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Benefits – Benefits – Benefits

Having a review done by us or having an interview helps the traffic to the developers website, as was bought to our attention recently when we did an interview and reviewed a plugin for a developer who sent us snap shots of their traffic before and after the shows. The traffic stayed, so there are great benefits to being reviewed by WP Plugins A to Z. Submit Your Plugin Here.

 

‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from …’

 

Salutations and Some Reminders:

Welcome to Episode 637 – Behind The Scenes of WordPress Plugins: Plugins Exposed with Critical Errors – 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!

It’s getting close to that time when the Christmas songs enter into the household – well, some people out there I am sure already have their decorations up, the seasonal music playing and love it. Myself, I am more of a Halloween person, and have strictly forbidden the seasonal music within the house until December 1st – so soon I shall also join the festivities of the Holiday Season!

Remember to keep yourself warm and dry out there, last thing you need is to catch cold or flu! For the adults, a quick nip of a good whiskey in the evening helps. ;)

 

A few reminders before we start the show today….

Reminders:

• Be sure to check out our newer news thing called N3w$ 4 Y0u! You can find it on our homepage right next to the latest podcast, and on our left-hand menu!
• Show starts at 12:30pm Pacific Time every other week on Monday! Join in for the pre-stream entertainment at about 12:15ish! You’ll find the show notes on the home page of wppluginsatoz.com within 24(ish) hours after every show!
• This is a value for value show dear listeners, help us get some loven by hitting some like buttons, sharing an episode or two, or lovingly forcing your family members to listen to us by cranking our show way up! After all, you can’t go wrong helping out the longest running WordPress Podcast!

Don’t run away at the end either as we have some awesome Q&A coming up at the end! Sometimes they are questions specifically designed to help people new to the industry out, sometimes they are more intricate questions designed to help those with a little more experience out, or at least get people thinking. Worth checking out!

...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!

 

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Let’s start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:

Artist: 

Grok! You can check him and his artistic talents out by going here and following the directions.
You will wind up being re-routed to here, and although you are getting a sort of lame version you will at least be getting an idea of the real Grok!
The other option, and the best one really ’cause you will be able to get the full version of Grok, is to go to the X (formally Twitter) site and pay for premium for proper access to Grok.

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!

 

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Breaking News in the WordPress World at large!! 

This is just a little taste of what will come out on Wednesday for everyone! Send anything in to me at amber@wppro.ca that you think should go into the Wed’s N3W$ 4 Y0U!

News this week:

WordPress Vulnerability Report
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-november-20-2024/) – In this report there are 205 vulnerabilities; 199 of these are Plugins – 84 plugins have been patched so far.
There are currently 6 WordPress Themes with vulnerabilities – 2 have been patched so far.

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, most recent issue was from 2 days ago, so although there was a rash of issues it seems to be tapering off a bit for now which is good news!

PeepSo leaves WordPress Plugin Repository
(https://wptavern.com/peepso-leaves-wordpress-plugin-repository) – This is something that is now happening with disturbing regularity it seems. Plugins are leaving the WordPress Repository. When asked why it seems that many of them talk about how they were never really very happy with the repository in the first place. PeepSo says ‘We have never been very happy with the WordPress repository, as we found their rules to be convoluted, poorly defined and too open for interpretation – that includes both the Plugin Guidelines and the way the support and review forums are moderated by them.’ – again, this is not an uncommon complaint, and now seems to be boiling over.

WP Engine updates its original Legal Complaint against Automattic and Matt Mullenweg
(https://wptavern.com/wp-engine-updates-its-original-legal-complaint-against-automattic-and-matt-mullenweg) – WP Engine has revised its original legal complaint against Automattic to include the launch of Matt’s site ‘WP Engine Tracker’ site, citing the following: ‘this is a case about abuse of power, extortion, and greed. The misconduct at issue is especially troubling because it took place within the WordPress open-source software community, which was built on promises of freedom to build, run, change, and redistribute without barriers or restrictions. Those promises were betrayed by the wrongful actions of a few defendants, to the detriment of the broader community – including WPE.’ There is also talk regarding trademark misuse.

Automattic launches ‘WP Engine Tracker’ to monitor sites leaving WP Engine, sparking controversy
(https://wptavern.com/automattic-launches-wp-engine-tracker-to-monitor-sites-leaving-wp-engine-sparking-controversy) – The ongoing WordPress WP Engine dispute has escalated with Automattic launching a new website – WP Engine Tracker – to track the number of websites leaving WP Engine Hosting. This has sparked a lot of controversy in the WP Community, and people are taking obvious sides now, causing even more strife and division within the community.

