[Benjamin]

North Dakota is having a bit of a storm. 65mph winds combined with a negative temperature of 20 below zero have caused both power and water issues. Internet became unstable yesterday evening/night and therefore I wasn't able to write my update note. I'll work on getting that out today. (posting from phone)

[Benjamin]

Thanks for everyone who has reached out. Monday is a very busy teaching day, so this afternoon I'll write a longer update and look ahead at what is possible with WPStudio training AND Plugin/Theme updates.

[Benjamin]

I'm still alive. I'll be sharing an update this weekend. 12-14 hours a day in a harsh and remote native American reservation has been extremely enjoyable BUT extremely exhausting. More information to come...

[Benjamin]

I'm working on recreating the situation to figure out if I can get to the bottom of the issue.

[Benjamin]

Initial fork from the Justin Tadlock's Members plugin and removal of the MemberPress advertising.

v4.2.0

• Documentation
• Optimization
• Bug fixes

v4.1.0

• Fixed Gutenberg Widget area for the permission box disappearance

v4.0.3

• Removed the "upgrade" scripts from the block editor controls.
• Cleaned up code

v4.0.2

• Updated documentation
• Fixed the "nag-thanks" bug from prior version
• Modified the admin menu options and pushed the "Addons" to the settings area.

v.4.0.1

• Update documentation panel

[Benjamin]

I still use Mailgun on a few sites.

I use Amazon SES on a few others.

And recently I've been using Zoho's transactional service "ZeptoMail" - Basically, I can spread out 10,000 emails over as many sites as I want for $1.75 every six months. (30% off discount for Zoho Mail users) I realized that less than $4 per year was worth not dealing with SMTP hassles. Maybe I should do another webinar on SMTP options.

[Benjamin]

My suggestion will almost always be, use what tool that enables you to do your business the way you do your business. If you need check registers and that is important, then use the tool that provides you the feature that utilizes that feature.

I was recently talking with my parents-in-law and for the past few years they have been "snow-birding" in Arizona in a nice trailer. But they have mentioned that they really miss baths. So, I encouraged them that if a bathtub is something they value they should look into replacing their shower with an RV tub.

Life is too short to simply "put up with something". If you have the means and ability, choose the tools that give you the functionality that you desire.

[Benjamin]

I've got a solution and will post it later today.

[Benjamin]

Good point Hugh... it seems that as much as Automattic is "trying" to improve the block editor they can't seem to stop 'stepping in it' when it comes to rolling out updates. The widgets area needed to be left alone and if they want FSE (full-site-editing) they wouldn't be using the "widgets / sidebars" anyway, it would just all "be on the page".

It's a good reminder to turn off the block editor for widgets now AND also to be prepared to turn it off for menus that are coming next because the block editor is already screwing up any menu that has any type of addon/mega menu/extensions/hooks etc. Basically if you have a search option in your menu, you add icons to menus, you use custom css classes for menus, use dynamic logic to show/hide menus, have any plugins extending the menu... all of that is borked in the tests of the next block editor invasion of the menu (in the beta versions of Gutenberg).

[Benjamin]

I know that many developers have been looking for "exits" after some of the directions with the "block editor" that Automattic has been forcing upon the WordPress ecosystem. The consolidations are crazy and I'm afraid are just going to cause prices to rise.

[Benjamin]

I agree with Hugh. Milan thanks for sharing. If I didn't have a grandfathered Fastmail account with unlimited domains I can assign addresses to... this MXroute would be a perfect solution for simple mail management across domains.

[Benjamin]

Added on September 10th, 2021

• Ultimate Addon for Beaver Builder - v1.33 - UPDATE
• SearchWP - v4.1.22 - UPDATE
• Themify Builder Pro - v2.1.8 - NEW
• Brizy Pro - v.2.3.12 - UPDATE

[Benjamin]

Name changed... new profile editor area for members is on the way.

[Benjamin]

Sandy,

I still use Zoho for the WPStudio email account. So I can recommend Zoho. There are other options:

• Google has the "Workspace" option to utilize Gmail on your domain
• Outlook/Microsoft365 also has an option for mail on custom domains.
• If you need just straight email and nothing else, Namecheap offers straight email hosting

Maybe others have different ideas.

[Benjamin]

One more thing about Zion Builder that I discovered. This is really the first page building solution that would allow me to write straight PHP into an "Element" giving incredible flexibility if needed. Now most of the time I'd probably be using hooks/filters but knowing that this is possible using the "Custom CODE" element in the Builder is pretty cool.

[Author]

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