Summary: Overall, thumbs up for excellent value. I would choose HostMantis again. Not perfect, but at the low price I was not expecting perfection.
Rambling thoughts about WordPress
WordPress dot com is Decadent and Depraved
I love WP dot org. But its sibling WP dot com – I have never understood the appeal. And now I have strong reason to dislike and distrust it. Like so much of the radical left Silicon Valley elite, the People in Charge (PIC) at WP dot com are fundamentally evil and viciously anti-American – and have gone out of their way to prove it. Read more WordPress dot com is Decadent and Depraved
Contact Form Conundrums
When I first installed a contact form plugin I went with the most popular- Contact Form 7. Contact Form 7 is very popular for good reasons, it is very capable and full-featured. Just a bit complex for me. I just need a simple contact form.
WP Update Double Debacle
The good people at WordPress issued the WP version 5.5.2 Security and Maintenance Release on October 29. Then, just one day later, issued version 5.5.3 Emergency Release. The Emergency Release corrects a flaw in the Maintenance release that made it very difficult to install WordPress on a new website. How the flaw escaped detection during pre-release testing has not been explained – at least that I can find. Read more WP Update Double Debacle
Cloudflare APO
Cloudflare announced its new Automatic Platform Optimization (APO) service for WordPress sites on October 2, 2020. APO promises to accelerate the speed of WP sites by smart-caching of HTML. By default, Cloudflare caches only ‘static’ content such as CSS, JavaScript, and images, but not HTML. A great thing about the new APO service – it is free if my site is hosted on WordPress.com, and no-additional-cost if I am on a Cloudflare paid plan. Read more Cloudflare APO
Argh! So many admin emails!
The new WP feature to more easily auto-update themes and plugins is working fine for me. But … WP sends me an email every time any of my sites auto-updates anything. I have around a dozen sites, each with a bunch of plugins that get updated frequently, so I’ve been getting *lots* of admin emails. WP core doesn’t provide a way to turn off these emails. Fortunately there are a couple of ways to do this. Read more Argh! So many admin emails!
Parting thoughts on MDD Hosting, first impressions of HostMantis
Summary: MDD is awesome but price increase is a bit much for me. HostMantis has been great so far.
Read more Parting thoughts on MDD Hosting, first impressions of HostMantis
WP Native Support for Sitemaps is Coming!
As was the case with planned theme and plugin auto-update functionality, the WP hype machine is full speed ahead touting the revolutionary planned Native Support for XML Sitemaps in WP 5.5 ! Examples: here, and here, and here.
And … *yawn*.
Migrating Websites 2 – Nuts and Bolts
Migrating websites is a chore. For me, it requires actions on my old host, old WP admin, new host, new WP admin, and Cloudflare. The individual actions – with one or two exceptions – are not terribly difficult or complicated, but have to be done just right and in just the right order to keep things from going haywire. My last post gave the background of my current migration effort. This post covers the nuts and bolts.
Migrating Websites
Ugh. Migrating my websites again. This time from MDDHosting to HostMantis.
Are free domains worth it?
Generally, no. Think about it – how is giving away free domains a sustainable business model? But there are exceptions. I’ve been using a free domain, mostly successfully, since 2015.
WHOISn’t
In another blow to Internet freedom, the diabolically evil GDPR marked the beginning of the end for traditional WHOIS.
WP 5.6 Release Squad to be All Women
WordPress Plans All-Women Release Squad for 5.6.
Yep. No one who identifies as having a penis need apply. Also no non-binaries. Presumably gender-fluid people are tolerated, but only during moments when their identity matches the only permitted state, in other moments they must be excluded. And what about people transitioning from one gender to another? WP is silent on this.
I have to believe this is a monumentally misguided (i.e. indescribably stupid) initiative that will be corrected, that WP has not suddenly become as viciously, hatefully non-inclusive as this suggests to any reasonable unbiased observer.
Cloudflare Firewall Rules for WordPress: JS Challenge
Rule 1: Allow Good Bots | Rule 2: Block Potentially Malicious Requests | Rule 3: Block Bad Bots | Rule 4: JS Challenge
In some cases I want to keep bots off a page, but I don’t want to block or unduly inconvenience humans. A JavaScript challenge will display an interstitial page for about five seconds while Cloudflare performs a magical check to verify the visitor is human. Suspected bots will be served a Captcha.
Read more Cloudflare Firewall Rules for WordPress: JS Challenge
Cloudflare Firewall Rules for WordPress: Block Bad Bots
Rule 1: Allow Good Bots | Rule 2: Block Potentially Malicious Requests | Rule 3: Block Bad Bots | Rule 4: JS Challenge
Good bots are whitelisted by Rule 1. Some bad bots will be blocked by Rule 2. I’d like Rule 3 to block *all* remaining bots, but that isn’t possible as far as I know. I’ll block as many as I can.
Read more Cloudflare Firewall Rules for WordPress: Block Bad Bots
