SpeakOut! vs Discussion Board – WordPress Forum Plugin

SpeakOut! Email Petitions allows you to easily create petition forms on your site. When visitors to your site submit the petition form, a copy of your message will be sent to the email address you specified e.g. your mayor. They can also choose to have the email BCC’d to themselves (default). The petition message will be signed with the contact information provided by the form submitter. After signing the petition, visitors will have the option of sharing your petition page with their followers on Facebook or x. Signatures are stored in the WordPress database and can be easily exported to CSV format for further analysis (there is no import function). You may set a goal for the number of signatures you hope to collect and then watch as a progress bar tracks your petition’s advance toward it’s goal – the goal can even update automatically when a % of your goal is reached. Petitions may also be configured to stop accepting new signatures on a specified date. The free version includes the core features needed to run a successful petition. For those who need more, the Pro version unlocks the ability to run unlimited campaigns and provides additional tools, such as an email sharing option and expanded integration with third-party mailing services. More information about the plugin and how to upgrade to the fully featured Pro version can be found at the official SpeakOut! WordPress petition plugin website. 4.6.5.1 This is a critical security patch. Please update immediately to protect your user data. 4.6.5 Bugfix: address misc warnings. 4.6.4 Bugfix: fix anonmyous record keeping issue. Bugfix: fix nonce issue with some admin pages causing permision errors. 4.6.3 Fix bad cache. 4.6.2 Fix php warning regarding missing options. 4.6.1 Security: Added a secure AJAX endpoint with nonce and capability checks for dismissing admin notices. Improvement: Modernized admin script and style loading to improve performance and adhere to WordPress best practices. Improvement: Redesigned the the admin pages the petition settings page for a cleaner and more consistent user interface. Improvement: The GDPR (Privacy Policy) setting is now mandatory when enabled. Bug fix: Corrected an issue in an AJAX handler that could prevent petition emails from being sent correctly. Bug fix: Prevented a potential PHP warning by ensuring the petition message is always a string. Improvement: updated “tested up to” to WP version 6.8.3 4.6.0 Security: Hardened the plugin by adding comprehensive data sanitization and output escaping across all forms, AJAX handlers, and admin pages to prevent XSS and other vulnerabilities. Security: Replaced direct use of $_POST, $_GET, and $_REQUEST variables with sanitized and validated data. Security: Ensured all URLs generated by the plugin are properly escaped using esc_url. Refactor: Completely overhauled the [emailpetition] shortcode rendering. The form HTML is now loaded from a separate template file ( includes/email-petition-form-template.php), improving code organization and making customization easier. Refactor: Consolidated all mailing list integration logic (ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, etc.) into a single, cleaner function call. Refactor: Improved custom field rendering by creating a dedicated helper function to reduce code duplication. Refactor: Updated AJAX handlers to securely process and validate all incoming data. Refactor: Switched to using WordPress best practices, such as has_shortcode() for content checking and admin_url() for creating admin links. Tweak: Improved pagination logic to be more robust and prevent potential errors. 4.5.2 improvement: updated “tested up to” to WP version 6.8 4.5.1 bug fix: CSV export was throwing an error – thanks Vegard B. improvement: updates to Swedish translations – thanks Magnus improvement: updated “test to” to WordPress 6.8 4.5.0 improvement: further refined bug fixed in 4.4.0 – thanks Darius S. @ patchstack.com 4.4.3 improvement: updated old changelog link at end of current changelog 4.4.2 improvement: updated “Tested up to” to 6.7 4.4.1 bug fix: Export to CSV not working – thanks Vincent R & Shawn D 4.4.0 bug fix: fixed XSS vulnerability in specially crafted shortcode – thanks Darius S. @ patchstack.com 4.3.6 bug fix: wonky CSS setting in basic theme – thanks Jordan. 4.3.5.2 improvement: updated “tested to” to version 6.6 4.3.5.1 improvement: changed CSV max_execution_time from 180 to 300 seconds and moved it so it is only applied if script is actually run. Also reset it to system default at end of script – thanks @gideonlupine 4.3.4 improvement: updated compatibility to WordPress 6.5 4.3.3.1 bug fix: debug code removed bug fix: new social icons missing in free version bug fix: in some circumstances an error was thrown in settings page – thanks Heiko 4.3.3 bug fix: error being thrown by field that can’t be edited in free version – thanks Giuseppe bug fix: somehow above error wasn’t fixed in 4.3.2 – thanks Mayda 4.3.1 improvement: updated social icons in all style sheets 4.3.0 improvement: changed “twitter” to “X” – thanks Jos improvement: removed some superfluous code improvement: added Serbian language 4.2.6 bug fix: no error if privacy policy box not checked – thanks Mika improvement: SpeakOut! now has its own domain SpeakOutPetitions.com 4.2.3 bug fix: In certain languages if privacy was enabled to show only the first letter of the surname, it would display a ? instead – thanks Niklas bug fix: signature list wouldn’t display if petition ID was greater than one. This was implemented to limit free users, but it has unintended consequences for legacy users with multiple petitions. Thanks Jim for letting me poke around. 