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This week’s round-up of WordPress news, views and reviews summarized in our daily email newsletter, The WhiP.
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Friday, May 1
Women in WordPress
(WordPress News)
On this week’s episode of WPWeekly, Rebbeca Gill, Jennifer Bourn, and Carrie Dils stop by to discuss women in WordPress, women in tech, as well as other casual topics.”I think having mentors is really valuable. If I was just starting off, I’d try to find a company or agency that had experienced people to offer code review and help me grow my skills. It’s also incredibly valuable to contribute to other people’s projects if you can — that’s how I’ve learned from and met a lot of great developers in this community.” The latest in Pagely’s 8 Questions series features Devin Price who runs WP Theming.
There’s a lot coming in WordPress 4.3, which will focus on the mobile experience, admin UI, better passwords and customizer improvements.
The Right Time
(Opinion)
The real issue with ThemeForest is that its themes are poorly coded and it’s hurting the WordPress community, according to developer Brandon Yanofsky.
These are the social media accounts you need to follow to learn about WordPress.
Chris Lema explains when it’s the right time to upgrade your $500 website.
Tom McFarlin is giving away a free copy of WP Pusher, a service that offers pain-free deployment of WordPress themes and plugins directly from GitHub.
If I May Be So Bold
(Themes and Plugins)
Restrict Content Pro 2.1 is out and includes Stripe, PayPal Express, and PayPal Pro payment gateways in core, as well as well as an improved registration form, settings screen and installation process.
Toivo is a bold new minimalist themes for blogs and businesses that looks great on mobile.
The Best WordPress Plugins Ever Created Since the Dawn of Time (How’s that for an OTT title!)
Statistically Speaking
(Tutorials, Tips and Tricks)
Everything You Need to Know About Translating WordPress Plugins(WPMU DEV).
How to Restore the Link Title Attribute Removed in WordPress 4.2 (WP Tavern).
How to Limit Comment Length in WordPress (WP Beginner).
Is your WordPress website “mobile friendly” to Google? (AppPresser).
How To Use Stats To Sell Your Clients On WordPress (Conductor).
How Much Wood Could a Wood Chop Chop?
(Off-Topic, Random Stuff)
How a wood splitting axe almost destroyed GPS technology in its early days.Here’s a distracting game about cells and survival and that kind of thing.
All the best for a thoughtful and productive Friday and a relaxing weekend.
Monday, May 4
Let’s #talkpay
(WordPress News)
How much do you earn? Are you willing to share it? A Pittsburgh-based software developer has started off the #talkpay hashtag, encouraging others to share their job title and how much they earn. But not everyone feels comfortable sharing their salary. So UI/UX designer Ahmad Awais is inviting people in WordPress to add to an anonymous spreadsheet.Meet Csaba Kissi, a 41-year-old web developer from Slovakia, and thebrains behind WPSpeedster.
Belgrade’s first WordCamp sold out and organizers are planning to double the number of attendees next year. (The amazing food at the event sure beats the boring sandwiches at some WordCamps!)
On this week’s episode of DradCast, the guys talk to Sam Hotchkiss, whose distributed brute force attack protection tool BruteProtect was acquired by Automattic last year, and him along with it.
Here’s the story behind ThemeIsle and what it takes to build a successful premium theme shop.
WordPress.com is no longer accepting theme submissions from new sellers.
It Depends
(Opinion)
Is there a market for premium Genesis themes? Developer Carrie Dils, who works exclusively with the framework, says “it depends.”
We Built This City
(Themes and Plugins)
Here’s how to build an awesome website for a band or musician, along withall the plugins to help you do it.
Tom McFarlin’s theme Mayer is up for sale if you’re interested in taking it over. The theme has been available on WordPress.com for the past year.
Ah, the age-old questions: Free or premium themes? Elegant Themes has a go at answering it.
What’s New Pussy Cat
(Tutorials, Tips and Tricks)
How to Display Code on Your WordPress Website the Proper Way (WPMU DEV).
