Gobbling Up WordPress Plugins
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Gobbling Up WordPress Plugins
John's Intro:
It's Episode 580 and we have plugins for X-Pliant, EV-Words, Popular Items, Just Free Stuff, CF7 Mining, Woo Birthdays … and ClassicPress Options. 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 580 – Gobbling Up WordPress Plugins – This is episode 40 for 2022, and Jack Frost is having a blast out there! At least he is round abouts here – be sure to pull out your warm stuff and keep it ready for the mornings especially!
A Message from your AtoZ Plugin Worker Bee's – This is a Value for Value show, meaning any value you find here, offer that same value back! We accept all currencies including time and talent currency! Chocolate is always good too…
Remember, don't skip the end of the show – you never know what kind of amazing life altering advice you might catch! Like how to fill your site as full of spam as possible…
A special note to our New Listeners: Don't be shy to ask your questions. No such thing as a dumb question, Dumbo the elephant agrees!
…When you see this in the notes, this means we didn't read this onto the show, and that 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:
Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth) — https://gregsgraphics.com
Feeling Inspired? Hit up our site at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/ and submit some artwork of your own!
…We can NEVER have too much art!
Or check out allll the artwork at: https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/
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 – November 9, 2022 (https://ithemes.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-november-9-2022/) – This weeks list is just too long to list them all, here are the ones I most easily recognize:
Analytics for WP, Find and Replace All, Long Form reCAPTCHA, Fancier Author Box by ThematoSoup, Font Awesome 4 menus.
There are more, be sure to check out the links in our show notes!
– WooCommerce store owners combat fraudulent stripe charges (https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-store-owners-combat-fraudulent-stripe-charges) – For the past few weeks, members of the Advanced WordPress Facebook (AWP) group have been talking about how to combat Stripe Card Testing fraud. A developer by the name of Jon Brown opened the topic after coming across 5 different sites dealing with this; of the 5, simply turning off ‘bot mode' and adding a reCaptcha was enough to fix it. However, 1 of the 5 still had issues. Each fraudulent stripe costs $15 to dispute – the case he was dealing with was about 1,200 successful of $2.99, with 100,000 blocked.
The best option available currently is to limit the the checkout, using the Checkout Rate Limiter plugin available on GitHub – the issue was dealt with about a year ago and is being dealt with again. You can find the discussion links through the link in our show notes.
– Last call for the 2023 state of open source survey (https://wptavern.com/last-call-for-the-2023-state-of-open-source-survey) – OpenLogic and Open Source Initiative (OSI) have collaborated to put together the 2023 State of Open Source Survey. This is an annual survey collection from professionals to identify trends in the adoption and challenges of using open source technologies, and takes less than 10 minutes to answer the 31 questions survey. This is the last call for all those interested in partaking in the survey – you can find the link in our show notes.
– WordPress rebrands FSE as ‘Site Editor' (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-rebrands-fse-as-site-editor) – The term full-site editing (FSE) has been widely used but sometimes has been found to be poorly understood. After lengthy discussion, Haden Chomphosy has announced the decision to use ‘Site Editor' going forward. The idea is that the two words are much more straight forward and offers no confusion for those unsure what FSE stands for.
– Gutenberg's Roadmap for a ‘font library' will give users an interface for registering and managing web fonts (https://wptavern.com/gutenbergs-roadmap-for-a-font-library-will-give-users-an-interface-for-registering-and-managing-web-fonts0 – This article is referring to discussions that are being had regarding the roadmap for the webfonts API and the font management interface projects that are being looked at for Gutenberg. The idea is to take ideas put forth by plugins, and make them part of the core.
– Gutenberg 14.5 introduces new ‘document overview' panel, improved block spacing controls (https://wptavern.com/gutenberg-14-5-introduces-new-document-overview-panel-improves-block-spacing-controls) – Gutenberg 14.5 was released on November 9th, and had some exciting updates! The highlight is a new ‘document overview' panel – this combines what was previously found under separate icons in the Editor toolbar under ‘list view' and ‘details' together into one! You can open the new document outline panel using the list view icon in the toolbar. Characters, words, and ‘time to read' have been moved to the bottom of the panel, making the entire panel cleaner.
– Here's how algorithms are made (https://thenextweb.com/news/how-algorithms-are-made) – This is a really interesting read on how the things that give us what we do and do not want in our socials and Amazon are created – and by knowing, you will also have the power to tweak them exactly to your tastes, or to exactly opposite your tastes!
ClassicPress News:
…Our News Section really isn't complete without ClassicPress News…
A message from ClassicPress!
