Rewiring The Brain for WordPress Plugins

John's Intro:

It's Episode 608 and we have plugins for  Disabling XML-RPC-APIing, Lorem Ipsuming it up… 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 608 – Rewiring The Brain for WordPress Plugins – 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!

Smoky skies and dry air – not sure how many people are getting that right now, though for everyone who is seeing the red sun be sure to drink extra water and not push yourself too hard while outside. The red sun looks really cool right now – but also don't stare at it like my teenager did – it still hurts. Gotta love teenagers for teaching us the basics!

Some reminders before we start the show today….

Reminders:

• Remember that the show starts at 12:30 PM Pacific Time, with a pre-stream starting around 12:15 PM Pacific Time. Pre-stream is where we twiddle with the dials and knobs and really just warm up our voices, so join in for some entertainment value!
• 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 some possibly life altering advice!

...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: 

Greg's Graphics (Greg Holdsworth)  — https://gregsgraphics.com

This looks about right – totally supposed to have all those little bits sticking out and the glue globbed on there to hold everything together right?

Going through the Art Vaults is awesome, but we would love some new art! You can send it into us at https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/. You can also check out the art vaults yourself there too!

…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 – July 27, 2023 (https://ithemes.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-july-27-2023/) – Good news, the plugins that had some vulnerabilities like Essential Addons for Elementor have been patched – this vulnerability happened sometime between last week and this week. Be sure to go through the patched vulnerability list when checking this out to see if there are any plugins you use that you will need to update – the vulnerabilities don't always make the list of the week because they patch them so quickly.

Plugins with vulnerabilities that I most easily recognize: WPS Limit Login, Social Share Icons & Social Share Buttons, Fraud Prevention for WooComerce, Google Map Shortcode, WP Quick Post Duplicator, Remove Duplicate Posts, and Ultra Elementor Addons. As always, check through this list yourself, there are a total of 66 to have a look at this week.

There are 36 Theme Vulnerabilities – be sure to look through the list to see if your theme is there on the list or not. You will find the link here in our show notes, it's always the first one under the news section.

SENT IN FROM LISTENER:

WordPress and AI: A case study (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/wordpress-ai-case-study-mike-reid/) – This is a very interesting article sent in by a listener that goes through a case study where they took snap shots over several hours of iterative AI processing, showcasing an outstanding exemplification of how AI could possibly drastically enhance the scop and efficiency of your content creation – if you use it correctly. The case study comes from a project called Hehge.com, a website dedicated to prociding open source stock analysis. Not only does this article really highlight the bonus's of using AI in WordPress, by reading through this you will also get a great understanding of how to use the AI to the best of its ability and get the most out of it. Great article, thanks for sending it in!

Should WordPress.org support threads auto-close after 6 months? (https://wptavern.com/should-wordpress-org-support-threads-auto-close-after-a-year) – WordPress.org's support forums are a pretty vital resource for users and developers alike. This is where we all go to skim and look for the answer of whatever problem we have come across. Three weeks ago on Meta trac a ticket was opened proposing that WordPress.org remove auto-closure from support form threads and instead add a warning that the thread is old. They currently auto-close 6 months after they are created – not everyone who is part of the conversation is all for this idea as older threads tend to attract spam and some bad advice, although many people are all for this. Personally I think this would be a great idea, removing the auto-close – there are articles I have found which are years out of date, but the answer is still there for me so long as I can modernize the knowledge. If you want to be part of the conversation you can find the link for Meta Trac through the show notes at the bottom of the article.

Group.one acquires BackWPup, Adminimize, and Search & Replace Plugins (https://wptavern.com/group-one-acquires-backwpup-adminimize-and-search-replace-plugins) – group.one is a European cloud hosting and digital marketing services provider, and they now run these three well used plugins. Their portfolio includes WP Rocket, Imagify, and Rank Math SEO. Hopefully these plugins are not going to change overly much… the group.one representative SImon Kraft has not been able to comment on what features are being prioritized on the immediate roadmap, though he mentioned a smooth transition being important. I hope this does not mean that the entirety of the plugins are going to be revamped, these three plugins work really well at the moment. I always get a little nervous when plugins that work well that I like exchange hands…

Crocoblock to Host WordPress Web Agency AI Summit, September 28-30, 2023 (https://wptavern.com/crocoblock-to-host-wordpress-web-agency-ai-summit-september-28-30-2023) – Crocoblock is a Ukraine-based company with plugins on WordPress.org as well as commercial products. They are hosting a WordPress Web Agency AI Summit event on September 28-30, 2023, and are moving to organize its first large virtual event that will be free for all attendees. This summit will cover practical use cases for AI in development, marketing, design, web agency management, and freelance services. It will include mixed formats, including case studies, workshops, and live panel discussions with Q&A. The times will go from 10am-2pm EST for presentations in English. The schedule features 10 speakers with commercial experience. If you are interested you can sign up for free on the crocoblock website – you can find the link through our show notes also.

