It’s a Brave New Virtual World
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
Subscribe: RSS
It's Episode 516 – We have plugins for Hero's, Videos, Pride, Image management, Stop Spammers, Wasting time … and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
Hero Maps Premium, Magnifi Video Widget, Disable WP Registration Page Spam, Pride Codes, Bulk Image Resizer, Spider Solitaire Card Game – Embed Spider Solitaire for Free – Ad-free Spider Solitaire Puzzle game ……. and ClassicPress options on Episode 516.
John's Intro:
65 weeks and the count continues; Now just trust the plan, life is what it is and the show must go on. Find Joy in the Earth.
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:
Show Art:
Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth) — https://gregsgraphics.com
All the show notes can be found at: WPPluginsAtoZ.com
Ambers' Rant:
This is #24 of 52 episodes for 2021. Its Episode 516! Summer Solstice is on it's way, alongside Fathers Day! Pretty awesome that Fathers day is happening on Summer Solstice this year! I always thought the Solstice was on the 21st of June, but this year it's on the 20th.
For Fathers day, I recommend you get out and take advantage of the good weather with your dad! Spend some time in the great outdoors with them, or if you can't find the time on Fathers Day itself, make some time somewhere around there! Spending a day with your dad can be pretty awesome. Be sure to turn off that media – keeps the political discussions at bay. No radio, no Internet, just some awesome time in the great outdoors!
If you can't make it outside for whatever reason, try just opening a window and turning off the media for about an hour every day. Give your dad a ring, or even just send some good vibes his way.
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:
Designers: remember, your portfolio is part of your portfolio – I came across this and thought that this would be good for a question aked later in the show. This is a great article helping people out with creating their portfolio – this also explains why your portfolio is part of it too.
Mother of all password leaks – labelled as RockYou2020 on hacker forums as a nod to RockYou data breach of 2009.
Jilt is shutting down April 30, 2022 – and so are not taking any new accounts. Current customers can use Jilt until shut down. This article has a decent list of other platforms you can look into to replace Jilt.
New Plugin called ToolBelt Plugin to help with tidying up notifications module.
Instead of flipping houses, now we have flipping WordPress Sites – I found this an interesting idea. I don't know if this is a regular practice long established or if it's a bit newer on the market, but apparently these guys specialize in flipping WP sites.
An interesting article about providing WP Admin Credentials to Plugin Support Staff – in my own experience, this is a fairly regular practice; However, it's also nerve wracking. I know I personally learned pretty quick how to create their own account for them so that they can test the plugin without putting my site at too much risk – but even than I was pretty paranoid about giving out the info. This is a pretty informative article about doing just this.
Gutenberg 10.8 has added new Typography controls and block previews – this looks like a pretty useful addition! They have even added an Archives Dropdown.
Privacy analysis of FloC – a decent run down of the privacy around the new and uninvited FLoC.
Lessons learned from Fastly outage on writing error messages – This is a very true statement. Not all error messages are equal – and with the rising number of people online receiving said error messages, a re-writing of them into leymans terms would be a good thing in my opinion.
6 SEO facts to consider in web design – useful for those that pay attention to the SEO factors of the sites they are building.
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
The extras – for even more extra news, check out our FaceBook, or Twitter page!
Tips Tuesday with MayAnna – Content revamping, security, trend observations and more!
Hackers stole source code from Electronic Arts and are selling it online. More than 780GB of data from the gaming giant is out there being sold.
Google Workspace for free and how to get it – Just in case anyone out there could use free online workspace.
Twitter is testing out a ‘DON'T @ ME BRO' feature – This could be useful.
A different take on speaking for free at events – And why even paying to do 5 minutes speaking at an event could be worth both your dollar and your time.
Windows 10 is revoking support in 4 years – That seems like ages away, but remember people – we are already pretty well halfway through 2021.
Automattic has acquired Day One journaling app for Iphones. I suppose this means that they are pushing out into the Iphone world?
Building your own studio for under $3,000 – For those of you who are thinking about getting your own show rolling, check this out! It's got some GREAT tips!
11 secrets for Firefox that will make you an internet pro! – I like it when these lists aren't just full of ‘if you had simply messed around with the thing a little more on your own you would have found it' things. This actually lists some useful things that are not easily found by simply messing about with the programme. I know I am now incorporating a few of these myself, and they are useful! (Especially the tab ones.)
Link shorteners and why you shouldn't use them – Kinda wish I had read this before I started working on this show – Then I wouldn't of had to learn this first hand. Hopefully it helps some one out there avoid my mistakes!
11 great tips for creating a landing page – This is written really well with plain language, and has pictures to help out – great to send on to your clients as well when they are feeling a little stuck.
