WordPress plugins I love
Automated disclaimer: This post was written more than 15 years ago and I may not have looked at it since.
Older posts may not align with who I am today and how I would think or write, and may have been written in reaction to a cultural context that no longer applies. Some of my high school or college posts are just embarrassing. However, I have left them public because I believe in keeping old web pages alive—and it's interesting to see how I've changed.
WordPress is nice, but some of the plugins I've installed really boost the user experience (and mine!) I thought I'd share what I've gathered.
The following are essential to the functioning of my blog:
- Akismet
- Akismet is an anti-spam service provided by the same folks who run WordPress.com, and you have to get an API key -- but after that, it's a breeze. It has correctly detected over 15,000 comment spam, but I only know of one false positive.
- Comment Timeout
- Most of the comment spam comes in on old posts that no one is commenting on anymore, so this plugin turns off commenting when the post is more than X days old or no one has commented for more than Y days, whichever comes later. (Very configurable, includes some other neato options.)
- Text Control
- I can't stand WordPress' default formatting, and this plugin allows me to turn off those damn curly quotes and such.
These take the sharp edges off:
- AJAX Comment Preview
- Provides a "Preview" button on the comment form that hooks into WordPress' actual comment formatting and processing system. (Not working since the WP 2 upgrade.)
- Full Text Feed
- Out of respect for those using feed-readers, I'm syndicating the full content of each entry.
- WP-ContactForm
- Allows me to insert a web-based contact form anywhere I want.
WordPress has more features than some platforms, but there's always more enhancements:
- Subscribe To Comments
- Users can request that additional comments on a post be emailed to them, even if they don't leave a comment themselves. (Also not working with WP 2.)
- Ultimate Tag Warrior
- Because WP entries can only accept a couple of categories at a time, UTW brings in full tagging functionality.
- Ultimate Tag Warrior: Tag Archive
- Add a tag cloud/search page.
- WordPress Database Backup
- Backup your WP database at any time.
And some I have because I'm kind of anal about URLs and metadata:
- Dublin Core Meta Tags
- Add <meta> tags specifying Dublin Core metadata to posts. (I wrote this one, and others have contributed.)
- Permalink Redirect
- Ensure that pretty permalinks have that trailing slash on the pathname.
What are your favorite plugins?
Cairnarvon says:
I like WP-Stats, mostly because it can show all comments a given user has posted easily. Makes it easier to identify trolls, if you have a lot of commenters. And random statistics are awesome, of course.
I also really like the idea behind Next of Kin, though the implementation isn't perfect.
Tim McCormack says:
Ahaha, Next of Kin looks cool.
mandy says:
I just wanted to gush about Akismet. Since installing it last month, it has caught 4,927 spam comments . . . and counting. Unbelievable. I wish I had something to add to the list but instead I'll just stick to "thanks" for the info.
Tim McCormack says:
Yeah, it's almost worth deactivating Comment Timeout just to watch the spam ticker fly. :-D
Terras says:
Your weighted tag cloud is non-existent. You wish it was as awesome as mine. ^.~
Tim McCormack says:
Ah, but you haven't seen the upcoming total redesign~
subcorpus says:
thanks for sharing the list ... checking out the plugins now ... thanks ...