Using Nonces to Strengthen WordPress Security (WPMU DEV).
What’s New With the Customizer (OttoPress).
Moving WordPress: Moving a Multisite Network (tuts+).
How to Restore the Missing Link Title Field in WordPress 4.2 (WP Beginner).
Local SEO: How Should You Approach It? (Elegant Themes).
Secret Sauce
(Off-Topic, Random Stuff)
Lastly, here are some fantastic words with no easy translation in other other languages.If you haven’t read this already, check out how Slack stole the team chat app market with its surprisingly simple secret sauce.
All the best for a thoughtful and productive Monday.
Tuesday, May 5
Everything But the Kitchen Sink
(WordPress News)
Whether you agree or disagree with the WordPress Theme Review Team’s controversial decision to force developers to use the Theme Customizer for theme options, it’s here to stay. The team has scrambled to put together better documentation and the result is a canonical developer tutorial on the Customizer API in the official theme developer handbook.On the KitchensinkWP podcast this week, host Adam Silver answers listener questions about working with WordPress.
And on the latest episode of WPwatercooler, the folks discuss how you deal with pricing for clients you’ve had for a while.
WordCamp Miami organizers are introducing new “how to” tracks and mini-workshops for developers at this year’s event. More than 700 people are excited to attend the conference, which is one of the largest and longest running WordPress events in the US.
Cringe Worthy
(Opinion)
Here’s why WordPress is the ultimate platform for the self-employed.
Microsoft and Apple are finally embracing open source, despite their bottomless budgets. Why? Torque looks at why these huge companies may be following WordPress’ lead.
What do you call the backend of WordPress? Developer Tom McFarlin says he cringes when people use the phrase “the WordPress admin.”
Track and Field
(Themes and Plugins)
Here’s how to track your social metrics with the Social Metrics Trackerplugin.
And more tracking! Elegant Themes has rounded up 40 social media analytics tools for WordPress.
Pros and Cons
(Tutorials, Tips and Tricks)
Optimizing Images with WP Smush (Pro, Cons, and Alternatives) (WP Beginner).
Using wp_cron (or “How to cron a cron that’s not really a cron”)(WebDevStudios).
Theme Options – The Customizer API (WordPress.org).
How to Build WordPress Sites Instantly with WP Beaver Builder (WP Kube).
5 Top Ways to Make Money from Your Blog (WP Mayor).
Favorite Jams
(Off-Topic, Random Stuff)
If you’re 33 or older, you will probably never listen to new music again.Here are 20 snippets for things you never thought were possible with CSS.
All the best for an awesome Tuesday.
Wednesday, May 6
Let’s Talk About the Problem
(WordPress News)
If you’ve ever used a hosting panel, you’ve certainly come across cPanel and Plesk, the top two options. Now developer Dan Griffiths wants to add a third contender: HostPress. His product is an open-source, extensible server control panel built on top of WordPress. But developing it doesn’t come cheap: Dan has launched a $175k crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo in a bid to get his project off the ground. So far he’s raised $910.BuddyPress 2.3 will introduce companion stylesheets for WordPress default themes.
Sorry for the Trouble
(Opinion)
“I’m still sorry for the trouble of some users. We get positive feedback but also very frustrated feedback and I can understand this users a lot… I think it is really frustrating, that our movement and rewrites for better wordpress.org themes makes them go. We push them to themeforest with our decisions.” Theme shop Themekraft isn’t getting much love from its users after migrating from a custom theme options page to the WordPress theme customizer. CEO Sven Lehnert writes about how difficult the move has been and the resulting user frustration.
Delicious Panino
(Themes and Plugins)
Say hello to Panino, our colorful new cafe-inspired one-pager theme for Upfront. It’s cool!
OptinMonster, the optin plugin by WP Beginner’s Syed Balkhi, is going SaaS and can now be used on any platform, not just WordPress. Syed says the move in an effort to cater for more hosting environments, and no doubt to make more $.
