Jeff Chandler

  • A Tip for Convincing Customers to Renew License Keys

    A Tip for Convincing Customers to Renew License Keys

    Mika Epstein, who helps review plugins before they’re added to the directory and is a dedicated support forum volunteer, has a great post on the difficulties associated with plugins that require license keys for updates. She addresses topics like keeping users informed, ownership, and bundling plugins with themes. She also suggests the following solution to…

  • The Quest For a Centralized WordPress Notifications Center

    The Quest For a Centralized WordPress Notifications Center

    Based on the number of comments we received on WordPress admin notices being abused, it’s clear that a number of you feel the same way I do. Thanks to the healthy discussion that took place, I learned several new things about admin notices I’d like to share with you. Themes Do it Too While the…

  • MonsterInsights Addresses User Criticism With Immediate Changes

    MonsterInsights Addresses User Criticism With Immediate Changes

    When Google Analytics by Yoast suddenly turned into MonsterInsights yesterday, many users were taken by surprise. Users voiced their frustration and concerns on the plugin’s support forum. Some users thought their sites were hacked after noticing the menu label changed and seeing a bright green menu icon. Syed Balkhi, founder of WPBeginner.com, along with Chris…

  • Please Stop Abusing WordPress Admin Notices

    Please Stop Abusing WordPress Admin Notices

    We’ve recently installed some new plugins on the Tavern and one of them generates an admin notice that can not be dismissed without disabling it. Not only is this frustrating, but it makes it less likely that I’ll give the developer money to purchase the pro version. Here’s what the admin notice looks like. I’ve…

  • Syed Balkhi Acquires Google Analytics by Yoast, Renames to MonsterInsights

    Syed Balkhi Acquires Google Analytics by Yoast, Renames to MonsterInsights

    Users who are updating Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast are discovering a new menu item with a green monster icon in their WordPress backend. That’s because Syed Balkhi, founder of WPBeginner.com, has acquired it for an undisclosed amount and has renamed it to MonsterInsights. Joost de Valk, founder of Yoast.com, says the company is…

  • WPWeekly Episode 230 – Interview With Mike Schroder WordPress 4.5 Release Lead

    WPWeekly Episode 230 – Interview With Mike Schroder WordPress 4.5 Release Lead

    In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I are joined by Mike Schroder who led the WordPress 4.5 release cycle. Schroder tells us what it’s like to release software to millions of websites across the world. We learn about the checklists and processes he went through on launch day. We discuss the emotional…

  • Edit Flow Lives, New Update Fixes Bugs and Improves Performance

    Edit Flow Lives, New Update Fixes Bugs and Improves Performance

    Twenty-four hours ago, the future of Edit Flow was unclear due to a lack of communication from the project’s maintainer, Automattic. Today however, the company pushed Edit Flow 0.8.1 to the WordPress plugin directory which is the same version that’s on GitHub. According to the plugin’s changelog, 0.8.1 includes the following: New German localization New…

  • Mendel Kurland Interviews Konstantin Obenland at WordCamp London, 2016

    Mendel Kurland Interviews Konstantin Obenland at WordCamp London, 2016

    Mendel Kurland, GoDaddy’s evangelist who participates in a number of open source communities published a great interview with Automattic employee, Konstantin Obenland. In the interview, Obenland describes how he got involved with WordPress, what motivated him to learn PHP, and what it’s like living the dream. The video is 14 minutes in length and while…

  • Hey Automattic, What’s Going on With Edit Flow?

    Hey Automattic, What’s Going on With Edit Flow?

    Edit Flow is an editorial workflow plugin for WordPress created in 2009 that is actively installed on more than 10K sites. Although the author listing on the plugin’s page shows Mohammad Jangda, Daniel Bachhuber, and Scott Bressler as authors, it’s currently maintained by Automattic. Bachhuber announced in 2013 that Automattic claimed ownership of all the…

  • Giant Wapuu Among the Attendees at WordCamp London 2016

    Giant Wapuu Among the Attendees at WordCamp London 2016

    This past weekend, hundreds of people gathered at WordCamp London 2016 to learn about WordPress. One of the attendees who made its presence known the day of the event was a giant Wapuu. From left to right is WordPress co-creator Mike Little, Wapuu, and Jenny Wong. Notice how Wapuu has its own name badge! Tim…

  • In Case You Missed It – Issue 7

    In Case You Missed It – Issue 7

    There’s a lot of great WordPress content published in the community but not all of it is featured on the Tavern. This post is an assortment of items related to WordPress that caught my eye but didn’t make it into a full post. Revolution Slider Possible Cause of Data Breach Wordfence analyzed the Mossack Fonseca…

  • My Apple News Publisher Experience Three Weeks Later

    My Apple News Publisher Experience Three Weeks Later

    Back in March, I explained how to connect WordPress powers sites to Apple News. After three weeks of being in the system, here is what I experienced. Stuck in Limbo After configuring the plugin and successfully getting WP Tavern approved on Apple News, I thought that articles published on the site would automatically publish to…

  • WPWeekly Episode 229 – VersionPress Goes Open Source

    WPWeekly Episode 229 – VersionPress Goes Open Source

    In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I discuss the news of the week, including a big move for VersionPress as it transitions into an open source project. We provide an update on the development status of bbPress and BuddyPress. We also share details of a critical security vulnerability that was patched in…

  • VersionPress Transitions Into a Free Open Source Project

    VersionPress Transitions Into a Free Open Source Project

    Borek Bernard and Jan Voráček, creators of VersionPress, announced that they’re transitioning the plugin into a free, open source project hosted on GitHub. In addition, they are releasing VersionPress 3.0 Beta, the first version released under the new model. Open Source Is the Way Forward In a post on the product’s site, Bernard explains that…

  • WordCamp Central Now Lets You Track an Event’s Status

    WordCamp Central Now Lets You Track an Event’s Status

    Keeping up and monitoring the progress of WordCamps in and around your area is now a lot easier thanks to a new WordCamp Application status page. The page indicates a WordCamp’s city, applicant’s name, recent milestone, status, and the last time it was updated. The application status page is the result of efforts by Ian…