New Year New Beginnings
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It's Episode 493 Replacements, Hiding, Testimonials, Blacklists, Hiding, Sebastian…, and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!
Testimonial for Elementor, Real-Time Find and Replace, BSK Gravity Forms Blacklist, Sebastian, Hide My WP Ghost – Security Plugin, WP Discord Invite and ClassicPress options on Episode 493.
John's Intro:
Welcome to 2021 this is a new year, new life, you know, everyone with new ideas etc. Here's to hoping that it will be a better year than the one just past. Let us begin the count down to Episode 500!
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:
Angel Lemus — http://www.koadigital.com
All the show notes can be found at: WPPluginsAtoZ.com
Ambers Rant:
This is #1 of 52 episodes for 2021. Its Episode 493; Welcome to the NEW UNIVERSE!! I'm pretty sure that we have entered an alternate reality throughout the past month. And we have so much more weirdness to look forward to!! yaayy..
The world… is rather upside down these days – there is A LOT going on out there! So, I say it's time to make a little place where you can TUNE OUT for a while! It can be anywhere – a blanket thrown over your couch to build a fort, in your bed with your door closed and a ‘Do Not Disturb' sign or a sock on your door, or even your car! Get into a space all your own, throw on some music and grab a book, or even throw on an audio book and grab a drink! Kick back, and breathe. Try to get there at least once a week, more if you can.
If you have kids, let them know that they should only bother you if they are broken, dying, or bleeding for 1 WHOLE hour. Make your area comfy for you, and try to remove all internet AND radio with news hours while zoning out. Try to let go of everything outside of your control, and work on pestering those you know and care about to get their own Zone Out Space's started.
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:
WordPress.com Rattles Freelancer Community with New Website Building Service Launch
https://wptavern.com/wordpress-com-rattles-freelancer-community-with-new-website-building-service-launch
The Events Calendar Joins the Liquid Web Family
https://theeventscalendar.com/blog/news/the-events-calendar-joins-the-liquid-web-family/
All in One SEO Plugin Turns on Automatic Updates without Notifying Users, Removes Functionality in Latest Release
https://wptavern.com/all-in-one-seo-plugin-turns-on-automatic-updates-without-notifying-users-removes-functionality-in-latest-release
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
Talk about about what the value for value model is and why we are trying to use it. Explain why I do not have advertising, affiliate links ect.
Show Producers
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.
I'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:
Angel Lemus — http://www.koadigital.com
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 $300 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.
I want to take the opportunity here, to thank all the plugin developers that have also supported the show over the year and years by donating plugins for us to use and give away in our contests. Without them, we wouldn't have a giveaway contest for you, our listeners, to enter and win. Be sure to go and check out the plugins and pages for those plugins that have been donated for the contests. If you decide to use one for your site, please, find a way to let them know you heard about them from the WP Plugins A to Z podcast show. We wish all you developers out there a great year in 2021!
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:
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
To find a listing of ClassicPress specific plugins check out this link https://forums.classicpress.net/t/plugins-built-specifically-for-classicpress/1011?u=codepotent there is currently 37 42 49 50 52 55 57 58 plugins here and growing. I look forward to the day they have their own repository. I can still recall WP when it had a small repository.
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
Testimonial for Elementor
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appbuff-testimonial-for-elementor/
The lowdown:
This is an add-on for Elementor that will let you set up to showcase testimonials from your clients on your site. It looks to be a pretty clean plugin for showcasing the testimonials you have for your business. The one thing I would like to see is a way to let your clients fill out the info which you can then approve for display. But it does still look pretty nice.
Rating 4 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
Sebastian
https://wordpress.org/plugins/sebastian/
Description
Who doesn't love Easter eggs? And for free too??
This plugin is a brand new, hot off the press one! It's designed to be an Easter egg with the option of it either redirecting, or showing up with a custom alert message! And it roams around your site and through your pages as a dot, until the visitor manages to find and catch it by mousing over it. One can also click it – I always wind up clicking it.
I was REALLY excited to try this out – I got it all set up, chose the colour of the dot, set up my pop up message and let her rip!
It was a wee bit of a let down though – rather than seeing a banner flying out of the floating dot like I thought I would, instead there is a pop up box that appears with your message in the middle of the screen. Reminded me a bit of the alert messages from the 90's Windows.
Although the ‘redirect' option works beautifully! Perfect if you are wanting to get people to head over to another site of yours or something.
After all, who can resist a moving dot on the screen? Curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back, and all that jazz.
Rating 5 Dragons
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John's plugin
Real-Time Find and Replace
https://wordpress.org/plugins/real-time-find-and-replace/
The Lowdown:
This is a pretty useful tool when you're doing site wide changes. It is pretty simple and straightforward in that you may have some text across your site on multiple pages and you need to change it. The plugins does that for you, just put in what you want changed and then what you want it changed to and it changes it on the fly for you.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's plugin
Hide My WP Ghost – Security Plugin
https://wordpress.org/plugins/hide-my-wp/#installation
Description
I found this one rather intriguing.
What this does once you download and activate it, is it goes in and changes all of your login paths. It DOES NOT change any of your core files or anything like that – all changes are simple redirects.
The first thing that happens, that I did not overly appreciate, was that you need to give them your email to get your ‘token' for activation. You can choose whether or not you are to get ‘how to's', and ‘reports on your vulnerabilities' – though I still don't like being forced to give up my email to get a plugin like this to work. I suppose it is a fair trade, you get security for free, they get to add your email – but I still don't like it.
