How many times have you found reviews of webhosting companies only to discover they’re filled with affiliate links? The presence of an affiliate link leaves the validity of content in question. HostingReviews.io by Steven Gliebe, hopes to solve this problem by documenting micro reviews without any affiliate links attached. HostingReviews.io works by documenting what people…
iThemes has announced that WebDesign.com is now called iThemes Training. According to the announcement, this change will lessen confusion and place everything under the iThemes umbrella. We’re making this transition in order to bring everything we do at iThemes under one roof (themes, plugins & training) and eliminate confusion caused by having multiple domain names…
October 3rd, 2014 will live in the history books as the day when the first conference devoted to Pods took place. Organized by Scott Kingsley Clark, PodsCamp not only focused on the Pods plugin, but it was also the first time the development team was in the same physical location. In the following interview, Clark…
Since there is no guest this week, Marcus Couch and I used this opportunity to spend more time than usual with the news. We spend a considerable amount of time discussing WordPress contributions and I provide insight into my distinction between direct and indirect contributions. I share my experience of attending the first WordCamp event…
By default, if a post or page uses a title that’s already been used, WordPress appends a -2 to the end of the slug to prevent conflicts. Not only do duplicate titles cause conflicts, they’re not good for SEO. Developed by wallfa_hm, the Duplicate Title Validation plugin checks the title and displays a notice if…
Developed by Hyyan, Flexible Widget Title is a new plugin that enables users to hide widget titles from the frontend of WordPress. When activated, apply brackets to the titles you want to hide. For example, [A Text Widget Title]. Although the same effect can be accomplished by leaving the title field blank, it makes administering…
After a busy weekend of WordPress conferences, among those that took place is the first ever WordCamp Ann Arbor. Situated on the University of Michigan campus at the Michigan League, nearly 150 people from all walks of life gathered to learn about WordPress. Beginner’s Guide to WordCamps I started the day with a session by…
WordPress development agency, WebDevStudios, has acquired Maintainn for an undisclosed amount. According to the announcement, the acquisition enables WebDevStudios to provide better maintenance and support to clients. Founded in 2012 by Shayne Sanderson, Maintainn provides maintenance services including 24/7 security monitoring, daily off-site backups, weekly updates to WordPress core, themes and plugins, a dedicated WordPress…
During a session at WordCamp Europe, Matt Mullenweg was asked how companies contribute back to WordPress, how they’re doing it, and what companies should do more of. He responded to the question in-depth in a blog post entitled Five for the Future. In the post, he outlines 5% as being a good rule of thumb…
This weekend is a busy time for WordPress conferences. One event to keep an eye on is WordCamp Tampa. They have been selected as one of the first to participate in a live stream pilot program using new equipment purchased by the WordPress Foundation. Depending on the outcome of the experiment at this and other events,…
In this episode of WordPress Weekly, Marcus Couch and I travel to Singapore to interview Lester “GaMerZ” Chan. Chan has 23 different plugins in the plugin directory, amassing an incredible total download count of 12,241,325! This accounts for approximately 1.6% of all plugin downloads from the directory. Chan explains how he handles support for 23…
Matt Mullenweg made waves this past weekend during his Q&A session at WordCamp Europe when he strongly advocated the importance of companies contributing back to WordPress. He offered a rule of thumb for companies that benefit from the software and want to invest in the future of WordPress: I think a good rule of thumb…
The contributor day following WordCamp Europe was a tremendous success, bringing approximately 180 people to the SiteGround offices in Sofia. A healthy mixture of veteran contributors were in attendance, as well as many folks who were brand new to contributing. At the beginning of the day, contributors split off into smaller groups to focus on…
Stream 2.0 is a significant update that changes the stand alone plugin into a service. But not everyone is happy with the change. Those who use Stream in enterprise environments have voiced disappointment regarding the latest update. The following is feedback from a user on the Advanced WordPress Facebook group. “Heads up if you use…
Stream 2.0 is available for download and includes a plethora of enhancements. This version features a rewrite from the ground up with a focus on scalability, security, and activity. As part of the rewrite, Stream activity data is stored in the cloud using Amazon Web Services with Elasticsearch. This is the same type of setup…