Good Morning from my Robotics Lab! This is Shadow_8472 with a side project of the week. Let’s get started!
BbForums
This week, I took another look at this website. If I’m going to promote open source and privacy respecting software whenever possible, I best be prepared to lead by example. WPForums Lite was the forums plugin I was shepherded into along with Monster Insights and OptinMonster, two plugins I do not feel OK running. As effective as I hear they can be, it’s not worth my principles. I’m looking into alternatives.
Finding an analytics plugin is proving tricky – a side project for another time. Long story short: the most promising alternative needs me to arrange off-site data storage.
Forums, on the other hand, are now open for business. I’m currently working with bbPress, a forums plugin for WordPress developed by the same team using the same open source principles. You may have also noticed a new navigation bar I needed to expose a test forum. I expect it to change as I learn more about web development. Special thanks to Commander Stryker for helping me bug test it.
User Data Privacy
Since I started this blog, legislation to regulate the collection and sale of user data has been passed in the EU (GDPR) and California (CCPA). While I believe neither applies to me specifically because I’m not advertising in the EU and am not selling anything, respectively, I want to build my site to respect the principles of privacy anyway.
This week also saw me working over the privacy policy with another plugin. I believe I got it passable, but it’s still subject to further development.
Final Question
Do you know of a good open-source, privacy-respecting analytics plugin for WordPress?
I look forward hear your answers on in the comments below or on my Discord server.