It may not seem that way, but the team actively works on ClassicPress and its related projects. You can track core development progress by visiting our GitHub repository or reading transcripts from our weekly core meetings.There is a new Blog Post available on the ClassicPress site!
New at ClassicPress: Security Release, GitHub Issue Templates, And Morehttps://www.classicpress.net/new-at-classicpress-security-release-github-issue-templates-more/
ClassicPress has projects they are looking to have some support with. They have a page with these projects listed and who the contact is for the project. Check out the following page if you are using ClassicPress and are interested in helping them move forward! https://forums.classicpress.net/t/currently-active-projects/3630
They also have some petitions posted check them out!
…For some up to date news on ClassicPress check out the ClassicPress Blog.
The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!
…Here you will find news on tech in general, and some random things I think are pretty nifty! If you come across something you think should be added, send me a link at amber@wppro.ca
– New extortion scam threatens to damage sites' reputation, leak data (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-extortion-scam-threatens-to-damage-sites-reputation-leak-data/)
– Phishing drops IceXLoader malware on thousands of home, corporate devices (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/phishing-drops-icexloader-malware-on-thousands-of-home-corporate-devices/)
– Android phone owner accidentally finds a way to bypass lock screen (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/android-phone-owner-accidentally-finds-a-way-to-bypass-lock-screen/)
– Canadian food retail giant Sobeys hit by Black Basta ransomware (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/canadian-food-retail-giant-sobeys-hit-by-black-basta-ransomware/)
– US Seized 18 web domains used for recruiting money mules (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-seized-18-web-domains-used-for-recruiting-money-mules/)
– New BadBazaar Android malware linked to Chinese cyberspies (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-badbazaar-android-malware-linked-to-chinese-cyberspies/)
– Microsoft confirms gaming performance issues on Windows 11 22H2 (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-confirms-gaming-performance-issues-on-windows-11-22h2/)
– Royal Mail down: Tracking unavailable as outage exceeds 24 hours (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/royal-mail-down-tracking-unavailable-as-outage-exceeds-24-hours/)
– Microsoft fixes Windows zero-day bug exploited to push malware (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-fixes-windows-zero-day-bug-exploited-to-push-malware/)
…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/
Let's have a peek at our Contests for this week…
Firstly we want to thank Simple Giveawaysfor being totally awesome and providing us with their Premium Version for our contests!
Secondly we want to thank Steve Goodtime & Brant Matthews for creating our amazing jingle we still use!!
Thanks to Charlie, we have both a winner for the Breakdance Plugin License, and a new contest for you to enter into!
If you didn't get a chance to enter into the contest for the Breakdance License, no worries! You will have another 2 chances, be sure to listen and enter into the contest when it rolls around again to Breakdance!
Enter for your chance to win a 1-year license good for 10 sites with WP Umbrella valued at $240 each!
WP Umbrella
Manage Multiple WordPress Websites Effortlessly
The all-in-one solution for your WordPress maintenance service.
Click here to visit wp-umbrella.com
To Enter, head on over to wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway and enter for your chance to win!
Remember, this is YOUR show! We are just the Worker Bee's here – Don't be afraid to jump up and down and demand a turn at the wheel to help guide the show to where YOU want it to go!
That goes for all the Developers out there too – this is YOUR show! by supporting us with your Plugin donations you are helping to guide the show to where you want to see it go! A GIANT Thank You is owed to the Developers who have been supporting us this whole time, we honestly could not have even gotten this show started without you!
If any Developers out there listening right now are interested in adding to the show by donating a Premium License for our Contests, you can do so by going to wppluginsatoz.com/giveaway!
Time for the Good Stuff! …
Off we go into the meat and potatoes of plugin depravity…..
WordPress Plugins
————————————————-
John's Plugin
XCompliant
https://wordpress.org/plugins/xcompliant/
The Lowdown:
Ok, since it's all over the place and the lawsuits have been flying the last couple years, this is something you may consider looking into. The service will help identify and adjust accessibility issues in order to support you reaching compliance to ADA & WCAG standards.
Rating: 4 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Just show free stuff in Elementor
https://wordpress.org/plugins/just-show-free-stuff-in-elementor/
The Lowdown:
This is specifically for Elementor, and was made so that you will only see the free stuff available in Elementor. No more seeing exactly what you need only to find out that it's only available in the pro version!
The plugin works great, and is really just a plug and play – once activated, no more pro stuff to confuse you!
Totally free, makes it so that you only see the free options in Elementor.
