WordPress Comment Spam
We received no reports of issues and did not notice an increase in spam comments this week during our test removal of one of the several comment spam measures we use in WordPress, so we’ve decided to leave the one we removed on Monday turned off.
WordPress Plugin and Theme Removals
We have removed the OnSwipe plugin, which was no longer getting updated. This plugin created a tablet view of a blog for non-responsive themes. If you still need this functionality, you can switch to one of our responsive themes, like any of the “Twenty” series or enable the WPtouch plugin.
We have also removed the JournalCrunch theme, which was no longer getting updated and was not being used by any sites.
Additionally, the Magazeen, colorpaper, Blogtheme, Bueno, Monotone, and Mystique themes were disabled, but not removed. Sites using one of these themes will still be using it, but the themes cannot be enabled on any new sites. Sites using these themes are encouraged to switch.
In each of these cases, the theme or plugin is using an old, common program to generate thumbnail images that has had issues in the past. Moving away from this script will help improve the availability and responsiveness of our WordPress service.
Updates
- WordPress Cryout Serious Theme Settings 0.5.7
- WordPress Genesis framework 2.3.1
- WordPress Hueman theme 3.1.7
- WordPress Jetpack 4.2.2
- WordPress Parabola theme 1.8.0
- WordPress Responsive theme 1.9.8.9
- WordPress Social Icons Widget by WPZOOM 2.2.0
- WordPress WPtouch 4.2.4
Fixes and Tweaks
- The Course Hub will now check to see if you have Panopto content before allowing you to delete a Panopto Resource from your course. You will need to delete the videos in Panopto before removing the resource.
- Fixed various widths and margins in the CCI WordPress theme sidebar. [From our colleagues in College Communications].