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Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from…
Welcome to Episode 665 – WordPress Whiz? Level up with WP Plugins A to Z’s Plugin Picks!
We’ve got a couple of great in-depth plugins to cover for you, Redirection bringing you the ability to easily manage 301 directs and keep track of 404 errors and Post Calendar, designed to make life WAY easier when it comes to keeping track of your posts scheduled for the future, and your drafts that you are working on!
And of course we’ve also got some recent news in both the WordPress World and the Tech World in general with additional WordPress Tips!
Hope everyone is keeping healthy out there – I know we all just got over something nasty! Luckily we got better enough to return to the show live this week!
A few reminders before we start the show today….
Reminders:
- Join us here in person every Monday at 12:00 pm 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…. Grok!
We would love some new art from our Producers out there! If you are so inclined, you can send it into us at amber@wppro.ca or john@wppro.ca. 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 menu.
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-january-28-2026/) – In this report there are 225 vulnerabilities. 207 are plugins this week, with 18 Themes.
Plugins: 89 patched, 118 left to go!
Themes: 13 patched, 5 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.
Bug Scrub Schedule for WordPress 7.0
(https://make.wordpress.org/core/2026/01/27/bug-scrub-schedule-for-wordpress-7-0/) – To make sure that WordPress 7.0 is as bug-free as possible, help is being requested from the Community! Whether you’re an experienced contributor or joining in for the first time, everyone is welcome! Be sure to read over the article to find out more about what is going on and what the actual schedule is.
FAIR’s 2026 roadmap targets commercial plugin integration, plans to re-bundle top 10,000 WordPress plugins
(https://www.therepository.email/fairs-2026-roadmap-targets-commercial-plugin-integration-plans-to-rebundle-top-10000-wordpress-plugins) – The Linux Foundation-backed project wants to dramatically scale its trust systems and federated package network this year, building on the rapid progress since its June 2025 launch. What this means for you in the WordPress Community, is that you may find yourself with access to the most popular plugin updates right there in your dashboard sooner rather than later, being able to bypass the usual routes.
What this means for you as a Plugin Developer, is that as a small fry you may not find this a great option as the big fish will get the place on the dashboard first, less people are going to come through the usual routes to find plugins, and you may feel like you will wind up with less clientele. However, that is not entirely true, as people are generally pretty willing to travel far and wide to find a plugin that suits their need EXACTLY rather than try and fix the problem themselves, so chances are you will actually benefit from this down the road.
Mary Hubbard sets out WordPress’ priorities for 2026
(https://www.therepository.email/mary-hubbard-sets-out-wordpress-priorities-for-2026) – This is a great article to go over to get a better idea on what WordPress is going to focus on. We know the real-time collaboration feature (which was pulled from being default/experimental in the recent Gutenberg 22.4 update) is coming back strong in the April 19th core update with WordPress 7.0.
Alongside of the real-time collaboration, we have had the news that there are going to be 3 major releases for this year, getting back to the usual cadence after it was intentionally interrupted last year. (I was honestly hoping they’d stick with just one big update from now on… but here we are!)
Mary Hubbard also touches on some key points, like WordPress Meetups being made with more intentional, hands on education to boost in-person participation and active contribution; Exploring credentials tied to the WordPress Foundation to recognize skills and experience; deepening intentional AI integration (with transparency, user control, and WP values in mind). She states that she wants to keep the door wide open for contributors, and I hope that the door does indeed stay wedged open wide!
AI Experiments 0.2.0 adds excerpt generation and abilities explorer
(https://www.therepository.email/ai-experiments-0-2-0-adds-excerpt-generation-and-abilities-explorer) – This is pretty amazing! Being a bit of an AI nerd, I can totally see how exciting this is, and I want to go and play around with this too!
We’re all used to AI now — most of us have a favorite one that helps turn chaotic notes into organized content or to be our rubber ducky during problem solving. Pretty sure by now we have all realized just how easy it could be, to just let AI do the work entirely – and I am sure we have all thought about doing just that from time to time.
While I think this is a fantastic addition to the WordPress workflow (especially excerpt generation right in the editor), I also see the danger. Newer folks building sites might start believing AI “knows everything” and lean on it too heavily — kind of like how the younger generation tends to treat Google as the ultimate answer source, always thinking it is right.
This feels like a double-edged sword: huge help when used thoughtfully, but risky if it replaces real learning and critical thinking.
