/microsoft-might-be-spooked-by-windows-10-user-numbers-but-will-make-upgrading-to-windows-11-easier-be-the-answer)
Microsoft admits it can't fix Windows 10 KB5034441 “0x8007043 – ERROR_INSTALL_FAILURE”
(https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-admits-it-cant-fix-windows-10-kb5034441-0x80070643—errorinstallfailure/)
Pirated Microsoft Office delivers malware cocktail on systems
(https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/pirated-microsoft-office-delivers-malware-cocktail-on-systems/)
Surprise Windows 11 update drops with helpful goodies galore
(https://www.pcworld.com/article/2352604/windows-11-surprise-update-provides-many-new-functions.html)
Hackers targeting 1,500 banks and their customers in push to drain accounts across 60 countries: report
(https://dailyhodl.com/2024/06/01/hackers-targeting-1500-banks-and-their-customers-in-push-to-drain-accounts-across-60-countries-report/)
Mandatory ID for social media would solve some problems – but create a lot more
(https://thenextweb.com/news/mandatory-id-social-media-problems)
AI-enhanced searched may pose threat to creators, publishers
(https://www.technewsworld.com/story/ai-enhanced-searches-may-pose-threat-to-creators-publishers-179193.html)
Dragon Rating Time!
John's Plugin
Premium Addons for Elementor
https://wordpress.org/plugins/premium-addons-for-elementor/
The Lowdown:
Supercharge your Elementor Page Builder with 90+ highly customizable addons and widgets, 550+ premade templates that will give you the ability to build sophisticated websites in less time with no coding required. Both Elementor and Premium Addons plugins take your WordPress website to the next level.
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
Making Sites
If you are a developer, don't be shy about passing out your card to anyone and everyone including your kids teachers!! And if they reach out to you, be sure to have a list of sites you are proud of handy to send along their way. Trust me, it's not pushy to pass out your card to anyone and everyone – it's just smart. Eventually that card will be picked up by somone who actually needs and wants your services.
Beginners Tips
Don't understand how to do something? GREAT! Now dive in, and break the heck out of whatever it is that you don't understand – all broken like a glass under a hammer? Fantastic!
Now go fix it.
Alternatively, nothing is broken that needs fixing? Start fiddling with things until you have thoroughly broken the thing, then fix it. Just think back to when you were a kid, and decided to take your bike apart, or the VCR, or something else that your parent's probably yelled at you for later on – I'll bet you had no trouble fixing those things ever again! Despite the extra screws that always seem to appear… How do they always fit so many screws into VCR's anyways?
So now you have broken everything, and are working on fixing it – that's how you get to understand it. If you can't fiddle your way into fixing it, start researching and don't give up till you fix it – do a fresh install and start all over again until you can fix it.
That's how you learn.
Don't do this to a live site though – generally, it's best to do this on one of your sandboxes. 😉
…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
ReCrawler
https://wordpress.org/plugins/recrawler/
The Lowdown:
Have to admit, I wasn't actually searching for anything like this, though I stumbled across this and realized it might be useful!
This plugin is designed to be a quick and painless notification to all search engines whenever you update, create, or delete anything on your site.
After installing and activating this plugin, I found the dashboard for the plugin on the left-hand menu as ‘ReCrawler' – useful since they just kept the very same name. Some plugins change the name around for the menu, and I just find it confusing.
First you will see ‘General' tab option, and this is where you decide what the plugin will update everyone on – changes to posts, or more; changes to what form of taxonomy if any, and you can choose whether Search Engines (SE's) will be notified or not for Posts added/updated, terms or comments added, and you can disable for bulk edit, and show last column update, and you can choose how long you can delay the ping for.
From there over you have tabs for IndexNow, Bing API, Google API, and Yandex API – these all provide the API for you, and you choose whether or not to enable them.
Then we have the Logs, where you can enable for logging incoming request from search engines and outgoing requests from site; you have the option for key logging, outgoing requests, cron events, bulk actions, and how long of a lifetime is recorded.
And then, if you find you like this plugin they offer you all the other plugins they make to download. Which honestly, I think that's a brilliant idea! Add on a tab in the menu area with all your other work, it's not in your face, it's not demanding – but it makes sure the option is there! Freaking fantastic in my opinion!
Now, I did test this out in one of my playground sites with a rather delicate plugin structure – so I know that this tends to play well with others. And although I am not entirely certain if this plugin will help with keeping all the search engines properly informed of changes, there was already a decent log after I created a few posts and changed a couple of others – so it is doing what it says it will do and is dutifully reporting everything.
There is no lag created which I expected since I have experienced lags with other plugins like this in the past, and the log is created fairly quickly. I like this plugin so far, it seems to be working well so far! I recommend you check it out for yourself.
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!
WordPress Youth Day – June 28-29
Uganda Website Projects Competition 2024 – July 5
WordCamp Canada 2024 (#WCEH) – July 11-13
WordCamp Whitley Bay, UK – July 12
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:
We have a real brick and mortar address where you can send in art and/or notes – you can find the address in our show notes!
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
We also have virtual addresses too!
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:
Premium Addons for Elementor By Leap13
- Whole lot of free widgets
- Has pro version with more options
- Lightweight, offering control over which widgets actually get enabled on site
Rating: 5 Dragons
Amber's Plugin:
ReCrawler by Mikhail Kobzarev
- Helps to keep the Search Engines updated about changes to your site
- Easy to understand dashboard
- Set it and leave it sorta plugin that just keeps going
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 – let's see if we can stump my dad!
- Do you think AI has developed enough to replace Editors yet? Or is it more like the auto correct we currently have on our phones?
- What do you think the Apple AI will be like – just the same, or do you think it will be different from the ChaptGPT and Grok?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- I am starting to think that AI has become synonymous with ‘automated', and is no longer thought of as Data from Star Trek level. What are your thoughts on this?
- AI in security could be really great or really bad – my mind keeps jumping back and forth; really great if the AI can keep it straight who is allowed to be there and who is not – really bad if it can't keep it straight. What are your thoughts on this?
