Conversation
supportHi Stoil, can you explain the reason why this plugin was suddenly removed from WordPress? I was wondering if there is a security issue that we should be aware of, and if we should immediately stop using the plugin. Thank you
Right after getting the plugin from sdobreff. Looks strange indeed.
I’d noticed that the new developer was maybe having some problems over the last couple of months. 1) Frequent new versions were producing bug reports. 2) A thread started by the original developer about lack of accreditation in the readme was left without a reply. 3) The last update was issued without release notes (I didn’t update). Maybe someone else will pick up the plugin. That would be good. It will be quite a bit of work if everyone has to change all the footnotes on their sites.
Fortunately, I haven’t experienced any issues with the latest version of the plugin. My main concern is security. It would be great if David Artiss, the original developer, or another developer, could at least run a security check and confirm the plugin is safe to use for the time being.
Hi! The plugin was closed before I had a chance to answer. I hope this post answers your questions about what happened.
Thanks for the update, David! I have updated the plugin to your version.
This has been a very good plugin for me – and I wish my previous positive review had been more effusive! However I regard myself as an inexperienced website manager. I have version 3 installed as a plugin. As of this morning that version does not seem to be working. I don’t understand how this can literally dissappear overnight. Reading the blog if the plugin were to be adopted by someone else that will be too late for me, as I have no choice in the next few days but to install an alternate plugin to pick up my numerous footnotes. My website has numerous bibliographic references on about 30 separate pages. The functionality to assign the same “footnote number” to repeated references (e.g. the same book two or three times in the text on the web-page) was really useful. Does anyone have any ideas or non-technical recommendations as to the best way forwards please? And ideally ideas that won’t involve me in much tedious work editing the web-page text.
Hi Stephen, I apologise that it’s causing issues. Of course, any features added to the plugin over the last few months have been lost if you’ve updated to version 3. It doesn’t help now, but for future, I’d highly recommend turning off automatic plugin updates for anything that’s so critical – that way you can review changes before implementing them. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the previous code to offer you a solution – it was either this or leave the plugin abandoned and, potentially, highly insecure. Maybe another user, who has the previous release has a copy to share?
David, Thanks for you quick advice. If anyone knows of an equivalent plugin that would be great. Many alternatives seem not to have been updated recently and/or have very few installations. I guess my other option is to reinstall an earlier version (if I can figure that out) and hope that someone will adopt the plugin. Thanks again. Suspect I’m not the only person with these problems. Stephen
Personally, and don’t tell anyone I told you, but I’m using the Footnotes block that’s now built into the editor. It may not do what you need but, I suspect, for most people it will be enough.
I’m going to close this thread up now as people are trying to share links to code and having their posts pulled. Rather than get anyone banned, I think it’s best to just end the conversation. Thanks everyone.
Right after getting the plugin from sdobreff. Looks strange indeed.
I’d noticed that the new developer was maybe having some problems over the last couple of months. 1) Frequent new versions were producing bug reports. 2) A thread started by the original developer about lack of accreditation in the readme was left without a reply. 3) The last update was issued without release notes (I didn’t update). Maybe someone else will pick up the plugin. That would be good. It will be quite a bit of work if everyone has to change all the footnotes on their sites.
Fortunately, I haven’t experienced any issues with the latest version of the plugin. My main concern is security. It would be great if David Artiss, the original developer, or another developer, could at least run a security check and confirm the plugin is safe to use for the time being.
Hi! The plugin was closed before I had a chance to answer. I hope this post answers your questions about what happened.
Thanks for the update, David! I have updated the plugin to your version.
This has been a very good plugin for me – and I wish my previous positive review had been more effusive! However I regard myself as an inexperienced website manager. I have version 3 installed as a plugin. As of this morning that version does not seem to be working. I don’t understand how this can literally dissappear overnight. Reading the blog if the plugin were to be adopted by someone else that will be too late for me, as I have no choice in the next few days but to install an alternate plugin to pick up my numerous footnotes. My website has numerous bibliographic references on about 30 separate pages. The functionality to assign the same “footnote number” to repeated references (e.g. the same book two or three times in the text on the web-page) was really useful. Does anyone have any ideas or non-technical recommendations as to the best way forwards please? And ideally ideas that won’t involve me in much tedious work editing the web-page text.
Hi Stephen, I apologise that it’s causing issues. Of course, any features added to the plugin over the last few months have been lost if you’ve updated to version 3. It doesn’t help now, but for future, I’d highly recommend turning off automatic plugin updates for anything that’s so critical – that way you can review changes before implementing them. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the previous code to offer you a solution – it was either this or leave the plugin abandoned and, potentially, highly insecure. Maybe another user, who has the previous release has a copy to share?
David, Thanks for you quick advice. If anyone knows of an equivalent plugin that would be great. Many alternatives seem not to have been updated recently and/or have very few installations. I guess my other option is to reinstall an earlier version (if I can figure that out) and hope that someone will adopt the plugin. Thanks again. Suspect I’m not the only person with these problems. Stephen
Personally, and don’t tell anyone I told you, but I’m using the Footnotes block that’s now built into the editor. It may not do what you need but, I suspect, for most people it will be enough.
I’m going to close this thread up now as people are trying to share links to code and having their posts pulled. Rather than get anyone banned, I think it’s best to just end the conversation. Thanks everyone.