BackupBuddy 6.0 is out and includes deployment in beta and Google Drive integration.
Admin Menu Manager is a new plugin that allows you to take control of the WordPress admin and order menu items to suit your workflow using drag and drop.
PressChat is a new app that allows you to talk WordPress with other folks, add photos, and check in at WordPress events.
On the Conductor blog, here are five plugins you may not have heard about yet, including Conductor, of course. (Though why would you be on the Conductor blog if you’ve never heard about it?)
Users Just Wanna Have Fun
(Tutorials, Tips and Tricks)
Polishing the WordPress Customizer Experience (WP Shout).
Accessibility, Part 1: Introduction (tuts+).
How To Set Up WordPress With DesktopServer (WP Mayor).
Ultimate Guide to WordPress e-Commerce: Settings (Torque).
Browser Testing Is No Fun, But These Tools Will Help Make Your Life Easier (Elegant Themes).
How to Set Up a WordPress Staging Site with BackupBuddy Deployment(iThemes).
The Empire of Chrome
(Off-Topic, Random Stuff)
Here’s a great infographic at Hongkiat that illustrates how Chrome has taken over the world.
All the best for a thoughtful and productive Wednesday.
Thursday, May 7
Who’s the Boss
(WordPress News)
WordPress 4.2.2 is out. It’s a critical security release and if you haven’t updated your WordPress install yet, do it now. The release fixes a couple of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.
WP Tavern is reporting that Jetpack and the Twenty Fifteen default theme have been updated after they were discovered to contain the cross-site scripting vulnerability. According to Sucuri, any plugin or theme that uses Genericons is vulnerable due to an insecure file included within the package.
“BuddyPress blew me away… It allowed for a sophisticated and fully customizable membership site while still benefiting from the WordPress ecosystem. We launched our online community almost overnight, and a year later 30,000 people were logging in every day and hiring each other.” BuddyBoss founder Michael Eisenwasser talks to WP Tavern aboutworking exclusively with the social networking plugin.
If you think WordPress is insecure, doesn’t scale or is not OOP (but let’s face it, if you’re reading this newsletter you’re a WordPress convert!), then you may want to check our core developer Andrew Nacin’s talk on challenging WordPress assumptions. He spoke at the php[world] 2014 conference and his video is now on YouTube.
Last Ninja
(Opinion)
From humble beginnings working on the Tandy TRS-80 model 100 and the Commodore 64, to “living as a sort of vagabond, doing odd jobs as I could and sleeping wherever I found shelter,” Dan Griffiths’ life completely changed when he stumbled across Easy Digital Downloads.Vova Feldman, who developed Rating-Widget writes about how heincreased the plugin’s five-star reviews by 700%. (TL;DR: It all comes down to just being nice)
Better Git Used to It
(Themes and Plugins)
There have been a lot of updates to WordPress recently and if you’re a plugin developer you’ve probably been busy! WebDevStudios explains how to use Git to test and update plugins for WordPress 4.2.
MyMail is an all-in-one email marketing plugin that lets you control your entire email marketing campaign from the backend of WordPress. Here’s a fairly comprehensive review on the Envato Market blog.
Brute Struggle
(Tutorials, Tips and Tricks)
Adding Premium Upgrades to Your Multisite Network with Pro Sites (WPMU DEV).
Adding a Microblog With Your WordPress Blog (Torque).
WordPress Categories & Tags: Are They Actually Necessary and How Should You Use Them? (WP Kube).
How to Add the New Facebook Page Plugin in WordPress (WP Beginner).
Customizer: How to Save Image (Media) Data (Justin Tadlock).
How To Protect WordPress From Brute Force Attacks (Pagely).
Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat
(Off-Topic, Random Stuff)
The Airbnb site is such a pleasure to use (and, of course, the resulting holidays aren’t too bad either!). Here’s a look at nine hidden users experience gems Airbnb uses to entice people to take a break.
All the best for a thoughtful and productive Thursday.
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