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Google’s Anti-Spam Strategy: No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA

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Community, Featured

Published

December 30, 2014

23 Comments

If you’ve spent any amount of time online, it’s likely you’ve been asked to solve a CAPTCHA to verify you are, in fact, a human – this is the awkward-looking, distorted text you have to squint really hard at to solve! And, if you’re anything like me, you probably fail this test more often than not. Google is in a catch-22 situation, really: We all hate CAPTCHA, but we hate spam more. Without CAPTCHAs the Internet would be rife with bots spamming and stealing data from websites. CAPTCHAs aren’t perfect, but they’re an extra anti-spam measure, and a small price to […]

The WordPress template hierarchy explained

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Published

December 29, 2014

6 Comments

What exactly is the WordPress template hierarchy? Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? Don’t worry, it really isn’t that hard to understand. In short: The template hierarchy for WordPress determines which template file the CMS will use to render each page of your website. Understood? Cool, then I guess my work is done here. I’m going back to browsing funny cat memes right away. Then again, since I have a entire afternoon to fill, how about we dive a little deeper into the topic? You know, maybe learn a thing or two. Sound good? Ok, then let’s start from the top. What are templates? […]

Improved WordPress Front-End AJAX Processing

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December 26, 2014

6 Comments

The “standard” way of processing AJAX requests in WordPress involves using WordPress’ admin AJAX API — whether you’re actually working in the admin or not. For front-end use of AJAX, especially on high-traffic sites, repurposing the admin AJAX API is not a great option. The 10up Engineering Best Practices provides a good breakdown as to why using admin AJAX for the front-end is not a good idea. It points out that using WordPress’ admin AJAX API causes the WordPress admin to be fully bootstrapped and has no built-in caching. For its intended purpose — running the WordPress backend — this […]

Which WordPress events will you attend in 2015?

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Community, Events, Featured

Published

December 23, 2014

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WordPress really is an amazing platform, with a huge wealth of online information to help newbie users quickly become competent — there are a number of great resources out there, including the one you’re reading now! As great as the online material is, nothing beats attending a WordPress event, though. Not only do you get a rare opportunity to learn from the industry leaders in person, but you also get the chance to meet and collaborate with like-minded people. This makes them great places to learn the information needed to become a proficient WordPress user, launch a WordPress-related business, or […]

Jetpack alternatives for WordPress: 45+ plugins to get the features without the bloat

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Published

December 22, 2014

15 Comments

Is there an alternative to Jetpack? Since the plugin by WordPress.com is one of my all-time favorites, this is a hard question to ask for me. I’m such a fan, I even wrote an article about it a while back highlighting how amazing it is. Since Jetpack is not so much one plugin as a collection of 30 powerful features, it can can greatly enhance the capabilities of any WordPress website. Also, everything contained in the plugin stack has been test driven on thousands of WordPress.com sites and is therefore sure to be top-notch quality. On the other hand, very few […]

A Review of WordPress 4.1

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Published

December 19, 2014

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After a few days delay, WordPress 4.1 finally arrived. Named “Dinah” after jazz singer Dinah Washington, WordPress 4.1 is the first “minor” release after WordPress 4.0 landed in September. Many of the features added in 4.0 have been improved, and there are some brand new functions, too. Today I want to introduce to you the main changes made to the WordPress platform in 4.1, and to share my thoughts on them. Twenty Fifteen Theme Of course, the main new feature in WordPress 4.1 is the brand new default theme, Twenty Fifteen. In my opinion, it is a huge improvement on […]

Writing about WordPress: Helping yourself by empowering others

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Published

December 17, 2014

2 Comments

Last year, when I attended WordCamp Orlando, I didn’t know anyone in the community, and nobody knew me. At that time, I made it a goal to become a speaker the following year. This year at WordCamp Orlando, not only was I a speaker, but I also knew a lot of the people in the community, and a lot of people either knew me or have read my articles. More importantly, while I was just getting started last year at this time, now I can say that I’ve been published all over the place: I’ve written plugins, contributed to core, […]

100 WordPress Influencers to Follow in 2015

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Community, Featured

Published

December 17, 2014

51 Comments

2015 is looming near, and there are a lot of expectations from the new WordPress releases in the pipeline. With the ever-increasing popularity and demand, it is anticipated that the year 2015 will see a complete overhaul in the WordPress ecosystem, with WordPress becoming a truly responsive application framework. Surely, there will be progress on the core coding practices, with new plugins and themes being developed by the core development team. Three people who inspired us all with their unrelenting and untiring efforts to make WordPress a huge success in 2014 are: Andrew Nacin (Lead for WordPress 3.9) Helen Hou-Sandi […]

Interview with Vladimir Prelovac

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Published

December 16, 2014

3 Comments

The growing number of plugins is part of what makes WordPress so appealing. There’s literally a WordPress plugin for everything; from contact forms, to security, to holiday snow. That being said, entering into the world of WordPress plugins may be challenging, particularly if you haven’t already established yourself as a leading plugin author. Today, Vladimir Prelovac, the brains behind ManageWP, announced the release of the Plugin Discovery Tool on ManageWP.org, a tool that will increase the discoverability of new plugins and plugin authors. Torque reached out to Vladimir Prelovac to learn more about his journey, his new plugin discovery tool, and future initiatives for ManageWP. Torque: […]

13 Holiday Plugins for WordPress

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Published

December 16, 2014

5 Comments

The holidays are fast approaching and that can mean only one thing: presents, food, and, wait for it, holiday decorations! As someone who spends a lot of my time online, I firmly believe that your house isn’t the only thing worth turning into a festive wonderland. In case you haven’t noticed, many websites have been given a Christmas spruce up in time for the holidays — and so should you. Wishing your audience a merry Christmas and a happy new year is a great way to show them you care. In my opinion, it’s a really nice touch. Best of all, […]

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