Three months ago we told you about WP User Avatar Plugin Ruined by ProfilePress. The WordPress community has had a massive response to this plugin being hijacked and the original plugin has been flooded with one-star reviews. Strangely there are also some new five-star reviews though many of those seem sketchy at best.

Not only was the original plugin hijacked and changed drastically, the new version also had major security issues. While those issues have been fixed for now, it still shines a poor light on the new developers. These new developers have also had a very poor attitude when confronted with the hijacking and security problems.

Personally we feel the developer should be banned from the WordPress repository for their behavior. Whether that truly happens or not, we don’t know. Regardless, those who simply want a plugin to handle avatars need a new solution since the new developer has ruined the once popular plugin.

One option is that some other developers have taken the old WP User Avatar plugin (prior to its hijacking) and forked it under new names. In other words, the same old functionality is available under a new name. When we needed an alternative, those forks didn’t yet exist. Our solution was the WP User Avatars plugin. The only name difference is the “plural” of avatar. On each of the sites where we have used WP User Avatar, it took maybe 5-10 minutes to make the switched. Granted, we only had 3-4 users on each site so it wasn’t a big deal. If you have a lot of users with custom avatars, one of the forks may be a better answer.

Regardless of your choice, please avoid ProfilePress at all costs. They are not a developer that can be trusted.