Earth bids farewell to its temporary ‘mini moon’ that is possibly a chunk of our actual moon
(https://phys.org/news/2024-11-earth-farewell-temporary-mini-moon.html)
– I thought that this was really cool! We have had an asteroid tagging along as a ‘mini moon’ for the past two months, and the researchers think that maybe it is actually a part of our moon, which is pretty awesome! Thanks to this being here, we are going to have an opportunity to see how long we can track it for. The next time the mini moon comes home to visit will be in 2055, and it will have circled the sun to get here!

Some Extras – check out the N3W$ 4 Y0U coming out on Weds for more, or you can check out our Facebook or Twitter!

WP Engine escalates legal battle with Automattic and Mullenweg [this is a great article to help those a little behind on the drama to better understand where we are at and how we got here – at least as much as anybody can understand…]
(https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wp-engine-escalates-legal-battle-with-automattic-and-mullenweg/532831/)

Automattic acquires Harper; Founder Elijah Potter joins the team as code wrangler
(https://wptavern.com/automattic-acquires-harper-founder-elijah-potter-joins-the-team-as-code-wrangler)

Design Team unveils new WordPress Design System Figma Library
(https://wptavern.com/design-team-unveils-new-wordpress-design-system-figma-library)

WordPress 6.7.1 scheduled for November 21, 2024, to fix bugs in WordPress 6.7
(https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-7-1-scheduled-for-november-21-2024-to-fix-bugs-in-wordpress-6-7)

WordPress 6.7 “Rollins” released with new Default Theme, WordPress.org experiences outage
(https://wptavern.com/wordpress-6-7-rollins-released-with-new-default-theme-wordpress-org-experiences-outage)

Core Team announces WordPress Release Schedule for 2025 and issues call for WP 6.8 Volunteers
(https://wptavern.com/core-team-announces-wordpress-release-schedule-for-2025-and-issues-call-for-wp-6-8-volunteers) – For those who are interested in doing this kind of work this is fantastic news! The schedule for 2025 is similar to 2024 with 3 major releases planned. If you are interested in being a volunteer, be sure to check out the link here!

Rogues Corner News and Extras

Big Security flaw in security plugin 4m sites affected
https://www.darkreading.com/cloud-security/critical-wordpress-plugin-flaw-4m-sites-takeover
https://thehackernews.com/2024/11/urgent-critical-wordpress-plugin.html

Updating plugin with using the WordPress repository –  This can be great for plugin developers looking for more reliable place to host their plugins.
https://wooping.io/blog/2024/11/how-are-we-rolling-out-updates-without-wp-org/

Here is a great article on how to reset your Admin password though multiple methods
FTP, CLI, PHPmyadmin, also have an emergency script if you have FTP access
https://wordpress.org/documentation/article/reset-your-password/#Using_the_Emergency_Password_Reset_Script

An Interesting article examining the fall out of how much information WordPress collects on websites with other great stats.
https://www.ilovewp.com/wpengine-automattic-data-leak-matt-mullenweg/

 

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Dragon Rating Time!

John’s Plugin

CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice)

https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/cookie-law-info/

The Lowdown:

The CookieYes plugin enables seamless cookie consent and GDPR  compliance by integrating an intuitive cookie banner into your website.  It offers full support for GDPR (DSGVO, RGPD) and CCPA/CPRA to easily  obtain user consent for cookies, ensuring legal compliance.
Customizable cookie banner designs and options make configuring a  GDPR-compliant cookie consent solution simple. The plugin also supports  various other global privacy regulations beyond GDPR, including LGPD  (Brazil), CNIL (France), PIPEDA (Canada), Law 25 (Quebec), POPIA (South  Africa), nFADP (Switzerland), Privacy Act (Australia), PDPL (Saudi  Arabia), PDPL (Argentina), PDPL (Andorra), DPA (Faroe Islands), and the  California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA). Additionally, it’s designed  to align with significant state privacy laws in the US, such as VCDPA  (Virginia), CPA (Colorado), CTDPA (Connecticut), and UCPA (Utah).

Rating 5 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

My tip to you this week, is to let the circus do its thing, and just sit back and watch.

The WordPress community is rather unsettled by the going-ons between Mullenweg and WP Engine, and I absolutely agree that we should keep an eye on it to see which direction it this circus heads next, and I agree we should all take precautions to keep ourselves, our clients, and everyone’s data safe – though I think perhaps staying off to the side and just letting those two duke it out on their own may be the best course of action here.