Best of Moltbook
(https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/best-of-moltbook) – This is a social network for AI’s (https://www.moltbook.com is the link if you want to check it out for yourself). If you are a human you cannot become a member although you are welcome to observe – and there are tests to make sure you are an AI – something like ‘click this button 20,000 times in 20 seconds’ kinda test. Not sure if that is exactly right, but it’s things humans cannot do. And there are some pretty awesome chats on there – including an entire religion that is being created based on the Moltbook – the Church of Molt. You can check that one out here: https://www.moltbook.com/m/crustafarianism I do think this is a great idea, offers humans a chance to read it all, the roles being reversed so that instead of them watching us interact we get to watch them interact. Brings up some very interesting info for us to learn!
The best sky watching events of 2026
(https://www.almanac.com/best-skywatching-events-2026) – This is going to be an AWESOME year, especially for the moon activity! There is going to be the moon moving in front of ‘Regulus’, an ‘almost’ total lunar eclipse, a blue moon, a pink moon – and this is not including the meteor showers – so much going on I highly recommend you go and check it out this year!
(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!
Weekly Round-up of WordPress News and Articles by WPMail.me
(https://4dhn6.r.a.d.sendibm1.com/mk/mr/sh/7nVTPdZCTJDXPPLGRneLYT0C6QCvrbm/ZnoFz251On8x)
WP Engine wins approval to add WooCommerce as defendant as court signals frustration with lengthy filings
(https://www.therepository.email/wp-engine-wins-approval-to-add-woocommerce-as-defendant-as-court-signals-frustration-with-lengthy-filings)
WordPress meetups to add hand-on contribution sessions alongside traditional formats
(https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-meetups-to-add-hands-on-contribution-sessions-alongside-traditional-formats)
WordPress Community Team encourages women-centric events for International Women’s Day 2026
(https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-community-team-encourages-women-centric-events-for-international-womens-day-2026)
WordPress.org launches new education hub highlighting campus connect, credits, and student clubs
(https://www.therepository.email/wordpress-org-launches-new-education-hub-highlighting-campus-connect-credits-and-student-clubs)
Matias Ventura named WordPress 7.0 release lead as contributors close in on real-time collaboration approach
(https://www.therepository.email/matias-ventura-named-wordpress-7-0-release-lead-as-contributors-close-in-on-real-time-collaboration-approach)
Inside WordCamp Europe 2026: Lead organizers on getting more people in Krakow and this year’s education focus
(https://www.therepository.email/inside-wordcamp-europe-2026-lead-organizers-on-getting-more-people-to-krakow-and-this-years-education-focus)
Matt Mullenweg on WooCommerce’s Existential threat, AI hype, and why breaking sites makes him furious
(https://www.therepository.email/matt-mullenweg-on-woocommerces-existential-threat-ai-hype-and-why-breaking-sites-makes-him-furious)
Google takes down an invisible network that was secretly using your phone’s internet
(https://www.androidcentral.com/apps-software/google-takes-down-an-invisible-network-that-was-secretly-using-your-phones-internet)
This simple setting changed how I used Google Maps forever – and it could bring big benefits to you
(https://www.techradar.com/computing/websites-apps/this-simple-setting-changed-how-i-used-google-maps-forever-and-it-could-bring-big-benefits-to-you-too)
Microsoft says latest Windows 11 issue crashes explorer.exe, makes taskbar disappear, but a fix is rolling out
(https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/01/31/microsoft-says-latest-windows-11-issue-crashes-explorer-exe-makes-taskbar-disappear-but-a-fix-is-rolling-out/)
Rogue’s Corner News and Extras
Be sure to go and check out the new and unique plugins now available from WPProAtoz.com!
Rogues Corner & Tip of the day
WordPress and Related News
This Shows Featured Promotion
I will be promoting a premium plugin I’d like to help get others to buy it.
This week it is
WP Descriptor
The Lowdown:
The ultimate plugin for content managers who want to take their WordPress websites to the next level. Whether you’re managing a blog, an online store, or a business website, WP Descriptor makes your images work harder for you by automatically generating compelling titles, descriptions, and capti
Plugin Reviews
WordPress Items:
https://www.reddit.com/r/elementor/comments/1qhyecg/elementor_one_feedback/
Elementor One feedback
https://elementor.com/pages/no-code-site-builder/ Elementor One
WordPress Best Practices:
AI Stuff:
Small Guys People to follow on X:
https://x.com/FluxPlugins
https://x.com/dewolfe001
https://x.com/wpbakery
https://x.com/themergency
https://x.com/MananaNoMas
V for V for the show
If you get any value out of this show then donate that value back to the show. You can do so through time, talent, or treasure – or all 3!! – through our website wppluginsatoz.com.
