In today’s MainWP Roundup, we take a look at WordPress Veteran Spotlights at WP Connects, Plugin news, Notable WordPress News and the Atarim Web Agency Summit.
WP Connects rolls out featured WordPress Veteran Spotlights
We introduced you to WP Connects and Talisha? last year, an organization who helps military veterans connect with the WordPress workforce.
With the help of Sophia DeRosia, WP Connects rolled out Veteran WP spotlights.
The first veteran, Scott Dluzio, was introduced on January 30, 2023.
Since then WP Connects have featured three more veterans in the WordPress space. The most recent spotlight was published on March 31s and features Edmund Dunn.
Plugins plug-ins
WP Engine has released a pattern manager plugin. In the age of Gutenberg and Full Site Editor, for those who use them, patterns are almost like having plugins. There are starting to be options for finding patterns and that is a good thing.
WS Forms has recently added an integration for Airtable. I don’t recall anyone else doing this before and it will be a great option for those already using WS Forms as well as those who use Airtable.
WS Forms already has over 70 integrations and this is a powerful new feature.
Plugin pricing practices.
Developer Rob Howard decided to look at WordPress pricing pages and he shared his results in March.
As he explained, at the time of his initial article last year, there were some complaints:
“…plugin creators were accusing each other of using “fictitious” pricing — for example, advertising a sale that is not really a sale, or advertising a markdown, such as “Previously $999” crossed out with a strikethrough, when the product is never in fact sold at the higher price.”
Curse the “strikethrough of the higher price” tactic!
He took over 203 screenshots of pricing pages and compiled them on a public GitHub repo.
Howard raises issues with legality, good and fair practices as well as WordPress guidelines.
They all are tricky as everyone has their own interpretations and legalities vary from country to country.
I think Howard is right in that we should have higher standards.
“I believe that the WordPress community should have higher standards for how our friends and peers behave — we’re all supposed to be working toward an open future for the web. “
We should always strive to have higher standards.
What do you think?
Do you question the pricing practices of some plugins?
Notable WordPress News
The maker of iThemes security has rebranded. They are now calling themselves SolidWP (also the name of a host). The move is to more closely identify with their leadership in security and provide a secure foundation for WordPress site owners.
“However, in recent years, iThemes has solidified its role as a reliable leader in WordPress security, backups, site maintenance, and training. With that in mind, iThemes is becoming SolidWP.”
Time will tell if this works out well for the new brand.
WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy”
As you well know, WordPress 6.2 is out.
Matt Mullenweg explains the namesake in the news release,
“Say hello to WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy,” named for the woodwind jazz wiz, the multi-instrumentalist—Eric Allan Dolphy Jr. Dolphy is acclaimed for having brought the bass clarinet to prominence in the jazz scene, creating a place for the flute and extending the lexicon of the alto saxophone. In a career that spanned continents, his artistry was at the forefront of pushing improvisational boundaries, ensemble work, and partnerships with well-respected artists like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane.” Source
This release enhances block editing features. MainWP’s Sebastian Moran wrote an article about some bug fixes for a couple of themes and one plugin.
Navigating the New Era of AI-Assisted Code Generation in WordPress
Navigating the New Era of AI-Assisted Code Generation in WordPress
Sarah Gooding dissects the issue of using ChatGPT to write code in this article at WP Tavern.
How does it affect WordPress users who create plugins.
She rightly explains the issues with where ChatGPT gets the code it uses to write the plugin. Another issue is how that affects the plugin if you host it in the WordPress repository.
Gooding summarized a warning to developers from Plugin Review Team rep Mika Epstein said. Apparently there is no guideline against using code generated by ChatGPT, but you are responsible for where the code comes from.
Mika gave an example,
“Epstein cited an example where a developer built a ‘scroll to top’ plugin with code that was copied from another, existing plugin hosted on WordPress.org. It was submitted five times and rejected every time.”
As Gooding concludes, “…it’s not too early to establish some best practices for using code generators.”
Let’s all see how this plays out.
Have you created a plugin using ChatGPT?
Atarim Web Agency Summit
The Atarim Web Agency Summit is back. The summit, which is virtual, takes place April 25th-28th.
Several from the MainWP ecosystem will be a part either speaking or sponsoring, or hosting a social hour (hello, me!).
This year’s summit has a festival vibe as Atarim opted for bright colors.
The ticket to attend is free, but there are options to upgrade to get on demand access to the summit content.
Wrapping it up
Will you be attending the Atarim Web Agency Summit? It’s a great place to hear good content and meet fellow WordPress entrepreneurs.
Let us know in the MainWP Users Facebook Group.
