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

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!

Hope everyone is keeping properly hydrated now it’s nice and warm around here! Remember that you need salt with your water, so grab a snack of chips or something to go with your water.

A few reminders before we start the show today….

Reminders:

• Join us here in person every Monday at 12:00pm Pacific Time to enjoy our show!
• Show notes are added to wppluginsatoz.com within 24 hours of the show airing; you can find them either on the home page, or in the Podcast Vaults!
• 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 just turn our show on really loudly. We will catch somebodies attention!

If you stick around until the end, you will have a chance to hear some good questions – sometimes meant for the greenies, sometimes meant for the very experienced – and sometimes the questions are just completely random. Stick around and have a listen, might help! Or at least entertain!

(Don’t feel shy about sending in a message just to say hi! Send along suggestions, questions, recommendations, news, art – we always love to hear from our listeners!)

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

Artist: 

Who is our artist today?!?

Today is….

Dall-E (Open AI Art)!

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 you have anything you think should be added please send it into me at amber@wppro.ca!

News this week:

WordPress Vulnerability Report
(https://solidwp.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-june-18-2025/) – In this report there are 138 vulnerabilities. 101 are plugins this week, with 37 Themes.
Plugins: 55 patched, 46 left to go!
Themes: 20 patched, 17 left to go!

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.

Dropping security updates for WordPress versions 4.1 through 4.6
(https://wordpress.org/news/2025/06/dropping-security-updates-for-wordpress-versions-4-1-through-4-6/) – This has been coming for a while, but now it is here. The WordPress Security teams will no longer provide security updates for WordPress versions 4.1 through 4.6.

Upcoming change: Dependabot compute migration to GitHub Actions
(https://github.blog/changelog/2025-06-23-upcoming-change-dependabot-compute-migration-to-github-actions/?ref=dailydev) – Dependabot, for those that don’t know, is a code-scanning tool in GitHub designed to help manage and update the dependencies in your project-automatically.
Main change is that GitHub is consolidating Dependabot’s compute platform to GitHub Actions, and jobs that generate pull requests will be run as GitHub Actions workflows. This allows Dependabot to leverage GitHub Actions infrastructure, including connecting with Dependabot to self-hosted runners.
The changes that are coming up are not supposed to cause any issues for developers. Dependabot will still be free, although those who opt into paid version may experience a raise in price.

Alt Ctrl Org draws 200+ for open discussion on WordPress, Free Software, and Governance
(https://www.therepository.email/alt-ctrl-org-draws-200-for-open-discussion-on-wordpress-free-software-and-governance) – This was held alongside WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel, and this was initially thought of as an informal meetup. However, the idea quickly gained traction, and more than 200 people turned up, and the event was broadcast live on YouTube as well. This article goes through and names a few people who spoke in it, offering the thoughts of said people after the event.

The community responds to FAIR: Hope, skepticism, and support for decentralizing WordPress
(https://www.therepository.email/the-community-responds-to-fair-hope-skepticism-and-support-for-decentralizing-wordpress) – Because the organizers of this were flexible and made sure that this was available as a live stream online, within hours reactions from across the globe began rolling in through blog posts, Slack threads, comment sections, and even on stage at WordCamp Europe itself. The divide within the WordPress Community is a sharp divide between those who support decentralization, and those who worry it could fragment trust, complicate moderation and weaken the ecosystem’s cohesion.
Mullenweg appears to be against this, although he acknowledges the effort, and Executive Director Mary Hubbard mentions her worries as well.
This article talks more in depth about whether FAIR can be seen as Centralization or stability, bringing in arguments from both sides. Worth going through and reading this to get a better idea of what the two sides are saying.