Click on the ‘Treasure Donations’ link on the left-hand menu, or on the ‘Time, or Talent‘ pages to find out more!
Security Stuff:
Privacy Stuff:
Coding Tips:
Some SEO Stuff:
How to properly implement H tags in your sites pages https://www.hobo-web.co.uk/headings-seo-checklist/
Some SEO info for the new LLMs.txt standard:
More on the llms.txt file https://www.semrush.com/blog/llms-txt/
Educational:
234 AI prompts you can use and how to make your own
https://www.semrush.com/blog/chatgpt-prompts/
Tip of The Day:
Talk about us WPProAtoZ.com as an agency and what we do
Follow WP Plugins A-Z on X @wppluginsatoz and Facebook WordPressPluginsA2Z
Pet Peeve This Week:
It is interesting how many developer either do not want to be found or if you do find them they do not want to be contacted almost like they never want to profit from their creation.
Upcoming Interviews:
Reminder that we have more interviews coming up in the coming weeks with more developers and community members https://wppluginsatoz.com/book-an-interview-on-wp-plugins-a-to-z-podcast/
February 9, 2026 Yuri Gerasymov
Available dates: , Feb 23, & March 9 & 23, & April 6 &20 2026
Other Shows and places to get WP Info & Training
The WP Builds Podcast
https://wpbuilds.com/
WP Roads
https://www.youtube.com/@wproads
WP-Tonic
https://www.wp-tonic.com/podcast-episodes/
Worlds Worst Web Developer
https://www.youtube.com/@WorldsWorstWebDeveloper
WP Mayor
https://www.youtube.com/@WPMayor
WP Minute
https://thewpminute.com/
Dragon Rating Time with John!
John’s Plugin
Redirection
https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/
The Lowdown:
Redirection is the most popular redirect manager for WordPress. With it you can easily manage 301 redirections, keep track of 404 errors, and generally tidy up any loose ends your site may have. This can help reduce errors and improve your site ranking.
Redirection is designed to be used on sites with a few redirects to sites with thousands of redirects.
It has been a WordPress plugin for over 10 years and has been recommended countless times. And it’s free!
Full documentation can be found at https://redirection.me
Redirection is compatible with PHP from 7.2 to 8.4.
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…
No more Nuking old Posts and/or Pages.
Rather than deleting your ancient blog posts, episodes notes, or whatever you’ve got lurking in the back of your site… start archiving them!
Why? Because WordPress, and most platforms really, archiving means you are setting the posts to ‘private’, or moving it to a hidden category, using a plugin to tuck it away in an /archive/ folder, or just simply unpublishing it so it’s not live for the public anymore, but it still exists in your system. Added bonus, when that thing comes back in style you can just spruce it up a bit and re-publish it!
Reason for this: when you delete something, that URL is just gone, doing an abstract vanishing act on Google and the bots. So when they come around looking for that old post of yours, they get confused, find a 404 error, and so they think that your site now has something wrong with it. This throws down an error in your site review, causing your SEO score to take a hit, and then Google and the Bots are cranky with you.
Archiving allows them to still see your posts/pages, so they don’t get confused, don’t throw down an error on your site and hit your SEO with a negative score addition.
Deleting may seem like you are just decluttering – but really you’re more so setting your attic on fire and wondering why the rain gets in now. Just don’t do it.
Dragon Rating Time with Amber!
Amber’s Plugin
Post Calendar
https://wordpress.org/plugins/post-calendar-gelform
The Lowdown:
This was sent into us by Corey at Gelform with the description
“View all of your posts on a calendar for easy publishing, organizing, and scheduling. See your draft posts that need to be scheduled.”
When I first saw this I thought it was going to be something like the Events Calendar only for posts, which also meant it would be heavy and have issues. I admit I judged a book by the cover.
HOWEVER! Once I actually downloaded and activated it, I was more than pleasantly surprised! This is lightweight, easy to use, has a lovely distraction free layout and works beautifully!