Einstein, Newton could have been wrong about gravity, Gaia telescope data reveals (https://thenextweb.com/news/einstein-newton-gravity-gaia-telescope-space) – I just thought this was cool! A new study based on observations from the European Space Agency's billion-pixel Gaia space telescope has revealed a ‘gravitational anomaly' that challenges our fundamental understanding of the universe. The anomaly occurs when loosely orbiting stars (known as binaries) seem to move in ways that defy standard models of gravity established by Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. The two stars under study are orbiting one another at accelerations of lower than 0.1 nanometres per second squared, deviating from Newton's universal law of gravitation and Einstein's general relativity. This discovery also puts into question the existence of ‘dark matter' which is often used to explain such anomalies.

Now if you don't fully understand everything I just said, that's cool, 'cause this article will explain things in greater depth for you. It's really quite an interesting article – and a great bit of information to wow people when you are out with friends trying impress someone with that big brain of yours. You can find the rest of the information in our show notes!

The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!

SENT IN FROM A LISTENER:
10 ways to open the command prompt in windows 10 (https://www.howtogeek.com/235101/10-ways-to-open-the-command-prompt-in-windows-10)

WordPress Themes Team releases Blue Note, a community-supported Theme for Bloggers (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-themes-team-releases-blue-note-a-community-supported-theme-for-bloggers)

WP community collective funds first fellowship for accessibility contributor Alex Stine (https://wptavern.com/wp-community-collective-funds-first-fellowship-for-accessibility-contributor-alex-stine)

WordPress commujnity summit travel fund contributes $48K in assistance for attendees (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-community-summit-travel-fund-contributes-48k-in-assistance-for-attendees)

WordPress.org adds new page to explain blocks (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-org-adds-new-page-to-explain-blocks)

Equalize Digitial Accessibility checker plugin adds new frontend highlighting feature funded by NASA (https://wptavern.com/equalize-digital-accessibility-checker-plugin-adds-new-frontend-highlighting-feature-funded-by-nasa)

EU to hold back on China tech investment ban – for now (https://thenextweb.com/news/eu-hold-back-china-tech-investment-ban-for-now)

News organisations push for Ai regulation to safeguard public trust in media (https://thenextweb.com/news/news-organisations-push-ai-regulation-safeguard-public-trust-media)

TSMC to enter ‘silicon saxony' with €10bn chip plant (https://thenextweb.com/news/tsmc-to-enter-silicon-saxony-with-e10b-chip-plant)

Generative AI riding crest of gartner hype wave (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/generative-ai-riding-crest-of-gartner-hype-wave-178549.html)

New US intiatives aim to better defent against cyberattacks (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/new-us-initiatives-aim-to-better-defend-against-cyberattacks-178534.html)

Back to schol tech buying advice for parents (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/back-to-school-tech-buying-advice-for-parents-178524.html)

Researchers reveal method to stifle malicious robocalls (https://www.technewsworld.com/story/researchers-reveal-method-to-stifle-malicious-robocalls-178521.html)

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Dragon Rating Time!

John's Plugin

Disable XML-RPC-API

https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-xml-rpc-api/

The Lowdown:

Protect  your website from xmlrpc brute-force attacks,DOS and DDOS attacks, this  plugin disables the XML-RPC and trackbacks-pingbacks on your WordPress  website.

PLUGIN FEATURES

(These are options you can enable or disable each one)

• Disable access to xmlrpc.php file using .httacess file
• Automatically change htaccess file permission to read-only (0444)
• Disable X-pingback to minimize CPU usage
• Disable selected methods from XML-RPC
• Remove pingback-ping link from header
• Disable trackbacks and pingbacks to avoid spammers and hackers
• Rename XML-RPC slug to whatever you want
• Black list IPs for XML-RPC
• White list IPs for XML-RPC
• Some options to speed-up your wordpress website
• Disable JSON REST API
• Hide WordPress Version
• Disable built-in WordPress file editor
• Disable wlw manifest
• And some other options

You can extend the security a bit further with their premium version.

Rating: 4 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

Making Sites

When you are building a site whether it be for you or another, and you manage to figure out some bit of CSS or manage some amazing feat of ingenuity and make something work that didn't seem possible before – be sure to make a note of it. And don't just save it in one file on one hard drive. If you have a cloud – dropbox is a great one – back it up there. And back it up on a secondary hard drive. If needed, send it to your email or a few emails as well!