WordPress Leadership says ‘no’ to bringing back sustainability team despite public plea and community petition
(https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-leadership-says-no-to-bringing-back-sustainability-team-despite-public-plea-and-community-petition) – Back in January, the team was abruptly disbanded by Mullenweg over what he described as a lack of measurable output – a move that sparked backlash at the time, one veteran tech journalist Kara Swisher describing it as ‘bizarrely heinous behavior’. At WordCamp Europe hundreds of signatures were grabbed up in a petition to bring the team back, and Mullenweg and Hubbard refusing, Mullenweg instead moving the conversation to the urgency of environmental action rather then responding in kind, saying to the audience “Tomorrow is World Ocean Day. Our oceans are in danger and have immense influence on our climate’.
Mullenweg stated that when he shut the sustainability team down, it was not a solo decision, that it came from a number of people.

The solar system’s greatest mystery may finally be solved
(https://phys.org/news/2025-06-solar-greatest-mystery.html) – I think that is a bit of an overly dramatic title, as this article is actually about that Planet Nine that we know is lurking just outside our ability to find it – which in my opinion is NOT the solar systems greatest mystery.
The way they decided to try and find this planet is to rather then look for reflection of sunlight, they are instead looking for the planets own heat signature! I think that is brilliant, and I don’t think anyone has ever thought to search out a planet in that way before. This might actually help us to find many more things out in space if we can figure out how to find things base on their own heat signatures out there.

(Go visit WP Shout Comics  OR Word Chronicles OR  MonkeyUser.com for a fantastic brain break – my favourite today is this one!)

Some Extras – check out our Facebook or Twitter!

Time, Code, and Chaos: What I’m learning about balance as a developer
(https://dev.to/jliter/time-code-and-chaos-what-im-learning-about-balance-as-a-developer-132k?ref=dailydev)

Who’s behind FAIR? Inside the coalition seeking to redefine WordPress Software Distribution
(https://www.therepository.email/whos-behind-fair-inside-the-coalition-seeking-to-redefine-wordpress-plugin-distribution)

AspirePress: The quiet project powering FAIR’s infrastructure
(https://www.therepository.email/aspirepress-the-quiet-project-powering-fairs-infrastructure)

WordCamp US faces scrutiny over Automattic’s role as ticket sales lag
(https://www.therepository.email/wordcamp-us-faces-scrutiny-over-automattics-role-as-ticket-sales-lag)

Can WordPress finally fix Five for the future? Contributors see rare chance for reform
(https://www.therepository.email/can-wordpress-finally-fix-five-for-the-future-contributors-see-rare-chance-for-reform)

WordPress scaling strategies for high-traffic websites
(https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/wordpress-scaling/?ref=dailydev)

WordPress SEO Tips
(https://presswizards.com/wordpress-seo-tips/)

WPBeginner Spotlight 12: New tools for SEO, privacy, and WooCommerce Performance
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/news/wpbeginner-spotlight-12-new-tools-for-seo-privacy-and-woocommerce-performance/)

3 soft skills that are critical for SEOs in 2025
(https://searchengineland.com/3-soft-skills-that-are-critical-for-seos-in-2025-457088)

How to align your SEO strategy with the stages of buyer intent
(https://searchengineland.com/align-seo-strategy-stages-buyer-intent-457044)

Google updates its URL structure best practices document with added examples
(https://searchengineland.com/google-updates-its-url-structure-best-practices-document-with-added-examples-457263)

2025 Google Search Console guide: Everything you need to know
(https://searchengineland.com/guide/google-search-console-guide)

If AI killed your SEO strategy, you didn’t have one
(https://searchengineland.com/if-ai-killed-your-seo-strategy-you-didnt-have-one-455946)

Google AI mode traffic data comes to Search Console
(https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-mode-traffic-data-search-console-457076)

WordCamp Europe 2025 wraps up in Basel as organizers look to Kraków for 2026
(https://www.therepository.email/wordcamp-europe-2025-recap)

What if WordPress became the agentic web’s front end?
(https://jamesgiroux.ca/what-if-wordpress-became-the-agentic-webs-front-end/)

How to be productive as a software engineer
(https://4markdown.com/how-to-be-productive-as-a-software-engineer/)

Beating Brrainrot by Button
(https://www.romanklasen.com/blog/beating-brainrot-by-button/?ref=dailydev)

Rogue’s Corner News and Extras

Be sure to go and check out the new and unique plugins now available from WPProAtoz.com!