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
Donor Support
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 my 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
Check out all the art work at https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/
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 a fast growing fork of WordPress that is starting to come into its own. ClassicPress is focused on Business Websites, runs fast and is looking pretty good. 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.
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. Currently there are not a lot of ClassicPress specific plugins but I do know it is going to grow and I'll have to expand this segment then. Who knows, it could take over the whole show.
This week for ClassicPress I have:
General info:
Just a note for my ClassicPress listeners please send me info to help keep the ClassicPress section full.
Random Links to ClassicPress supporters
ClassicPress Resources:
For some up to date news on ClassicPress check out the ClassicPress Blog.
“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
Sent in by Angel Lemus
Hero Maps Premium
This is a responsive google maps plug-in. It allows you to aggregate all your markers on any Map with a simple drag and drop interface. The map pins are fully editable to your taste, you can embed as much information as you like into each pin. This is a very easy program to work with and it looks fantastic. This is a very affordable premium plug-in sold through the Envato market for $20.
I give it 4 Dragons!
——————————–
Amber's Plugin
Pride Codes
https://wordpress.org/plugins/pride-codes/
The Lowdown:
A very simple and easy to use plugin to show support on your site for Pride Month.
Install it, go to settings, select which version you are wanting, and save settings.
Whether you choose the rainbow banner, or the corner rainbow that says ‘vote yes', you now have that hanging out on your site.
I think that the way this plugin was created was fantastic, very easy and simple to use – though the selections they offered were not overly great in my opinion. They could have been a wee bit more imaginative, and the ‘vote yes' is, in my opinion, a little out of date at this point – though it certainly gets your support out there.
Rating 4 Dragons
——————————–
John's plugin
Sent in by Mark Wilson
Magnifi Video Widget
https://magnifi.io/wordpress-widget/
My name is Mark Wilson, I work with a company called Magnifi and we have created a WordPress plugin as a branch of our Video Widget. The basic concept of our Video Widget is that you are able to embed video conferencing via iframe, JavaScript SDK, or WP shortcode at any point in your website or workflow.
We have default configurations that help to easily solve different video use cases and the meeting rooms themselves are meant to be customized and white-labeled to whichever company is deploying them. We at Magnifi both admire and respect your show, my team and I are all familiar with the work that you do! We would greatly appreciate your review and feedback on our plugin as well as to have you test it for useability, wow-factor, value-add, and general feedback.
Rating 4 Dragons
——————————–
Amber's plugin
Bulk Image Resizer
https://wordpress.org/plugins/bulk-image-resizer/
The Lowdown:
Brand new out of the box plugin that will resize images in bulk! Very useful – it also has an option to resize any newly uploaded image.
And bonus: it does not create that grainy issue I have seen in some bulk image resizers.
Pretty awesome freemium plugin, very easy to use and simple set up. Just make sure to look for ‘Op Image Resizer' in your plugins list – for some reason it adds Op to the name in your list, even though it's not in the name.
This is optimized for speed to keep you from being slowed down, allows you to monitor status of images on server, allows additional information to the column on the image – you even have the ability to code in filters.
One major drawback though, you cannot go back to the original size once you have resized it – so make sure you want to resize it before you do it. Backups are a major thing, as most of you already know I am sure.
Really nifty plugin, definitely recommend you go and check this out.
Rating 5 Dragons
——————————–
John's plugin
Disable WP Registration Page Spam
https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-wp-registration-page-spam/
The Lowdown:
Cut down on the amount of spam registrations on your website by using this plugin. It does not disable the registration function but removes the easily found link on the default registration page.
Easily disable default WordPress registration page, remove register link and stop all spam registrations, without disabling the actual registration functionality. You may still want to accept user registration using membership or registration plugin.
This plugin works great with popular registration plugins, you can have the registration form on a separate page at the same time disable the default registration of WordPress and protect the spam account creation by bots.
Features
- Stop spam / fake registrations in WordPress.
- Disable default WordPress registration page.
- Remove register link from login page.
- Remove register link from forgot password page.
- Disable registration page but allows user registration.
Rating 4 Dragons
——————————–
Amber's plugin
Spider Solitaire Card Game – Embed Spider Solitaire for Free – Ad-free Spider Solitaire Puzzle game
https://wordpress.org/plugins/embed-spider-solitaire-iframe/
The Lowdown:
This was apparently updated 3 months ago, and even though I have everything up to date on my site, I am not able to get this working.
I have tried this plugin a few times on a couple of different sites of mine over the past 4 months, and it just doesn't work for me.
I am really disappointed, because I love spider solitaire! And I would love to have this game on my sandbox site! I am slowly building a collection of distraction games there to really turn it into a sandbox – it's a great treat for after I finish my plugins for the week! 'cause I only allow distraction after my work is done…..
