MainWP Blog - Tips & Tricks

Two major, well-known WordPress plugins have recently implemented certain changes which have not gone down well with the WordPress community. Jetpack in version 7.1, made a change with Jetpack active when you go to /wp-admin/ Plugins > Add New If a Jetpack module has similar features to the plugin keyword you are searching for, the first result will be the Jetpack module. The Jetpack PR shows the original proof of concept of the plugin suggestion feature. If you already have Continue reading the post...

If you use MainWP for managing your child sites, you already have a way to update plugins, themes, and push different code changes to those sites without having to deal with multisite performance issues. Multisite allows many subsites to share common plugins and themes. In addition, all sites will end up sharing the same database and server resources. The downside to sharing database and server resources will be explained later. Multisite only database tables wp_site wp_sitemeta wp_blogs wp_blogmeta – New Continue reading the post...

REM and non-REM sleep play an important, ongoing role in both physical and cognitive development. A person goes through 4 or 5 sleep cycles throughout sleep, which involve gradual descent into deeper stages. Each stage takes around 90 minutes. Most people are familiar with the movie, “Inception,” and how in the person (or “architect’s”) dream, they delved deeper and deeper into dreams within dreams. The first stage is called slow-wave REM sleep, or the emergent stage, and marks a new Continue reading the post...

If you are using the Social Warfare plugin on any child sites (including the pro version of the plugin), deactivate the plugin on any child sites and wait for an update to be released. Wordfence has more about the issue in the plugin, which states that it is a stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability.  Sucuri also put out a post about the specific issue. Wordfence has updated the original post to include more information about the attack and what exactly Continue reading the post...

If you are using the plugin Easy WP SMTP for sending site emails using SMTP, make sure that you update to version 1.3.9.1. Do not delay updating any of your child sites, as using the unfixed version of the plugin gives your child site a high chance of being hacked. For more information about the critical zero-day vulnerability issue in Easy WP SMTP plugin, you can read this post. WPScan also has more information. The hack will take the form Continue reading the post...

When installed, WordPress will add a number of files which can be safely deleted on any of your child sites. The first of those files is readme.html, which is an information HTML file as part of the famous 5-minute install of WordPress manually. The second of those files is wp-config-sample.php, which is an example of the wp-config.php file, which contains all the site’s database credentials and its salts, along with any constants being used. Remember not to delete the wp-config.php Continue reading the post...

Convesio is one of the newer options for hosting your MainWP Child sites. After you have created your account from an invitation link via email, you should be able to sign into the account. Click on the New Site button, and then select which version of WordPress, PHP version and location. The default for a new site is WordPress 5.1, PHP 7.2 and the location should be the United States. Follow the regular WordPress install screen to create the admin Continue reading the post...

You may have heard the term Black Box spoken in relation to Facebook or Google. Black Box is unclear in how it works, and it is not open as to how it is actually using your data. ProPublica have published a number of articles about various companies’ black boxes. These articles have touched on how black boxes work and what is being used to determine the results. The use of Black boxes can lead to machine bias. Machine bias is Continue reading the post...

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” ~ HAL900, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Artificial Intelligence has long moved past something that existed only in sci-fi films and books. One of the biggest technology growth areas is AI, with many options that can be used on your child sites to either recommend content, to customers, or using AI to power a chat bot on site, which will give intelligent answers based on the customer’s questions. IBM is one Continue reading the post...

While we strive for excellence in our professions, mistakes are a part of who we are. We err so we can learn. Creating a checklist focuses the mind on the most important characteristics of our tasks, which helps us to overcome our mistakes. It takes practice to produce and use checklists effectively, but when we do, the benefit us tremendously. Checklists help people communicate and work together better and help organizations to be better prepared for unexpected occurrences. The value Continue reading the post...