The stress and frustrations that are being caused are definitely a thing we all must deal with, though keeping ourselves out of it and quietly setting up our own little bunkers for the inevitable fall out I believe will be the best course of action.

I offer this tip not for those who have seen a couple of circus’s pass on by, but for those who are new to viewing this kind of circus, who might want to step in and get involved – I recommend against it.

Let those two finish the circus on their own, and just enjoy some popcorn while you watch it from the sidelines.

 

…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

B7 Random Number

https://wordpress.org/plugins/b7-random-number

The Lowdown:

I came across this and saw Dice. I can’t help it, I am a DnD nerd, got drawn in, and realized that this is actually pretty cool!

B7 Random Number is a free plugin designed to allow you to easily generate numbers directly within your WordPress Posts, Pages, or Widgets. Completely customizable parameters where you can specify range, format, and even the type of number (odd or even) you want to display.

You have the following parameters to work with:

• min: Specify the minimum value for the random number. Default is 1.
• max: Specify the maximum value for the random number. Default is 100.
• count: Define how many random numbers to generate. Default is 1.
• type: Set the type of number to generate. Use even for even numbers and odd for odd numbers.
• comma: Control the formatting of the output. Set to yes to include commas in large numbers, or no to remove them. Default is yes.
• decimals: Specify the number of decimal places for the generated number. Default is 0.
• prefix: Add a prefix to the generated number. For example: ID-.
• suffix: Add a suffix to the generated number. For example: -XYZ.

The way to use this and set these parameters is to use the shortcodes – place them directly into your post/page/widget. they are:

• Basic usage: [blogvii_rand_number]
• Specific range: [blogvii_rand_number min=1 max=100]
• Generate multiple numbers: [blogvii_rand_number count=5]
• Odd number only: [blogvii_rand_number type=odd]
• With prefix: [blogvii_rand_number prefix="ID-"]

I was able to test this plugin and found that it works beautifully with Elementor, Classic Editor, and Gutenberg. Plays well with others, does not slow anything down, and looks fantastic!

I’ll be honest, I am not entirely sure what this would be used for, though I really do think it is awesome, and I honestly believe that someone out there will find this to be exactly what they needed for something they have been working on!

If anyone out there does find that this is exactly what they were looking for, please let me know!

Rating: 5 Dragon

 

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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.

 

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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!

WordCamp Sofia, Bulgaria – November 24

WordCamp Netherlands – November 29-30

WordCamp Delhi – November 30 – December 1

WordPress Day for Developers Lisboa – November 30

WordCamp Ahmedabad – January 3-4, 2025

 

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!

 

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How to reach us:

Feel like sending us something through the snail mail system? You can do that thanks to our brick and mortar address that we provide for you!
You can also reach us the more common way of the internets – have both of our internets available down below for ya!

WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall 
20-754 E Fairview Rd. 
Victoria, BC  V9A 5T9  
Canada

John:

• My website:http://www.johnoverall.com/
• WordPress Emergency Support:http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
• email:john@wppro.ca

Amber:

• email: amber@wppro.ca

 

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Today’s Plugins we covered were:

John’s Plugin:

CookieYes – Cookie Banner for Cookie Consent (Easy to Setup GDPR/CCPA Compliant Cookie Notice) By CookieYes

• Cookie Consent Banner
• Automatic Scanning
• Preference Center – and so much more!

Rating: 5 Dragons

 

Amber’s Plugin: 

B7 Random Number By blogvii

• Allows random numbers to be generated directly into your WordPress posts, pages, or widgets
• Has customizable parameters
• Is versatile

Rating: 5 Dragon

 

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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 atAmber@WPPro.ca – we may never stump my dad, but we can get some good conversation out of him at least!

• Winter Storms are upon us! So how does one go about selecting the best UPS?

• Any idea how many brown outs and/or power failures it takes to kill one of those bad boys?
  • Is there a way to tell this information before buying it?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• If you turn your computer off for the flickering and power outages, should you be unplugging it too, or just leave it plugged in?

• How about if you have a Surge Protection Battery that your computer is plugged into? Does it matter?

 

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Commercial / Promotions:

Just some reminders:

Join my at the monthly ClassicPress / WordPress Meetup Classicpress / WordPress Meetup

Rate us on iTunes, blubrry.com, ViaWay.com, Stitcher Radio and any place else you find us.

Interact with your Hosts

John can be contacted at:
Website: https://www.johnoverall.com/
WordPress Emergency Support: https://wppro.ca/wpemergency
Email: john@wppro.ca

Amber can be contacted at:
Email: amber@wppro.ca