Partly, this page is simply for me to keep track of the plugins I am using. These are also some of the best I have found out there so far.
Oh, and don’t forget, when you update some Plugins, things can get reset or broken. Check stuff after updating!
Akismet for spam. Comes with, so, no need for a link.
Bad Behavior is a necessity, works well with Akismet (up to 2.0.11 now. Much faster, particularly for commenting and posting)
Bunny’s Technorati Tags. Goes with the Journalized Theme, when I have it live. Since I never use it, I keep the plugin deactivated
Custom Smileys: great plugin which allows you to add whatever smilies you want. I have a post that I am going to post one day about it. Update 4/9/08: doesn’t work quite right with WP 2.5, but, still sort of works. Most other smileys plugins are hosed with 2.5. What you do is, right click, copy, then paste them from that box way down at the bottom of the write page. (no longer use)
Get Recent Comments. Nice for showing that last however many you want comments and trackbacks in the sidebar.
Inline Pingbacks and Trackbacks. Will show pb’s and tb’s on the front page below posts.
Live. This is a cool plugin, which gives you a digg stlye look at incoming referrals. (not using, causes display issues with 2.2 and up, mostly, code like “next post,” “next page,” etc, will not display. Seems to work well with 2.3.2, though. Also, hates Ajax Comments) (no longer use)
Peter’s Custom Anti Spam. Another great plugin to stop spam. Check out this post on it. (no longer use, still the best captcha I’ve found)
Sideblog. Allows you to have miniposts in the sidebar, for those things you do not want to write a full post on. Info on it here.
Stick Post. For keeping posts at the top. This is the only one that works well with WP 2.0 and higher. All the others make the “go to next page” tags disappear. (FYI-version .2 apparently doesn’t work too well. If you want version .1, email me)
Subscribe To Comments. Obvious.
Theme Switcher. I like this one the best. If you have more themes then you want to show, you can turn them off. Only issue, you must turn the plugin off when you want to edit the themes through WP admin panel. (no longer use)
Trackping Separator. Separates tackbacks/pingbacks from comments in the individual posts. Also, can remove trackbacks/pingbacks from popup comments box.
WordPress.com Stats. It’s OK, nothing special. But, can give you some internal stats without using any of your bandwith or storage, since hosted at WordPress.com.
WordPress Database Backup. Umm, yeah, this one is kinda vital, and should be used every week. Should come with WP now. Good idea to have it emailed to you weekly. (doesn’t seem to work anymore for emailing, perhaps DB is too large? Run manually)
WordPress PDA. More and more people are cruising with PDA’s, Smartphones, and Blackberry’s. This plugin is perfect for those cases. If you have one, check out the way my blog looks in that browser. Post about it here. (PS: it doesn’t work when you have Google Analytics code in the footer) Not working well with Windows Mobile 6.0. Another option is WP Mobile (scroll down the page, no direct link) (11/10/13 Using the mobile version found with Jetpack, which comes with newer versions of WordPress)
WP Extreme Video. This is the video plugin I prefer. Gives you some customizability for when you do not want to just use the embed codes. 4/9/08: no real need anymore with the embed capabilities with 2.5. I still need it for old vis way back.
WP Slimstat-Ex. This one replaces Slim Stats, and I find it to be much better. Especially since it doesn’t crash the admin page in Wp 2.2 :) Disable: takes way to long in Wp 2.3.
Xinha4WP. This plugin replaces the basic WYSIWYG plugin, which tends to go wonky in 2.0 and higher, and disappear, so I am told. It did for me. I have a post that goes with the Custom Smilies that will be posted at some point. Works well with embeding video’s, too. (not using, the standard WYSIWYG is working for 2.3 upgrade just fine. Still a damn fine plugin)
If your WYSIWYG hasn’t crashed, and you use a widescreen, you can also try this plugin, which gives a little more flexibility then the standard. Also, this one from Mudbomb is a good middle ground, though you do have to turn it off to post vids, and it doesn’t like the embed code at times. (no clue if either of the 2 work in 2.5)
Adding another: Tried two different plugins that can do a show/hide of individual posts on the main index page, and while both are pretty easy, one of them may have contributed to causing Google issues, ie, Google not crawling my site and losing all data. The one I decided to go with is MoreLink. A little hint: open the “collapsible_more_link” file in the plugins directory with a text editor, change the text align to left. You can also change what the text will say within the same file. Look in the read me for the code, which will be !–inline-more– with < and > at each end. At the webpage, it is missing two -‘s.
PS: If you want to edit as I mentioned, the newer versions have the info in the “collapsible_more_link.tpl” file. Cannot edit with the Plugins Editor module in WP.