Rating: 5 Dragons
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John's Plugin
EV Crosswords
https://wordpress.org/plugins/ev-crosswords/
The Lowdown:
This could be a great plugin for many website where you can create you own crossword puzzles and display them on your website. This tool does require some work right now but appears to be great.
Rating 4 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
CF7 ReCaptcha Mine
https://wordpress.org/plugins/cf7-recaptcha-mine/
The Lowdown:
This was made only for Contact Form 7, and seems to work well for mining all the BS inputs to your forms!
You still get ALL of the real requests – though if the real request has a spammy sort of air to it, it won't get through – meaning if someone really IS trying to tell you that you won something, they won't get through your forms.
This is a completely free plugin, and is really quite brilliant – it really does seem to remove the bits of spam that tend to still get through. Also seems to play well with others – I am sure that over time the spam will adapt, though hopefully that will take a little time.
If you desire, you can use the Flamingo Plugin to store and read mails and spam separately.
Rating: 5 Dragons
We Interrupt the Meat and Potatoes of Plugin Depravity Edition to bring you our Donations Segment and to thank our Producers!
Remember, this is YOUR show! We're just the Worker Bee's here. Don't forget to restock the show's larders with some Time, Treasure, or Talent Donations! Need more info on how to do that? Check out our site wppluginsatoz.com – right up in the menu you will see each one under ‘Donations'!
Special thanks goes to:
Free-Lance Producers popping in and out:
Though always showing up at unexpected times, these Producers are surely part of the reason our name is getting out there! Thank you!
…If you have listened to even 10 minutes of this show, or shown up a single time to one of our live shows on YouTube, you are one of our many Free-Lance Producers! Although you guys are always popping in and out at unexpected times, we appreciate your support and periodic help with one thing or another – thank you!
Back Room Producers hanging-out in the Lounge:
Always about the place consuming all the coffee and donuts, these Producers earn it by helping out with our contests, artwork, site organization, notes, questions, suggestions, licenses, and by hiring us! Your Time and Talent Donations are equal to your Treasure Donations of under $50, and we would not be here without you – thank you!
…Back Room Producers, if you ever notice something that needs some work feel free to reach out to us and let us know – you can offer to take it up yourself, or just let us know and we will add it to our list.
War Room Producers:
With their donations of $50 or more these Producers receive a few extra perks – an official AtoZ Handle of their choice, a spotlight in that weeks show for a short speech, an official Executive Producership Credit, and seeing the ‘Magic' as it happens up in the War Room before we send the show out into the netherworld of the internets! Thank you for sticking by us and helping to keep the Back Room Producers stocked in coffee and donuts!
…**If you prefer to stay anonymous, please let us know at the beginning of your note to us regarding your donation! We are more than happy to keep you anonymous from the world – nobody is ever forced out of the tender embrace of the shadows on this show!**
…To receive your Official AtoZ Handle, think up an original name, and send it into us! Be sure to note down the show number and title of the show so that we know when to log it!
…Your spotlight can be an elevator pitch for your business, a note, or you can just skip it!
…The Producership Credit we offer is REAL! When you send your donation in to us of $50 or more, please be sure to note down the number and title of the show your donation shows up on, and we will back up your right to claim Producership!
…'Seeing the Magic Happen' refers to being part of the show – if you are interested in taking up a larger part in the show, reach out to us and let us know! We will be happy to discuss the options!
…War Room Producers, same as for the Back Room Producers, reach out to us if you notice something that needs work! Whether you are wanting to take up the job yourself or just inform us and leave it, we will add it to our list!
Thank you, now back to the Meat and Potatoes of Plugin Depravity Edition!
John's Plugin
Frequently bought items
https://wordpress.org/plugins/frequently-woo-bought/
The Lowdown:
Used to indicate frequently purchased items by other users. Fully Responsive. All you need to do is add the shortcode to the single-product page.
Rating: 4 dragons
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Amber's Plugin
WooCommerce Birthday Discount Vouchers
https://wordpress.org/plugins/birthday-discount-vouchers/
The Lowdown:
A bit of an old plugin, it still works well!
This plugin was designed to send your users gift vouchers for their birthday! Birthday gifts from the places we frequent are always awesome in my opinion.
The plugin uses the default WooCommerce coupons so there are lots of filter and criteria options when setting the discount vouchers up.
The free version will get you started, though if you want to get fancy, you will have to upgrade.
Rating: 4 Dragons
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ClassicPress
We have sadly neglected ClassicPress… we are working to remedy this.
…A little about ClassicPress for those who aren't sure: ClassicPress is WordPress frozen at version 4.9. Once WordPress moved to 5, they added in a whole lot of new folders, and the experimental additions to the Core started in earnest. ClassicPress is literally the Classic version of WordPress. A few plugins have been made over the years for just ClassicPress, though all Plugins compatible with WordPress 4.9 should work for ClassicPress.
