Peter Raschendorfer

<p>The Smart User Slug Hider Plugin hides usernames in Author Pages URLs to enhance Security</p>
<h3>Retired Plugin</h3>
<p>Development, maintenance and support of this plugin has been retired in october 2023. You can use this plugin as long as is works for you.</p>
<p>There will be no more updates and I won’t answer any support questions. Thanks for your understanding.</p>
<p>Feel free to fork this plugin.</p>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<p>The plugin automatically replaces user names with 16 digits coded strings. There are no settings. Just install and forget. Deactivating the Plugin restores the default WordPress behavior.</p>
<h3>Why use this plugin?</h3>
<p>WordPress uses the pattern <code>example.com/author/name</code> for author page URLs where <code>name</code> represents the users login name.</p>
<p>This means that the <strong>login names from all your users are publicly visible</strong> which is a serious security flaw.</p>
<p>The Smart User Slug Hider Plugin changes all author page URLs from e.g. <code>example.com/author/john</code> to something like <code>example.com/author/e9e716def73f76ac</code>.</p>
<p>The codes are generated automatically and its impossible to make conclusions about the user names. The WordPress default URLs will cause a 404 (not found) error.</p>
<h3>Shortcodes</h3>
<p>The plugin adds three shortcodes you can use in your posts:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>[smart_user_slug]</code> – the user slug of the post author – e.g. e9e716def73f76ac</li>
<li><code>[smart_user_url]</code> – the url of the post author’s profile page – e.g. example.com/author/e9e716def73f76ac</li>
<li><code>[smart_user_link]</code> – adds a link to the post author’s profile page</li>
</ul>
<h3>Theme Functions</h3>
<p>The plugin adds two functions that can be used in theme files:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>get_smart_user_slug( $author_id )</code> to <strong>get</strong> the user slug for the author – the parameter $author_id is optional, if omitted the author`s ID of the current post is used</li>
<li><code>the_smart_user_slug( $author_id )</code> to <strong>display</strong> the user slug for the author – the parameter $author_id is optional, if omitted the author`s ID of the current post is used</li>
</ul>
<h3>Plugin Privacy Information</h3>
<ul>
<li>This plugin does not set cookies</li>
<li>This plugin does not collect or store any data</li>
<li>This plugin does not send any data to external servers</li>
</ul>


