Last August, Automattic acquired Parka, LLC, the makers of the BruteProtect security tool for WordPress, with the goal of integrating its features into Jetpack. The services provided in BruteProtect Pro were subsequently offered for free. Jetpack 3.4 was released today with brute force protection available to users via a new module called Protect. You can…
Tidy Repo has been pumping out WordPress plugin reviews since 2013. Today co-owners Jay Hoffman and and Jack McConnell are branching out to launch a new service that helps customers find a plugin for a $35 fee. The Tidy Repo plugin recommendation service is the first of its kind. With more than 36,000 plugins listed…
Ultimate Member is the newest plugin to join the ranks of WordPress membership solutions after seven months in development. One month after landing in the WordPress.org directory, the plugin is already active on more than 2,000 WordPress sites and has received a 5-star rating from 73/75 reviewers. The WordPress ecosystem is flush with both free…
When a critical security vulnerability was discovered in Yoast’s SEO plugin this week, WordPress.org took the initiative to automatically update users’ sites with the patched version of the plugin. Many users were taken by surprise, given that the WordPress codex clearly stated that automatic plugin and theme updates are disabled by default. Shortly after the…
Easy Digital Downloads 2.3 is available for download and includes new features along with performance improvements. One of the highlights is the new customer management interface. The improved interface lets you quickly browse customer data in an intuitive fashion. There’s also some new API’s that allow developers to interact with customer data behind the scenes.…
Akismet 3.1 is available for download and contains a bug fix that prevents it from inadvertently modifying a comment’s content during the spam filtering process. In addition to the bug fix, calls made to the Akismet API are now encrypted via SSL. While it may not seem like much on the surface, encrypting communications between…
Finding and linking to previously published content on your site is a daily necessity for bloggers and content managers. Usually, you have to search the frontend of your site or search posts/pages in the admin to track down the content you’re trying to link. Mentionable is a handy tool, created by the folks at XWP,…
Version 2.6.5 of the popular Antispam Bee plugin is out today with a new feature that allows administrators to trust commenters with a Gravatar. The idea for the function was suggested by Caspar Hübinger, a long-time user of the plugin. “Have you ever seen a spam comment with a Gravatar image? I haven’t,” Hübinger said…
In November 2014, Onename announced that it would be extending its Openname protocol to support decentralized authentication. The company also open sourced the protocol and directory software so that developers can build their own infrastructure with it. We believe the future of identity will be decentralized, and for any identity system to be truly decentralized,…
Ninja Forms 2.9 is available and features an improved user experience along with major performance enhancements. One of the biggest performance problems 2.9 solves is handling large forms. Prior to 2.9, users had to edit a php.ini file to handle the increased amount of server resources needed to process long forms, something many shared webhosts…
The WordPress.org Meta team is on a roll this month. Following the successful launch of the new theme directory, the plugin directory is getting the same treatment with a fresh coat of paint and a set of brand new features. Browsing the official plugin directory is now similar to searching via the admin plugin browser.…
Last month, we polled our readers to find out how many use the sticky posts feature in WordPress. Out of 322 votes, 66% said no while 34% said yes. [poll id=”56″] Use cases included, featuring content in a slider, portfolio sites, and using it on a directory site. For those who sticky one post at…
Chris Wiegman, the creator of Better WP Security, has announced that he’s moved on from iThemes to join 10up. In late 2013, iThemes acquired Better WP Security and changed its name to iThemes Security. As part of the deal, Wiegman was brought on board to continue developing the plugin. Wiegman Moves From Products Back to…
SIDEKICK has announced that its voice-guided WordPress training video plugin now supports WordPress Multisite. According to SIDEKICK Co-founder, Ben Fox, WordPress Multisite has been one of the most requested features from users. Users can now: Easily auto activate your SIDEKICK license across all sites on your network Set a Walkthrough to auto-start the first time…
After years of creating new content, changing themes, and adding and removing plugins, a WordPress installation can become littered with unused, orphaned, and duplicated data. Not every plugin properly extricates itself and its data from your site when you uninstall. Lester Chan‘s new WP Sweep plugin was designed to perform housekeeping on WordPress installations. Chan…