4.2.2 improvement: updated “tested to” to 6.3 4.2.1 bug fix: multiple email addresses in Target Email or CC Email fields would be mashed together – thanks James and someone else who reported this 4.2.0 bug fix: custom field 6 location wasn’t being saved bug fix: in admin signature list, “anonymous” icon was showing HTML instead of being superscript improvement: added several webhooks – see https://speakoutpetitions.com/webhooks. Thanks for the idea Ben & Nick improvement: added email share icon to Pro version – thanks to whoever suggested it. improvement: displaying emails in the public signature list is now optional – with a warning that it might not be a wise idea improvement: translation updates 4.1.3.1 bug fix: Somehow a stray character found its way into the code which was breaking petitions. – thanks Meagan 4.1.2 bug fix: database creation error for new installs bug fix: if message was editable, formating was lost when sent to target (Pro only) – thanks Linda bug fix: language wasn’t bein passed via URL in confirmation emails improvement: eliminated php warning “ob_end_flush(): failed to send buffer of zlib output compression” improvement: added note to when “Do not send email (only collect signatures)” is checked 4.1.1 bug fix: if the petitionmessage shortcode was used, any Markdown in the message wasn’t being displayed. Thanks Michael. bug fix: if email confirmation was enabled, the numbering in the public signature list reflected the total number of signatures, not just the confirmed signtures. Thanks Rene & Martin bug fix: if email confirmation was enabled and public signatures spanned more than one page, scrolling didn’t work as expected – thanks Rene bug fix: on one layout of the public signature list, the word anonymous wasn’t translated – thanks Myriam-Zaa bug fix: increased size of honorifics field in database – thanks Glen C. bug fix: following some actions in the admin signature list it wasn’t showing the signature count improvement: new installs will now use the utf8mb4_general_ci character set for database text fields, instead of just utf8 – down the track I will change the character set for existing installs improvement: database creation now makes fields NULL instead of NOT NULL to allow for not collecting some data – down the track I will change all fields to NULL in existing installs 4.1.0 bug fix: Confirmation emails weren’t being sent if Email From field wasn’t set up properly, which was impossible. Thanks Thomas and Rene bug fix: non-existant parameter being passed to function improvement: updated the contextual help – first time ever :o) improvement: clarified wording of “display signature count” and where it refers to. improvement: database updates so free version is ready to upgrade to Pro 4.0.10 improvement: changed a page title – thanks Debbie P bug fix: some required fields were not showing red border – thanks Debbie P bug fix: redirect after signing not working – thanks Debbie P 4.0.9 bug fix: when clicking next in signature list it was displaying html – thanks Dan @tahninial 4.0.8 bug fix: slashes added to any apostrophes in email subject or greeting bug fix: missing default value in free version 4.0.7 bug fix: missing character would cause error in certain circumstances – thanks heiko 4.0.6.1 bug fix: if WordPress was installed in a subfolder, some administrator links may not have worked. Thanks Calvin 4.0.6 bug fix: petition message kept adding slashes in editor when saved. Thanks Calvin improvement: removed %%Your Signature%% from the petition message displayed on your site. It was causing confusion. Thanks Razvan improvement: minor typo fixed improvement: Dutch language imrovements – thanks Michiel 4.0.5 bug fix: petition message losing formatting – thanks @dcbuffalo improvement: better data sanitization in signature list 4.0.4.6 bug fix: html being displayed in admin signature list bug fix: file was being included twice bug fix: reconfirming selected signatures wasn’t working 4.0.4.5 bug fix: settings not saving due to incorrect input sanitize function improvement: German language update – thanks Mario 4.0.4.4 bug fix: in some circumstances an error was thrown in settings page – thanks Heiko 4.0.4.2 Policy compliance: Version 3 of SpeakOut! included a method of upgrading that turned out to be a WordPress plugin policy breach (4 months later!) and some potential security issues (after 10+ years!). This version remedies that and introduces a more cumbersome (for users), but compliant method of upgrading. bug fix: various fixes of things found while creating V4 improvement: removed support for importing the original speakup plugin. After 10 years, it’s time. Earlier Changelog Localizations Albanian sq_AL Incomplete Arabic ar_AR Arabic ar (Faisal Kadri) Catalan ca (Alberto Canals) Czech cs_CZ (Petr Å tepán, Michal Hradecký) Danish da_DK (A. L.) Dutch nl_NL (Kris Zanders, Petronella van Leusden) Finnish