WordPress Items:

More on the FAIR project
https://wpshout.com/fair-package-manager-wordpress-org-alternative/
https://www.therepository.email/the-community-responds-to-fair-hope-skepticism-and-support-for-decentralizing-wordpress

Who’s behind it
https://www.therepository.email/whos-behind-fair-inside-the-coalition-seeking-to-redefine-wordpress-plugin-distribution

Automatic closes its office in SF
https://qz.com/1002655/the-company-behind-wordpress-is-closing-its-gorgeous-san-francisco-office-because-its-employees-never-show-up

See how an LLM works
https://bbycroft.net/llm

Coding Tips

Question for all the listeners:
How many of you out there have that Phantom plugin needing an update?
Coding cheat sheets
https://medium.com/@vrkunduri/cheatsheets-for-developers-1bf378aafcb0

Some SEO info:

Read this if you want to be found online
https://seotldr.substack.com/p/the-great-decoupling-in-search-console

AI Stuff:

https://theconversation.com/godfather-of-ai-now-fears-its-unsafe-he-has-a-plan-to-rein-it-in-258288

Question for all the listeners:

How many of you out there have that Phantom plugin needing an update?

Tip of the day

Talk about https://influencewp.com/ and the benefits of it for WP devs
Check out The Repo at https://therepo.org/ an alternative to the regular plugin repo.
WordPress Best Practices
https://www.advancedcustomfields.com/blog/wordpress-development-best-practices/
https://x.com/JamesWelbes
https://therepo.org/

Educational Stop Project Creep https://deliciousbrains.com/how-to-tame-scope-creep-in-wordpress-development/

Dragon Rating Time with John!

John’s Plugin

Stop WP Emails Going to Spam

https://wordpress.org/plugins/stop-wp-emails-going-to-spam/

The Lowdown:

Emails generated from within WordPress often end up in your spam or junk folder, This plugin helps you sort that out. The default settings of this plugin can often be enough to solve your problem.

When using the default PHP mailer in WordPress, especially on shared servers, emails will often be set to spam or junk by receiving email  systems. This can be very frustrating and important notifications can be missed by you or your clients.

Why does this happen? One problem is the “envelope sender” not being  set, and many hosts will recommend that you install a plugin to set the “envelope sender”, this is the main purpose of this plugin.

Along with setting the “envelope sender” this plugin also displays your Sender Permitted From (SPF) and checks your server IP is in the SPF record, if there is one.

Optionally this plugin allows you to change the name and email address of the default WordPress notification email easily.

If you use an SMTP email plugin or use an API based transactional  email plugin, this plugin will add no value; it is built to support the  default PHP mailer only.

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

My tip to you today…

Recognize where your strengths and weaknesses are.

For instance – a site we recently brought live was being tested out by myself and a few other people out there on the nets. One of the issues I found was a loading issue with a ‘thank you’ page on the site – fill out the form, go to a separate page that says thanks on it.

Only many of them were not going to this separate page, they were instead just saying ‘thanks!’ right there on the same page as where you filled out the form.

Not the end of the world, but it totally messed with my precious design… and I could not figure out why.
So, instead of banging my head off the wall for hours and possibly days, I just let the person who is more techy then me know about it, and he had it figured out within a couple of hours.

I would NOT have figured it out that fast – ’cause that just isn’t my strength.

Don’t get me wrong, I can read and understand and figure out code and if given enough time I will figure out how to fix things – but that is just it, I need a lot of time to do that.

Creating things, making things bend to my will and forcing them to look pretty and look good no matter what device you are on – that is my main strength!