The button does not show up in the visual editor, so, what you do is put in a regular “more”, then, in html, add inline- right before the more
New additions: Ajax Comments. Some of you are already aware of how this works, some have heard of it, but no idea. Basically, what it does is update the comment within the page, rather then having the whole page refresh. Leave a test comment here or over there and give it a whirl. FYI, I have heard that it does not like some plugins. Live does not play well with it, and older Bad Behavior slows the commenting down too much for it to work properly. (disabled, causes server latency when getting lots of comments without refreshing the page)
Also up is AutoMeta. This is an automated meta-tag generator. You can still add them manually, but, why bother? Meta tags are placed in the head to create better searches for the engines. If you understand how to look in the source files (in the View portion of the task bar), you can see how they are put in there for an individual post. (disabled, does not work with 2.5)
12/8/07: replacing Slim-StatsEx with CyStats. Seems to run faster, gives tons of info. Probably be worthwhile to clean the database ever couple months or so, which, good news!, the plugin allows you to do. Mostly, I am only looking for recent information, don’t need to know what happened months and months ago. (no longer use)
Copyright Feeds: adds some text to your feeds, which so many BS blogs steal, about them stealing it. Would love to have it include something to blow up the BS feed stealers, but, oh well. To see it in action, put me in your RSS reader. Hint, hint.
3/3/08: dumped CyStats for ShortStat. Lighter program, works quite a bit quicker, less info in the database to clean. (Turned it off, too darned slow. Using the WordPress.com one, plus a page through my host) (no longer use)
Using Comment Timeout, rather then the Extended Comments that is coming with 2.3. Extended is just too much of a pain in the ass. (disabled, using internal WordPress for this)
4/2/08: Adding Permalinks Moved Permanently, which allows you to change your permalink style without hosing all your linkage on the Interwebz. I changed mine from numbers based to description today. (disabled, not necessary with 2.5)
6/30/08: The first one is TTC WordPress Security Tool. This one “blocks cross-site script attempts, ip numbers of ill behaved people and bots and bans bad user agents.” You can also manually blacklist IP address. I installed this because neither Akismet nor Bad Behavior can really manually block. Spam Karma 2 can, but, I do not use that. I was getting massively hit from one IP over the weekend, attempting to my comments php file, causing 500 and 403 issues. Not anymore! Highly recommended. (no longer use)
Next up is Post Plugin Library. This is required for several other plugins, one of which, Similar Posts, I am using, which you can see on the Single Posts. Though, goes a little wonky with IE, all versions, with the theme I am using. There are several other interesting ones at the first link.
I have the Sphere Related Content one, pretty easy to understand what it does.
I also have WP Grins installed. There are a few other emoticons plugins out there, but, I like my Custom Smilies one, as it is really easy to add emoticons into it. However, doesn’t work to well with WP 2.5 and up. Adding Grins to WP adds the grins not only to the comments, but, right under the writing area, so easy to drag. (replaced with another below)
New on 9/23/08:
Brian’s Threaded Comments. Obvious. You can see what changes I made to it in this post. (stopped working with WP back when went to 3.0, needed another threaded comment plugin to work correctly. I still use it due to code I’ve added, just easier)
WP Change Font Size. Also obvious.
3/17/12 Long time since updated
Anti Leech: Prevent errant parties from stealing your content and bandwidth.
Ban Hammer: It talks about banning emails, but, can ban IPs and more. Great to stop idiots and bots who overlink with spam.
Comment Form Quick Tags: This plugin inserts a quicktag toolbar on the comment form.
Executable PHP widget: Like the Text widget, but it will take PHP code as well. I used this for a bunch of widgets, such as the ones that do hide/show.
Exploit Scanner: Scans your WordPress site for possible exploits
Make Your Site Social: Allows people to log in for comments with Google, Yahoo, Twitter, etc.
Simple Trackback Validation: Eliminates spam trackbacks by (1) checking if the IP address of the trackback sender is equal to the IP address of the webserver the trackback URL is referring to and (2) by retrieving the web page located at the URL used in the trackback and checking if the page contains a link to your blog.
W3 Total Cache: The highest rated and most complete WordPress performance plugin. Dramatically improve the speed and user experience of your site. Add browser, page, object and database caching as well as minify and content delivery network (CDN) to WordPress.
wp-Monalisa: That’s what allows all those cool emoticons at the end of comments.
WP-Optimize: his plugin helps you to keep your database clean by removing post revisions and spams in a blaze
WPtouch iPhone Theme: For iPhone, Droid, and Palm (like anyone uses Palm anymore) (doesn’t work correctly for my blog anymore, I used the one included with Jetpack)