fi_FI French fr_FR German de_DE (Hannes Heller, Armin Vasilico, Andreas Kumlehn, Frank Jermann) Hebrew he_IL (Oren L) Korean ko_KO (Paul Lawley-Jones) Icelandic is_IS (Hildur Sif Thorarensen) Italian it_IT (MacItaly, Davide Granti, Simone Apollo) Norwegian nb_NO (Howard Gittela) Polish pl_PL (Damian Dzieduch) Portuguese (Brazil) pt_BR (Tel Amiel) Romanian ro_RO (Web Hosting Geeks) Russian ru_RU (Teplitsa) Serbian sr_RS (Mikhailo Matovic) Slovak sk_SK (@Beata) Slovenian sl_SI (MA-SEO) Spanish es_ES Swedish sv_SE (Susanne Nyman FurugÃ¥rd @sunyfu) If you would like to request or contribute a specific translation not listed above, visit the SpeakOut! Email Petitions website and use the contact form. Emailpetition Shortcode Attributes The following attributes may be applied when using the ‘[emailpetition]’ shortcode id The ID number of your petition (required). To display a basic petition, use this format: ‘[emailpetition id=”1″]’ width This sets the width of the wrapper “ ” that surrounds the petition form. Format as you would a width rule for any standard CSS selector. Values can be denominated in px, pt, em, % etc. The units marker (px, %) must be included. To set the petition from to display at 100% of it’s container, use: ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ width=”100%”]’ A petition set to display at 500 pixels wide can be achieved using: ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ width=”500px”]’ height This sets the height of the petition message box (rather than the height of the entire form). Format as you would a height rule for any standard CSS selector. Values can be denominated in px, pt, em, % etc. The units marker (px, %) must be included. A few notes on using percentages: Using a % value only works when the “Allow messages to be edited” feature is turned off—because the petition message will be displayed in a ‘ ’. When “Allow messages to be edited” is turned on, the petition message is displayed in a ”, which cannot be styled with % heights. Use px to set the height on petitions that allow message customization. To set the message box to scale to 100% of the height of the message it contains, use any % value (setting this to 100%, 0%, 200% or any other % value has the same result). Use px if you want the box to scale to a specific height. Examples: ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ height=”500px”]’ ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ height=”100%”]’ progresswidth Sets the width of the outer progress bar. The filled area of the progress bar will automatically scale proportionally with the width of the outer prgress bar. Provide a numeric value in pixels only. Do not include the px unit marker. To display the progress bar at 300 pixels wide, use: ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ progresswidth=”300″]’ class Adds an arbitrary class name to the wrapper ‘ ’ that surrounds the petition form. Typically used to assign the alignright, alignleft or aligncenter classes to the petition in order to float the petition form to one side of its container. To assign multiple classes, separate the class names with spaces. Examples: ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ class=”alignright”]’ ‘[emailpetition id=”1″ class=”style1 style2″]’ Signaturelist Shortcode Attributes id The ID number of your petition (required). To display a basic signature list, use this format: ‘[signaturelist id=”1″]’ rows The number of signature rows to display in the table. This will override the default value provided on the Settings page. To display 10 rows, use: ‘[signaturelist id=”1″ rows=”10″]’ dateformat Format of values in the date column. Use any of the standard PHP date formating characters. Default is ‘M d, Y’. A date such as “Sunday October 14, 2012 @ 9:42 am” can be displayed using: ‘[signaturelist id=”1″ dateformat=”l F d, Y @ g:i a”]’ prevbuttontext The text that displays in the previous signatures pagination button. Default is . signaturecount Shortcode Display the number (as text) of signatures collected for a given petition: id The ID number of your petition (required). ‘[signaturecount id=”3″]’ signaturegoal Shortcode Display the number (as text) of goal for a given petition: id The ID number of your petition (required). ‘[signaturegoal id=”3″]’

Discussion Board is an easy way to add a forum to your WordPress site. It has a one-click installation and stacks of essential features that make it the leading WordPress forum plugin. In brief: Users can register and log in via a front-end form Users post new forum topics via a simple form Each forum topic is displayed on its own page where other users can reply WordPress forum plugin demo Test out a live demo version of our forum plugin here. Note that this demo includes some features only available with the Pro version. Feel free to register and post some sample content. One-click installation Discussion Board has a unique, one-click set-up. When you activate the plugin, it will automatically create the three pages you need to get your WordPress forum up and running: A log-in page A page with a form for users to post new topics A page to view existing topics. Your WordPress forum is up and running straightaway with no need to do any further configuration if you don’t want to. User management A key feature of