The reason for this is that hard drives do fail. And clouds fail. Sometimes things get lost in translations, sometimes they just vanish. And when you go back looking for those notations, you may find that they are just no longer there.

So if you make sure to back up these little tid bits in various places, you are a lot less likely to lose them.

Beginners Tips

Sometimes you will come across a client as a developer who simply does not appreciate the work that goes into what you have created for them. They will question absolutely everything you have done, demand to know exact details on what you completed, and then argue that it doesn't seem like that much work and so they shouldn't have to pay – these are clients you want to fire.

Firing a client can be a harsh thing, especially if you are trying to gain a clientele that gives you enough to survive monetarily – but really when you think about it, those client's who you wind up spending excess amounts of time with trying to defend your position and the work you have done, those clients aren't really giving you any true pay since you are spending so much of your valuable time defending yourself.

Firing a client is a thing that can happen, and is recommended. The best way to tell when it is time to fire a client is when you look at the amount of time you have spent with them defending every penny you are charging them – does the amount of time come to more in total than the amount of time you are actually spending on their site, and therefore charging for? If so, it's time to fire them and move onto greener pastures. Can be a hit, but will also give you the ability to use that time you were spending defending your bill to them on other sites with other clients that are actually paying you for the time you spend on their sites – therefore you will actually be making more and saving yourself not just time in general but mental anguish.

Don't be afraid to fire them. It's not always the clients that get to do the firing, sometimes the developers need to do the firing as well.

…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

Lorem Ipsum by Webline

https://wordpress.org/plugins/lorem-ipsum-by-webline/

The Lowdown:

Ever since I realized that the bacon version of Lorem Ipsum was falling by the wayside, I have been in search of something to replace my Lorem Ipsum.

This one is not nearly as entertaining as the meat and zombie versions I have found in the past, though it is very useful.

Once you have installed and activated it, you will find the dashboard for this plugin on the left hand menu, under ‘Lorem Ipsum'.

Here you will find a bunch of options – you can choose the number of paragraphs by putting any number up to about 20 and still have it work properly. Then you can choose whether the paragraph is short, medium, long, or very long.

After that, you get to choose if the text is ‘plain' (like notepad on your computer), or if there are tags added. They have the following options:

Plain Text ( If “Plain Text” is checked then all other options will be disabled )
Add <b> and <i>-tags (bold and italic)
Add <a>-tags (links)
Add unordered lists
Add numbered lists
Add description lists
Add blockquotes
Add code samples (<code> and <pre>-tags)
Add headers (<h1> through <h6>)
Use ALL CAPS
Prude version

I'm not entirely sure what ‘prude version' is, seems to just remove the question marks and make it shorter. I find it an entertaining label for that, I'm sure there is actually a reason for it I just don't know it.

One of the very useful options that I noticed is that it has blockquotes – this is great when you are trying to figure out certain informational sites and how the font and colours and things will work with that blockquote thrown in.

After that, you have the option for a dynamic shortcode to throw into your posts or pages, or you can copy and paste from the little preview text window to your right.

If using the shortcode, be sure to save changes or else the shortcode will not work.

This plugin has not been updated for a bit, I am hoping that it is not another Lorem Ipsum that will be abandoned on the side of the road… It's a pretty good one! Word well and plays well with others, let's hope they remember it exists and update it soon!

For the time being the plugin is totally free and worth checking out if you are always needing to throw in some lorem ipsum while testing things out.

Rating: 5 Dragon

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Onto Our Producer Know How and Donations Segment!

Earn yourself a Producership Credit!

We have 3 levels of Producers that help to keep the show's larders stocked to bursting – Free-Lance Producers, Back-Room Producers, and War-Room Producers. There are special perks for Back-Room and War-Room Producers that you can learn about on our site wppluginsatoz.com. Click on Time, Treasure, or Talent Donations in our main menu to learn all the nitty gritty details on how you can add your 2 cents!

Free-Lance Producers:

… Free-Lance Producers always show up when least expected, and often times when most needed! No donation required to become a Free-Lance Producer – you just are one if you're here!

… 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:

… Back Room Producers always seem to be about the place helping with our contests, artwork, site organization, notes, questions, suggestions, and even more! While they tend to hang out a lot in the back lounge and consume massive amounts of coffee and doughnuts, it's well earned through both hard work and their donations – never above $50 dollars and absolutely equal to their Time and Talent donations!

… 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. We always appreciate your help in organizing and changing of the coffee – thank you!

