Support Team Update for December 19th, 2013

Items discussed at today’s support portion for the #wordress-sfd meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area.:

WordPress 3.8 is another great update

Based on the forum topics it looks like WordPress 3.8 was well received and there were no show stoppers reported. It’s probably bad luck to say it but the last few releases have been really well received and successful.

As expected some users do not like the MP6 styled admin pages

Whenever the administration back end receives an update there is one or more vocal topics about that. Some of them have been just name calling and at least one of those topics was deleted. As long as the topic remains productive then that’s really therapeutic venting. Not everyone likes changes.

There are at least 2 plugins that let the users return to a WordPress 3.7 styled admin interface as a result.

Please keep an eye out for accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) topics

The a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) team was really quick to jump on this topic and that was resolved in very little time. There was initially some concern about the 3.8 admin pages having problems with adaptive technology but it all got sorted out.

If you see a topic requiring that team’s attention please tag that topic with “accessibility”.

SaaS plugins and their reviews

There has been an uptick in users leaving a review for plugins that are software as a service (SaaS). Those reviews aren’t about the plugins exactly but more along the lines of “I don’t like that company!” which by itself isn’t really a useful review. Just because a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party is SaaS doesn’t mean that the plugin violates the plugin guidelines.

Everyone should understand that if they don’t like the service then just don’t use the plugin.

If a moderator comes across an abusive SaaS review then please let the reviewer know that not liking a product does not give them permission to attack people. Please treat that review like an abusive post and tag the user.

That doesn’t mean reviews of the service is off limits if the plugin is just a gateway for the service. Then reviewing the service is fine.

Please be aware of the following 2 tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. items

Mika brought to the meetup’s attention the following trac items.

These can be major issues for effected users. The first one isn’t a 3.8 caused problem it’s part of an existing situation. There was some discussion about when/where this was seen and how it could be caused. Give the trac pages a good read for an explanation on each issue.

#support