Discussion Board is the ability to control separately who can view your WordPress forum and who can actually post to it. You can specify the required role for users to post new topics and, separately, you can specify the required role for users to view topics. So, for instance, you could allow anyone to view the content but only permit specific user roles to post content. Registration You can specify which role new users will be assigned when they register. You can also require users to activate their registration by verifying their email address – this drastically reduces spam registrations. In the Pro version, you also have the option to approve new registrations yourself if you want. Front end log-in Discussion Board has a complete front-end registration and log-in system. You can choose whether to use the standard WordPress system or keep everything on the front-end. Spam reduction As well as the restrictions over registration, you can limit the frequency that users can re-post. This will reduce possible spamming. As the owner of the site, you can also choose whether new topics should be published immediately or held as draft in order for you to moderate them. You can use standard WordPress settings to determine moderation levels for comments or set different rules for topics. Even more, you can block specific email addresses or entire domains from being able to register accounts. Styles Discussion Board is designed to work with any theme. You can update colors through the Customizer. Currently, there is a choice of three layouts, using either the standard WordPress archive layout from your theme or more classic forum layouts. Discussion Board should work out of the box with your theme. However, if you want to extend it and integrate it more closely, there are some optional templates supplied with the plugin that have hookable opening and closing wrapper tags so you can style the templates to match your theme. Shortcodes Discussion Board has a number of shortcodes. Some of these are installed automatically when you activate the plugin. Others are optional for usage around your site, including: [discussion_board_form] – displays a form for users to post a new topic (automatically installed) [discussion_topics] – displays a list of all topics (automatically installed) [discussion_board_login_form] – displays a log-in and registration form for new users (automatically installed) [discussion_board_login_only] – displays a log-in form without a registration form [discussion_board_registration_only] – displays a registration form without a log-in form [discussion_board_log_in_out] – displays a log-in / log-out link [is_logged_in] – use this shortcode to display content only to users who are logged in [not_logged_in] – display content only to users who are not logged in What can I use this for? You can use this plugin to create any type of forum that you like. Typically, this would include: Community forums School or other education sites Training websites Support forums Discussion forums Niche sites Discussion groups Question and answer sites Technical forums Ecommerce sites Bulletin boards Job boards WordPress forum theme Although Discussion Board should work with pretty much any WordPress theme, we developed Singularity – a free theme that integrates with Discussion Board. It’s available to download from the WordPress themes directory. Why have a forum on my WordPress site? There are many, many reasons to want to install a WordPress forum plugin on your site. In brief, these might include: SEO benefits – there are two key benefits to having a forum on your site. Firstly, you are benefitting from user generated content, where your users are writing your content for you and coming up with all kinds of keywords you never would have included in your content yourself. Secondly, users will spend longer on your site because of your forum, either writing their own posts or reading other people’s content. Google considers dwell time on a website to be a key quality metric. Get closer to your users – a forum is a priceless way of learning more about what makes your users tick, whether the forum is support-based or just a general community discussion board. Market more effectively – when users register for your forum, they are providing you with their email address, meaning that you have a great opportunity to market directly to people you know are interested in your offering. Documentation Full documentation and guidance on getting started with the plugin and on its features is here. Is there a Pro version? Oh yes, there’s a Pro version to give you even more possibilities with your forum. Features include: Multiple Discussion Boards for different subjects Set statuses for topics, e.g. ‘Resolved’, ‘Open’, etc Categories and tags Image uploads User profiles Topic following (subscribe to topics) Board following – subscribe to a board and get notified of all new topics and comments for that board Board permissions – set topics within boards to be post-only (so no replies) or author-only (only the author can view replies) Admin approvals – optionally require all new registrations to be approved by an admin WYSIWYG editor Check out the Pro version here. Contributing If you would like to contribute to the plugin, we’ve put together a guide on how to contribute.