To any ClassicPress user listening right now: I challenge you – yes YOU – to write a review of your favourite, or least favourite ClassicPress plugin, and send it into us! You can do so by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/!
…And feel free to add more to this section by reaching out to me at amber@wppro.ca.
ClassicPress Resource Section:
This information is like Fruit Cake! It doesn't wither away and will still be good years down the road so it's great for learning! Go and check this section out in our Show Notes if you have an interest!
…We have thrown some ClassicPress Resources in here for you – and they appear to have stuck like well cooked pasta! Glad you made it to this part of the notes since we only mention it lightly on the show – If we missed something, let us know!
…Learn more about ClassicPress 1.4.0 RC2:
…https://forums.classicpress.net/t/classicpress-1-4-0-rc2-release-notes/3785?fbclid=IwAR3wGK5IW8ssJ-XC4k7IiZMBtSjUTVN2pexk6ATCRvuMN-Fn-McOy-XJJv8
…ClassicPress Tutorials on their site:
…https://www.classicpress.net/category/tutorials/
…ClassicPress's “Must Have” Plugins List:
…https://forums.classicpress.net/t/must-have-plugins-list/1163
…ClassicPress Repository!!
…https://directory.classicpress.net/plugins They now have 71 plugins (and counting!) available.
…WordPress Plugin Section compatible with ClassicPress:
…https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/classicpress/
Questions, Notes, and Feedback from our Producers out there:
…Send us your thoughts and opinions, but most of all send us your questions! No such thing as a stupid question people! I was new not too long ago, and I know how overwhelming it can be stepping into this world at this stage – I know for a fact that questions you have are the same questions others out there have!
Good morning Amber and John!
Thanks for another great show last week. I'm happy to hear that Charlie is back and on fire with acquiring prizes for the giveaways. I also wanted Charlie to know that I really enjoyed the plugin review that he did last week. I hope he will do more reviews for the show in addition to Amber and John's reviews.
An Avid Listener
How to be part of your own production!
Interviews – get yourself out there using us as your tool!
…Looking for a way to get your name and work out there? Use us as a stepping stone! Hit us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview
Send in Plugin Reviews, or suggestions for Plugin reviews!
…Have a plugin you love? Or one you really think people should avoid? Reach out to us and get your words and opinion out into the world by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/
Send in questions and/or comments!
…Have a thought to share? Send it in! You can stay anonymous or belt your name out in all caps!
Stuff and reminders about Stuff:
Meetups:
Nothing new has been set out yet, it all depends on how moody our island is going be this winter and how much snow/rain we get – no sense having a meetup if the main highway gets washed out again!
Keep an eye here for the next Meet Up, eventually we will get it going!
Random:
Remember you can check out our Show Notes on our site wppluginsatoz.com! There is extra information to grab up there that we don't even speak out loud on the show!
Today's Plugins we covered were:
John’s Plugins: XCompliant – 4, EV Crosswords – 4, Frequently bought items – 4
Amber's Plugins: Just show free stuff in Elementor – 5, CF7 ReCaptcha Mine – 5, WooCommerce Birthday Discount Vouchers – 4
Ways to support the show!
You can support us by Subscribing to our Newsletter, Donating, or reviewing us on Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store.
Join us on our Facebook, and hit the *Like* button on our YouTube Channel!
…Just showing up to our YouTube Channel and joining us live every Thursday at 11am PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support! So is joining our FaceBook page and hitting *Share* on our posts every once in a while!
…Giving a review of us on any of the platforms listed above would be super helpful too!
Want to get ahold of us???
If you still do Snail Mail, you can send an actual, physical letter or item to this Brick and Mortar address:
…(Pssst! I love receiving things that are not bills! Especially art if you enjoy drawing – no matter what age!)
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
OR, you can email us!
Amber: amber@wppro.ca
John: john@wppro.ca
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!
- How do spam filters specifically designed for contact forms really work?
- How does something like ‘blackhole for bad bots' plugin work? Do the bots actually get trapped, or just re-routed?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- What kind of information are ReCaptcha's grabbing up, and how do you think they are using this information?
- What things are immediately considered spam, and why?
- What things are actually spam but not considered spam, and why?
One more time for the ways to contact us!
Our Brick and Mortar Address – just in case you decide to send along a gift!
(Especially art if you enjoy drawing – no matter what age!)
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
Fastest way to contact us:
John:
- My website: http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support: http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
