Gazette Theme for WordPress

I’m really happy to report that I’ve never used any of the plugins mentioned in this report on my sites or any of my clients’ sites.

Thanks to WordFence for all the hard work they do investigating things like this. As the WP ecosystem grows, there are more people looking to swindle and make a cheap buck (or cause a cheap disruption) using WordPress sites as their launchpad, and it’s good to know folks like those at WordFence have our collective backs.

People targeting a technology is an issue with any and every tech platform, really. From Android to Windows to Linux to Bitcoin, and even precious Apple. It’s not unique to WordPress. But what is unique to WordPress are the millions of users and developers in the open source community that are dedicated to making sure WP is a safe and solid platform, and that scammers, spammers, and malicious malcontents are identified, frustrated, and ultimately squashed.* Hats off to all of them for helping to cut the legs off of schemes like this one.

Source: 9 WordPress Plugins Targeted in Coordinated 4.5-Year Spam Campaign

(*I realize that other technologies, like Linux, also have large open source communities looking out for the user community. I’m simply saying WP’s community is better. ;-) Come at me, Linux people!! I’m ready!!!**)

(**Please don’t actually come at me, Linux people. I’m really not very ready. I’m in the middle of a move, I’ve got a lot of organizing to do…you know how it is.)

TO: WordPress plugin developers

FROM: Lance Brown, 10-year WordPress user

CC: other CMS plugin/addon developers

SUBJECT: making us hunt for shortcodes

Dear Sirs and Madams:

Please don’t make us hunt for shortcodes or the “how to implement” aspect of your plugin.

Put them in the documentation, yes, but also put them right in the plugin interface (or settings page) if possible–or else provide a really handy link to them.

Thank you. I love your work.

[this is the shortcode for me e-hugging you right now]

You remember my post about how I love WordPress plugin people? In it, I mentioned the very cool phenomenon where one would randomly stumble upon some humble plugin author, and discover that said author has a whole page filled with eyebrow-raising plugins of every type. Stumbling onto such people with such pages, I said, was one of the experiences that helps open your eyes to the real vastness and variety of the WP plugin universe.

Witness: Christopher Ross, and his eyebrow-raising page of plugins.

I found Christopher when I found his External Link to New Window plugin, which makes all your links to external sites automatically open in a new window, so people also stay at your site when they visit links to other sites that you post. I’m glad I clicked through from the plugin search results and ended up at his actual site, or I wouldn’t have found the other 25 plugins he has created. And they are cool plugins. Check them out on his site where they have full descriptions and download links, or on his user page at WordPress.org, where you can see how (appropriately) popular his plugins are, and go right to their pages at that site. Then, if you install the WordPress.org One-Click Install Plugin ahead of time, you could install every one of Christopher’s plugins in probably 52 or 78 clicks. That might sound like a lot of clicks, but if you consider all the neato new tools and functions you’d be getting, and the fact that the total financial outlay would be $0.00, it’s a pretty amazing deal.

In fact it’s so amazing, that you should actually give Christopher some money, if you dig his plugins and have some money to spare for appreciation of them. (You can donate via PayPal right on his plugin page.) But even if you don’t/can’t, go check ’em out, and install 1 or 2 or 26 of them. If all goes well, you should feel a cool little rush, from the realization of all the possibilities that must be available in the world when things like Christopher’s huge page of free WordPress plugins exists.

Thank you, Christopher Ross! I love you and what you do, and have ordered my readers to love you as well.

Here are a couple other great plugins from Christopher’s big page:

Auto-Copyright – adds a copyright message to your footer that (here’s the brilliant part) automatically sets the date range based the dates of your earliest and most recent posts.

WordPress Admin Quick Menu – Add your own menu cluster on the side in the WP Dashboard area, with whatever links you want, including external sites (like Google Analytics maybe, or your other WP dashboards, or help pages for your clients…you get the idea.)

How about a fundraising thermometer? A frame blocker? A login redirect plugin? Those, and 20-odd more. All from one person.

This is why I love plugin people.

Thanks again, Christopher!