Fire up your test environments; BuddyPress 2.0 Beta 1 was just released. 2.0 is going to be a stellar release and is packed full of exciting updates and performance optimizations. BuddyPress core developer Boone Gorges announced the beta and summarized new features and changes that will be important for you to test. This release will…
Sarah Gooding and I debated whether or not smilies are content and what the true focus of debate should be concerning the emoticons. I shared my experience upgrading to WordPress For iOS 4.0 and the problems it solved. Last but not least, we discussed the dangers of downloading plugins from untrusted sources. Stories Discussed: WordPress…
It seems like there is a WordCamp or two happening every weekend. With so many, it’s tough to keep track unless you routinely browse the schedule on WordCamp Central. However, I’ve discovered a few other ways to monitor upcoming WordCamps. In late 2013, WordCamp central added RSS feeds that notify subscribers when an event is…
Last week, we reported the Better WordPress Security plugin would be renamed to iThemes Security. We also shared important details to prepare users for the upgrade. Because of the name change, users needed to re-enable the plugin or risk seeing errors. Despite the beta testing period, the upgrade process hasn’t gone smoothly for some users.…
PressGram, the WordPress-powered photo sharing app, has significantly evolved since its launch. The app broke onto the scene last year, positioned as a game-changing challenger to the increasingly unpopular policies of Facebook and Instagram. After supporting the native social networking aspect for several months, John Saddington, the app’s creator, found that most users were not…
Over the past two years, Easy Digital Downloads has become a dominant player among WordPress plugins for selling digital products. EDD has been downloaded nearly 300,000 times due to its developer-friendly codebase and comprehensive set of features tailored to digital stores. While there are several dozen EDD-ready themes available, many developers prefer to build their…
BuddyPress 2.0 is due in approximately three weeks. The release roadmap shows it as being 74% complete. In addition to big performance improvements, this release will introduce several new WordPress admin tools to speed up common maintenance tasks for community managers. An update committed today makes it easier for administrators to mark users as ham/spam…
The folks over at Sucuri have reminded us once again why it’s important to only download plugins from trusted sources. In a disturbing post published on the Sucuri blog, Denis Sinegubko highlights the dangers of using plugins from untrusted sources. In this post, we’ll talk about “patched” malicious premium plugins. We’ll talk about what they…
WordCamp Miami is nearly sold out with an estimated 700 WordPress fans to be in attendance. The event is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and the organization team has announced its first WordPress beginner’s workshop for kids. Tammie Lister and I will be leading the workshop, which will introduce kids and their parents to…
Activating and deactivating widgets can become quite tedious when testing WordPress themes. Monster Widget is a handy plugin, created by the folks at Automattic. It adds all of the default WordPress widgets to a “monster” widget that you can deploy as one collective instance. Once the widget is added to your sidebar, you’ll see all…
Earlier this month, we interviewed Dre Armeda and Tony Perez of Sucuri.net to talk about WordPress security. Both guests shared information from a services perspective. We received a lot of positive feedback on the amount information presented in the episode. We’re going to turn the tables and discuss securing WordPress from the perspective of using…
In the course of blogging about important issues, there are times when you may need to link to dubious or objectionable material in order to provide context for your post. For example, some subject matter may necessitate a reference to racist material or a fraudulent business. Unfortunately, when it comes to SEO, the age old…
When we talk about the basics of WordPress security, we always tell you to use a very strong password. The recently added password strength meter helps to facilitate the process. But what about usernames? WordPress offers a way to change your display name which acts as a username alias. However, it doesn’t hide the username…
Over the past 30 years, emoticons have become a staple of digital communication. People rely on the smiley to add tone and feeling, which are often absent when communicating online. This is especially important in the case of text messaging and micro-blogging applications like Twitter where characters are limited. An emoticon can make all the…
Are you in love with the new WordPress.com smilies? Their modern look is a bit more expressive and endearing than the old emoticons. If you view them side-by-side, there is simply no comparison, especially when you zoom in: Although there is a ticket open for updating WordPress core emoticons for self-hosted sites, there’s no telling…
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