Smart User Slug Hider

Hide usernames in Author Pages URLs to enhance Security

WPKube

<p>Easily display a list or grid of post authors (or any other user role) and links to their post archives page using a shortcode.</p>
<p>Backend UI can be used to change all the options.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Introducing New Authors List Pro</strong></p>
<p>  The free version offers a large amount of features for free, and the PRO version comes with even more amazing features for your authors list.<br />
  Some of those features are <strong>Styler</strong>, <strong>Search</strong> and <strong>Filters</strong>. <br /><strong>Styler</strong> allows easy change of color/typography/spacing on any of the elements in the authors list.<br /><strong>Filters</strong> allow you to create a better organization of the authors list. <br /><strong>Search</strong> allows your visitors to search for specific users.<br />
  <a href="https://www.authorslist.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Click here to get the PRO version!</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h4>Shortcode</h4>
<p>All the options are available in the WP admin but you can also use a plain shortcode (as it was in version 1 of the plugin). The shortcode is [authors_list] and accepts the following attributes.</p>
<ul>
<li>style (1,2,3)</li>
<li>columns (2,3,4)</li>
<li>columns_direction ( horizontal, vertical )</li>
<li>avatar_size (any number, example 500)</li>
<li>amount (any number, no limit by default)</li>
<li>show_title (yes,no)</li>
<li>show_count (yes,no)</li>
<li>show_bio (yes,no)</li>
<li>show_link (yes,no)</li>
<li>orderby ( post_count, post_date, ID, login, nicename, email, url, registered, display_name, first_name, last_name )</li>
<li>order ( ASC, DESC )</li>
<li>skip_empty ( yes, no )</li>
<li>minimum_posts_count ( any number )</li>
<li>bio_word_trim ( any number, leave empty for no trim )</li>
<li>only_authors ( yes, no )</li>
<li>exclude ( user IDs separated by comma, example 1,3,4 )</li>
<li>include ( user IDs separated by comma, example 1,3,4 )</li>
<li>roles ( roles separated by comma, example administrator,editor )</li>
<li>latest_post_after ( for example if set to 7 it will only show authors that have posts published in the past 7 days )</li>
<li>name_starts_with ( limit to authors whose display name starts with specific characters )</li>
<li>first_name_starts_with ( limit to authors whose first name starts with specific characters )</li>
<li>last_name_starts_with ( limit to authors whose last name starts with specific characters )</li>
<li>categories ( category IDs separated by comma, example 1,3,4 )</li>
<li>terms ( term IDs separate by comma, example 1,3,4 )</li>
<li>taxonomy ( name of a taxonomy, for example post_tag )</li>
<li>title_element (the element that wraps the name of the user/author, defaults to div, can be any element, for example h2)</li>
<li>link_count (yes, no)</li>
</ul>
<p>Example usage with attributes:</p>
<pre>[authors_list style="2" columns="2" amount="4" show_count="no"]</pre>
<p>There are additional attributes for custom content before and after each element:</p>
<ul>
<li>before_avatar</li>
<li>before_title</li>
<li>before_count</li>
<li>before_bio</li>
<li>before_link</li>
<li>after_avatar</li>
<li>after_title</li>
<li>after_count</li>
<li>after_bio</li>
<li>after_link</li>
</ul>
<p>Example usage with attributes:</p>
<pre>[authors_list before_title="My custom content"]</pre>
<p>These before/after attributes also support dynamic user/author meta fields using</p>
<pre>{al:INSERT_FIELD_NAME}</pre>
<p>Example usage:</p>
<pre>[authors_list before_title="My first name is {al:first_name}"]</pre>
<p>They also support some dynamic output functionality. Currently supports displaying posts links and social links (Yoast SEO needed):</p>
<p>Example usage for posts links:</p>
<pre>[authors_list after_title="{alf:posts}"]</pre>
<pre>[authors_list after_title="{alf:posts type=plain amount=5}"]</pre>
<p>Example usage for social links:</p>
<pre>[authors_list after_title="{alf:social}"]</pre>
<p>Example usage for roles:</p>
<pre>[authors_list after_title="{alf:role}"]</pre>
<p>Example usage for link (the “to” parameter accepts foollowing values: archive bbpress_profile buddypress_profile):</p>
<pre>[authors_list after_title="{alf:link to=bbpress_profile}"]</pre>
<p>Social Icons SVGs by <a href="https://fontawesome.com/license" rel="nofollow ugc">FontAwesome</a> are licensed under CC BY 4.0</p>
<h4>What’s Next</h4>
<p>If you like this plugin, then please consider leaving us a rating / review. This plugin is maintained by <a href="https://www.wpkube.com/" title="WordPress Themes Plugins Reviews" rel="friend nofollow ugc">WPKube</a>, a WordPress resource site, where you can learn from our in-depth guides such as<br />
<a href="https://www.wpkube.com/what-is-wordpress/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">What is WordPress</a>, <a href="https://www.wpkube.com/best-wordpress-hosting/" rel="friend nofollow ugc">How to choose a WordPress hosting</a>, & more!</p>
<h4>Our Other Projects</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/optin-forms/" rel="ugc">Optin Forms</a>: Simple and easy to use plugin for creating optin forms, works with most well known autoresponder services.</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-basic-contact-form/" rel="ugc">Simple Basic Contact Form</a>: Light-weight contact form plugin</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/subscribe-to-comments-reloaded/" rel="ugc">Subscribe to Comments Reloaded</a>: Email Notification plugin for Comments</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-excerpt/" rel="ugc">Advanced Excerpts</a>: This plugin adds several improvements to WordPress’ default way of creating excerpts.</li>
</ul>


Authors List

Excellent

Use a shortcode to display a list or grid of post authors (or any other user role) and links to their post archives page.

Smart User Slug Hider vs Authors List