But I just can't get this going.
I don't know if maybe it's just me, and if it is, maybe someone out there who tries this plugin and gets it working, please! Write to me and let me know what to do; maybe there is a vital step I am just not aware of to get it working!
Until than, I am rating this pretty low due to the disappointment I am feeling over this not working.
Sorry onlinesolitairecardgame peeps.
Rating 2 Dragons
——————————–
Random links for plugins
WordPress plugins crafted from love and experience
https://codeat.co/
——————————————
This show is brought to you by:
John Overall.com WordPress & Web Services
Finding quality WordPress and ClassicPress hosting and support can be a challenge, well you can drop that stress by contacting JohnOverall.com web services. I can help you eliminate your WordPress stress and ClassicPress needs. Solving your ClassicPress or WordPress Emergency issues or doing the more day to day items such as finding that perfect plugin, helping you move to a new hosting provider or even providing Quality WordPress hosting.
With 20+ yrs Exp. on-line and over 10 years dedicated to WordPress, and ClassicPress from its inception. JohnOverall.com provides all your web service needs from hosting to WordPress and ClassicPress development, repairs and WP Malware Removal.
Visit my website JohnOverall.com, Call 818-850-7729 or send an email to john@wppro.ca
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.
Welcome back to our contests!
Our newest giveaway to enter is for one of three lifetime licenses for Blocksy!
Check out the great review given this plugin from Charlie who was our guest in Episode 515
Blocksy is a blazing fast and lightweight WordPress theme built with the latest web technologies. It was built with the Gutenberg editor in mind and has a lot of options that makes it extendable and customizable. You can easily create any type of website, such as business agency, shop, corporate, education, restaurant, blog, portfolio, landing page and so on. It works like a charm with popular WordPress page builders, including Elementor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer and Brizy.
For this contest, creativethemeshq, the creators of Blocksy, have generously donated three lifetime versions of Blocksy for you to enter to win!!
1st Place – Agency Lifetime, valued at $299 with unlimited licenses
2nd Place – Professional Lifetime, valued at $199 with 5 sites license
3rd Place – Personal Lifetime, valued at $149 with 1 site license
The Pro version has so many added features and abilities you have to check out with more on the way! Features such as:
- Custom code snippits
- Several font options
- Header and footer functions
- WooCommerce features such as
- Single product layout
- Gallery slider
- Quick view mode
And more on the way!
This contest will be open to enter starting June 10th. Check out our contest page then 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: Hero Maps Premium – 4, Magnifi Video Widget – 4, Disable WP Registration Page Spam – 4
Amber's Plugins: Pride Codes – 4, Bulk Image Resizer – 5, Spider Solitaire Card Game – Embed Spider Solitaire for Free – Ad-free Spider Solitaire Puzzle game – 2
Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php
Reminders / Commercial / Promotions:
Next Week:
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*****
Questions:
*** Note if you have questions you would like asked, send them to Amber at WPPro.ca she will get them into this segment. ****
- First off, we have a question from a listener! Greg Holdsworth from Greg's Graphics sent this in:
Hi Amber,
My main business is print production and design, but I am considering doing websites for clients (obviously in WordPress… similar to what John has been doing for many years).
How would you recommend building a portfolio of sites to showcase your experience? And, is there a big market for “WordPress websites”?
I'm not a developer, but I have a few years experience in WordPress already.
Thanks in advance, and keep up the great work with the show.
Greg Holdsworth
Greg's Graphics
LOVE hearing from listeners! Thank's for sending in the question Greg!
- So far, I have found it a lot easier to help other people build what they want for their sites. How do you get started on your own sites? What first steps need to be taken to get your own ideas out? (Other than just knowing what kind of site you are wanting)
- I've been reading up on cyber security, and I am honestly amazed at the enormity of the available companies for homes and businesses. Is there a particular, or a even a few particular programme's that you would recommend people look at when looking into security for their home computers?
- Why that (or those) in particular? What sets them apart for you?
Closing out this Episode
Be sure and subscribe to our Newsletter.
Just some reminders:
You can support the show at wppluginsatoz.com/donate
All the show notes can be found at: WPPluginsAtoZ.com
Subscribe and review the show at:
Stitcher Radio, Google Play and in the iTunes Store
Follow the show on Twitter @wppluginsatoz
Join Us on Our Facebook Page
Subscribe and Check out our Training Videos, Screencasts and Watch us Live on YouTube every Thursday at Noon PDT
How to Contact Us:
John can be contacted at:
- on my website @ http://www.johnoverall.com/
- WordPress Emergency Support http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
- email: john@wppro.ca
Amber can be contacted at:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