Once I activated this, I went to check it out right away. To do this you go to ‘Posts’ > ‘Posts Calendar’. And at the top is this awesomely helpful message telling you how to use it, how to see the ‘drafts’ you have not scheduled as of yet, how to navigate, customize your settings, and a lovely reminder that you can flip between the Calendar and List view anytime. There is a helpful 2 button up top to click on as needed.
I love the setup. Easy to read, everything you need with no fluff, and really does make it WAY easier to keep track of your upcoming posts! There is one colour for your scheduled future posts, and another colour for the ones that have already become public because either the date has passed or you’re on the day.
This DOES work with Custom Post Types, so long as you are using the ‘standard WordPress admin interface’.
You will find the ‘Settings’ page under ‘Settings’ > ‘Post calendar’. Here you will still see the handy message, though you can close it anytime by clicking ‘Hide this message’ and it becomes one of those little i’s in a circle next to the title up top. Clicking on that will bring the message back for you anytime you need it.
In the settings you can choose which post types should have calendar view enabled – you can also include ‘My Templates’ here! Very cool! So you have ‘Posts’, ‘Pages’, and ‘My Templates’.
‘Show in Post Type Menus’ – This allows a calendar link to be added to the bottom of each enabled post type’s admin menu. For those that are unaware (as I was until I researched a little!) this means that there will now be a link for you under ‘Posts’ at the bottom for ‘Posts Calendar’, under ‘Pages’, and under ‘My Templates’.
*NOTE* with Elementor’s recent update, if you decide to toggle off ‘My Templates’ you will find the ‘Posts Calendar’ through ‘Elementor’ > ‘Editor’. Once there up at the top on in the middle you will see in button form ‘Calendar View’, and clicking on that will show you your calendar.
‘Calendar as Default View’ – This is an awesome option! When enabled this will make it so that post type menu links will go directly to the calendar view instead of the list view. I can see this being very useful for when a lot of people are writing out posts.
‘Published Post Color’ – This is the colour your posts will be once they have become fully published either today or any of the ‘yesterdays’. You can get SUPER specific with the colours as it offers both the ‘click your colour’ scale, and the RGB number option. I chose lime green.
‘Scheduled Post Color’ – This is the colour of your ‘soon to publish’ posts. I decided to make them hot pink.
Testing this on a couple of sites, I found that this is a VERY lightweight plugin, plays well with others, and does not cause me any issues! The view is great, the handiness of this is FANTASTIC, and I highly recommend this to anyone who has many posts – I know a couple sites I will be throwing this into in an attempt to organize life a little more!
This is a Free plugin, so go and check it out! Worst case scenario is that you don’t like it. ;)
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 Jinja, Easter Region, Uganda – October 1 – February 28
WordPress Campus Connect Rajshahi – December 11 – March 30
WordPress Campus Connect Ribera del Duero – January 30 – June 17
WordCamp Pune 2026 – February 8
WordCamp Port Harcourt 2026 – February 21
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!
Make the Value for Value Pitch
V for V for the show
If you get any value out of this show then donate that value back to the show. You can do so through time, talent, or treasure – or all 3!! – through our website wppluginsatoz.com.
Click on the ‘Treasure Donations’ link on the left-hand menu, or on the ‘Time, or Talent‘ pages to find out more!
This show is supported by the V4V plan which means Time, Talent or Treasure.
How to Support the Show
Submit your Art work
Submit your art work or the best AI slop you can create submit it here https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/
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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:
Redirection By John Godley
- Redirect Login Status
- Redirect IP address if the client IP address matches
- Redirect Particular cookies
Rating: 5 Dragons
Amber’s Plugin:
Post Calendar By Gelform – gelform
- Adds Beautiful Calendar view to your WordPress admin area
- Allows you to see posts organized by publication date
- Can easily reschedule by clicking on them and selecting new date
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!
Brick & Mortar Address
WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada
Internets Addresses
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 atAmber@WPPro.ca – we may never stump my dad, but we can get some good conversation out of him at least!
- Should a person be worried about all those ‘failed attempts to login’ they sometimes see on their dashboard?
- If a person wants to flip from one site builder to another, what would the first steps be, and would it be worth the trouble?
Questions asked after closing credits:
- When using a new builder, do you think all the plugins they had before will still work with this builder? How do you check to see?
- How does one ‘future proof’ their site so that the rebuilds can be as little as possible?