War Room Producers:

… War Room Producers receive a few extra perks with their donations of $50 or more – an official A to Z Handle of their choice, a spotlight in that weeks show for a short speech, and an official Executive Producership Credit! These credits are real and can be used in the real world to your advantage! Only draw back is that they sometimes gotta make fresh coffee when the Back Room Producers emptied the pot…

**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!**

… Official A to Z Handle means you will receive a specialized login to our site. We are working to update our site where we will have a Members Only section, and you will have access to a variety of things through your personalized handle for our site! To receive your Official A to Z Handle, think up an original name, and send it in to us along with the show number and the show name.

… Your spotlight can be an elevator pitch for your business, a note, or you can just skip it – just be sure to let us know your choice and we will adhere appropriately.

… 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 appeared on, and we will back up your right to claim Producership!

… You don't ACTUALLY have to make the Back Room Producers coffee, but you might want to make yourself a fresh one. 😉 Especially if you are planning on pointing out things going wrong on the site… we got a long list and will likely try and convince you to help us out a little!

… 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 ever-growing list!

Join in and be part of your own production and support the show at the same time!

There are loads of ways to use us as your tool to get on out there like getting an interview, leaving a review for a plugin or donating your own plugin review, or your own plugin license! I recommend you give it a go and see how it helps – you can check out our show notes in this section to see all the ways to be part of your own production!

…Reach out to John and get yourself Interviewed – use us as your tool to get out there!

… 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 your Plugin Reviews, or suggestions for a 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 your own Plugin License and add it to the contest – this is a great way to get your name and your work out there!

… Is your plugin worth its salt in Dragons? If so, send it on into us and add it to the contests! You can do this by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/plugincontest/

…Send in questions and/or comments – we always love hearing from our Producers!

… Have a thought to share? Send it in! You can stay anonymous or belt your name out in all caps! Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store. Doing this will also help you in producing the show for your own benefit too!

…You can support the show by Subscribing to our Newsletter, Donating, or reviewing us on Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store. Doing this will also help you in producing the show for your own benefit too!

…You can check us out on Facebook, or our YouTube Channel! Be sure to hit the ‘like' button and share share share!

… YouTube Channel and joining us live every Monday at 12:15 PM PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support – and since you're already on the net's, might as well check out the Facebook page and hit that ‘like' button and share it out!

… Just showing up to our YouTube Channel and joining us live every Monday at 12:15 PM PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support – and since you're already on the net's, might as well check out the Facebook page and hit that ‘like' button and share it out!

… Don't forget – if you leave a review of us on any platform, that will help the show get noticed too; and if you happen to add your name to the show via questions or that awesome spotlight offered with a War Room Producership, that will get YOUR name out there too!

Questions, Notes, and Feedback from our Producers out there:

Question from the Victoria WordPress Events

From Jag Singh:
“I went to a victoria WordPress meetup 5 years ago. They recomended enfold theme. What themes do you recommend these days.Jag. is enfold still good.”

… 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!

Reach out through email to amber@wppro.ca, or through the site at wppluginsatoz.com/contact/!

Miscellaneous Announcements from us and Producers:

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!

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/
Next WordPress Victoria Meetup don't appear to have anything scheduled at this time, though be sure to keep checking back if you are interested as they do try and have a meetup regularly! https://www.meetup.com/yyjwordpress/

There are 5 WordCamps planned for August around the world:

WordCamp Nairobi, Kenya
Community Summit 2023
WordCamp US
WordCamp Denmark
WordCamp Jinja 2023
To find out more about these WordCamps around the world, you can check out the link here in our show notes https://central.wordcamp.org/

Keep checking back every week to find out what else is going on!

And remember, the show notes found at wppluginsatoz.com has 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:

Disable XML-RPC-API By Neatma

• Protects against xmlrpc brute force attacks
• Protects against DOS and DDOS attacks
• Disables the XML-RPC and trackbacks-pingbacks on your WordPress site

Rating: 4 Dragons

Amber's Plugin: 

Lorem Ipsum by Webline By weblineindia

• Easy Creation of Lorem Ipsum for your site
• Use Shortcode or Copy and Paste
• Multiple options to make your development job easier

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!

• Say you are interested in making a site for your small business – how do you know whether you should go and build it yourself through a place like WordPress.org or Wix, or head out to find a developer to do the work for you?

• Say you have been building a site yourself – how do you know when it's time to throw in the towel and search up a developer to help you out?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• What would you look for when searching for a developer to build your site for you?

• What do you look for when searching through places like Wordpres.org and Wix to know which one will be the right one for you if you decide to go it on your own without the aid of a developer?