I think this would be a very useful plugin if you were having hacker issues with login and the like – though when I looked into it and tested it out, I found it very irritating. To login, the additional bit at the end is now whatever you chose when you filled out the information for the plugin – I chose ‘nowthis'. I figured it would be easy enough – though changing my habit was actually hard, and really not worth it when I am not personally having any issues or any worries about hacking through this path.
There are other paths that are now changed as well once you set this to lite – though again, breaking old habits when there is no real cause to on my part, I found it more irritating than anything.
Now, if I were in a bad place with hackers rolling in through my door on any of these particular paths, that would be a different thing, and these little irritants are a very low price to pay.
So, depending on where you are, depends on whether this would be amazing or not for you.
There is a pro version, and you get a lot more goodies in the pro version – though for initial quelling of hackers at the front gate, this could do the trick.
Rating 4 Dragons
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John's plugin
BSK Gravity Forms Blacklist
https://wordpress.org/plugins/bsk-gravityforms-blacklist/
The Lowdown:
This is another black list plugin built for Gravity Forms but a little different than the one I covered a couple episodes back. This one does not only block emails it also blocks IP, and has the ability to create a black list of words. It is pretty straight forward and simple to use and helps eliminate even more form spam from your site.
Rating 5 Dragons
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Amber's Plugin
WP Discord Invite
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-discord-invite/
Description
First, I need to let everyone know that this plugin is not affiliated with Discord in any way, the developers just created a nifty plugin that works with Discord and WordPress.
I'm personally pretty new to using Discord – though I find I am liking it A LOT.
One of the things I love about it, is that you can make your own personal server to chat with people on. You get a link for it that you can share around too! No worries about people bumbling into your chat that you don't know so long as you don't make it public.
This plugin does a good job of hiding your server link within your own domain link, and gives you the ability to share it out without giving away your actual server link on discord.
I really liked the way they set this up – though one draw back, you can't actually ask for help on the page where you fill out the information. There are help links, but none of them work. So instead, you need to open the actual help option in the left hand menu and read those while working on filling in the information. Or bounce back and forth, whatever works for you. That loses them a dragon point, Help links that don't work are really no help at all.
I like the way that this plugin works, and it's easy once you understand all the definitions. It's a freebie, and just adds that little extra security for your server if you use Discord.
Rating 4 Dragons
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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
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Visit my website JohnOverall.com, Call 818-850-7729 or send an email to john@wppro.ca
add after my promo
How important is your website? I have run into a couple more this week from unnamed companies (don't worry the gators gonna get you in the end) that do not offer up backups without paying a premium. What would you do if something went wrong?
Enter The Contest to Win!!:
Contests Powered by Simple Giveaways who kindly provides us with the premium version for our 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.
Winner-Winner Chicken Dinner we have a winner for the Unlimited Lifetime License for Brizy Page Builder the winner is Jason Lee
Listen to the great interview with Dimi Baitanciuc, the co-founder of the Brizy Page Builder
Listen Here
Enter for your chance to win an Unlimited Lifetime License of
wpadminpagespro.com
This plugin is a MUST HAVE for anyone that creates websites for clients, friends, groups, etc.
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This giveaway is for an UNLIMITED LIFETIME license valued at $149.
Be sure to check out the interview with Arindo Duque as we talk about WPAdmin Pages Pro
Let your friends know about the giveaway!
New Year New Beginnings Click To Tweet
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: Testimonial for Elementor – 4, Real-Time Find and Replace – 5, BSK Gravity Forms Blacklist – 5
Amber's Plugins: Sebastian – 5, Hide My WP Ghost – Security Plugin – 4, WP Discord Invite – 4
Trivia:
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 .
What we are going to do is have a Live Stream of The Rogues Tavern Tuesday evening's check us out there TheRoguesTavern.com
Would you like to be on an interview show? Simply connect at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview
Follow my Journey at TheRoguesTavern.com check out my adventures into the wild Hunting, Searching for Gold, Hiking, Camping, out on the gun range and more.
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/
****Show segment Q & A Time ——– Catch this info on our YouTube Channel*****
Questions and Answers –
*** Note if you have questions you would like asked, send them to Amber at WPPro.ca she will get them into this segment. ****
Firstly, I found a CSS handbook of sorts. Though I didn't recognize a lot of the so called CSS in there – yet it is brand new.
Are there different versions of the same kind of code, like CSS? Is it like the difference between English in Canada and the UK? Like, how we don't call the trunk of the car the boot, or candy lollies?
Why is it that something that works for one section of the site, does not work for another section? For instance, centering a drop down menu – the code I found to center one item on the site does not work to center another item. Why? You would think that if you can center one thing with a code, that same code set up with a different category heading bit would work for another section…
How do you set yourself up so that when searching for CSS information, you only get the information that is useful? Like, things from the past 24 months only? I found putting the year into the search function just brings up a different kind of code. Or maybe there ISN'T a way to get just the last 24 months kind of information on CSS and the like?
How long does it take the average person to learn CSS well enough to be able to find and utilize the information within the F12 option and what not?
One of the things I found when I was searching for information on CSS, was a quiz. It gives up the answers to each question immediately, but why put out a quiz on CSS labelled as “Basic CSS FAQ”?
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
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John can be contacted at:
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Amber can be contacted at:
- email: amber@wppro.ca
