coderchris.com

Recently I have been doing a LOT of research into various wordpress themes and plugins and as you may expect the code varies from the excellent to the dire, but in most cases each achieves what it is supposed to.

That said however I have been seeing an increasing number of dodgy/spammy plugins which would probably cause more harm than good to the blogs of people who blindly install them.

These plugins or themes generally suggest they are doing one thing, but are actually doing another, such as building networks of spam links or sending valuable infomration to third parties... not good!

Though I could name and shame these dodgy items here I don't really wish to suffer the wrath of the scum of the internet, so all I'll offer is a plain and simple warning:

BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE PLUGINS YOU INSTALL AND THE THEMES YOU USE

Check them out, make sure they're fit for purpose, if you don't have enough knowledge yourself to understand what the plugin is doing ask someone who does.

Let's face it, at the worst you could expose yourself to having all important server details sent to a third-party and at the least you may end up with a blog covered in spam content getting you blocked by the major search engines.  

A very simple example of a check anyone can perform is to look through the plugin/theme code and look for url's or email addresses that are not anything to do with you or the plugin/theme.

This simple check alone can help protect you against unwanted and potentially harmful disguised code.

Popularity: 87% [?]

I get a few hundred spam mails a day and though I cast a cursory eye over the subjects I never read them, choosing to junk pretty much everything there.

I don't know if it's just me, but there seems to be a notable change in the type of mails I am getting. 6 months or so ago and for the bulk of the time before that, 99% my spam was sexual, i.e. porn, viagra /callis, penis enlargement type emails. Things have been changing over the last few months however, and now everything seems to be finance related.

So it seems that in terms of general trends, and as you might expect, spam merchants seem to play on peoples insecurities, and the global credit crunch is probably to blame for this change.

Have you seen the same changes, or is it just me?

I wonder what the next lot will be? I bet it'll be something like cosmetic surgery...

Popularity: 5% [?]