Figuring out why that design isn’t bending entirely to my will – that is not my strength, and I am not ashamed to admit that!

Don’t let your pride keep you from recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses, and allow yourself to get help with the things you know are not your strengths.

None of us are good at everything – though we are all great at something.

Dragon Rating Time with Amber!

Amber’s Plugin

PHP Vitals

https://wordpress.org/plugins/php-vitals/

The Lowdown:

This was sent into us by a Max who is with Webslice, the creator of PHP Vitals! Brand new out of the box plugin, it is super easy to use!

Max informed me in the email he sent in, that this plugin is designed to test out how quickly your web host runs PHP. As we all know, speed is what you need to do well in this industry, so knowing how quickly your web host runs PHP is a really good thing, and PHP Vitals can help you figure out if your site running slow has to do with something going on at the host level.

This plugin is entirely free, and is super easy to use!

Once you have downloaded and activated it, you will see on the left hand menu PHP Vitals. Clicking on this will bring you to their dashboard, where you will see a blue button saying ‘Run Benchmark’. Clicking on this will do a full run of your PHP, and you will get an overall result at the end of 1-2 minutes.

There is an option you can choose on the right hand side – if you agree to PHP Vitals having access to your test results, check off the box that says ‘I have read and agree to terms of use and privacy policy’, and hit ‘save’. After you do this, there is a new box that appears saying ‘Benchmark History’, and here you can compare your results.

A cool thing here, is that if you click the box, then think twice and decide you don’t actually want to share anything with them, you can actually click the box and hit ‘save’ again, and you are no longer going to share with them because you have opted out. I think that is just the coolest thing ever! I have never seen that before and now think this should be everywhere!

So I did the test a few times, and I agree with what I saw. I opted in and then opted out of the comparison choice, though I was still able to see a history of my results – not sure if that is a quirk I found or not, so if the creators are listening, let me know!

Now when testing with a plugin like this, you will always want to do the test a variety of times, and take the medium of the overall result. This is because nobody can foresee things that may be going on – such as an off day due to some nasties deciding to attack said server, or things are just going wrong on that day while you are testing – never assume that the singular grade you got is the absolute grade available. Always do multiple tests.

This is a pretty awesome plugin, and it certainly gives you a leg up on understanding how much of your site is moving slow because of your limited resources vs what your web host is using, and that is always helpful information to have!

Rating: 5 Dragon

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 Campus Connect Ribera del Duero – May 22 – June 25

WP Built Tour Bhopal, M.P. – June 6 – August 1

WordCamp Kraków, Poland – June 27-29

WordCamp Montclair, NJ, USA – June 28

WordCamp Masaka 2025 – July 18-19

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!

Donations from across the galaxy!

Producership Credits are a thing that do actually exist – we offer them up to those who donate through Time, Talent or Treasure. You can use these credits to boost up your resume, add to your LinkedIn file, so on and so forth!

Even if you are not interested in receiving a Producership Credit, check out how you can use us as your own stepping ladder in the world of the internets – get yourself an interview, get us to make your announcement for you, let the world know you have something to say or a company worth checking out!
Have a look through our site wppluginsatoz.com. Check out the Time, Talent and Treasure pages.

Today’s Plugins we covered were:

John’s Plugin:

Stop WP Emails Going to Spam By fullworks

• Tested up to PHP 8.3
• Checks email SPF health
• Checks if your IP has been black listed

Rating: 5 Dragons

Amber’s Plugin:

PHP Vitals By Webslice

• PHP based analysis on how fast your web host’s speed is
• One overall grade
• Can test previous performances

Rating: 5 Dragon

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

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

• What are 3 main speed tests that are good to do semi-regularly on sites? Why?

• What are some things that can mess up the results of those speed tests?
  • Are there ways to avoid those issues?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• How does LLM read and understand sites?

• How are these new models of ‘AI’ search bots different from the bots we have always loved to hate do you think?