PiXELWiT

It’s been a while since my last WordPress Plugin Recommendation so I thought I’d let you know how much of a “Plugin Ho” I’ve become since then. I’m currently using 32 WordPress plugins! Sure, it seems like a lot when you put an exclamation mark at the end, but I need each ‘n every one of ’em I tells ya, honest. In fact, I have so many plugins that I need a plugin to help me review them all. Here’s my list of currently installed plugins, each accompanied by a brief review:

1. Advanced-Admin-Menus by Andy Staines
   Drop Down Menus for WordPress Admin Panels
   • Review: Saves time navigating the WordPress Administration panels but loses time forcing the menus to retract.
2. Add Meta Tags by George Notaras
   Adds the Description and Keywords XHTML META tags to your blog’s front page and to each one of the posts, static pages and category archives. This operation is automatic, but the generated META tags can be fully customized. Also, the inclusion of other META tags, which do not need any computation, is possible. Please read the tips and all other info provided at the configuration panel.
   • Review: Great automatic setup, much better than default WordPress Meta behavior.
3. Akismet by Matt Mullenweg
   Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. You need a WordPress.com API key to use it. You can review the spam it catches under “Comments.” To show off your Akismet stats just put

   <?php akismet_counter(); ?>

   in your template.

   • Review: Works great! Only one false positive, no spam.
4. Batch image upload by Tony Gambone
   Upload and resize a bunch of images at once
   • Review: Still not sure about this one, I may start using image gallery software like CopperMine or Gallery.
5. Commenter Spy by Daniel M. Gattermann
   Replaces the standard WHOIS link (click on a commenter’s IP) with a query to display the commenter IP’s geographical location on a map (requires JavaScript). Also adds a link to comment moderation and notification emails sent by WordPress.
   • Review: Lets me click one link to see where a person leaving a comment is located. Handy.
6. CodeHighlighter by Wongoo Lee
   Syntax highlighter for souce code using GeSHi.
   • Review: A “Must Have” for anyone regularly posting code on their site.
7. DoFollow by Kimmo Suominen
   Disable the “nofollow” tagging for comments. Timeout using comment age inspired by Christoph Rummel.
   • Review: Akismet takes care of spam, so let search engines follow links posted in comments on your site to help those who help you.
8. Dagon Design Form Mailer by Dagon Design
   The WordPress plugin version of my secure php form mailer script
   • Review: More powerful than I need but seemed easier to customize than other Contact plugins.
9. Google Sitemaps by Arne Brachhold
   This generator will create a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog.
   • Review: Help search engines find you so people can find you. Set it and forget it.
10. Get Recent Comments by Krischan Jodies
    Display the most recent comments or trackbacks with your own formatting in the sidebar. Visit Options/Recent Comments after activation of the plugin.
    • Review: Lets visitors (and me) see what people are saying. Helpful.
11. ImageManager by Per Soderlind
    PHP ImageManager + Editor for WordPress. It will not be enabled until you have configured it via the Options >> ImageManager menu. *** Requires WordPress 2.0 *** Licensed under the MIT License.
    • Review: Pretty handy. I even wrote an Image Manager Tutorial.
12. Kimili Flash Embed by Michael Bester
    Provides a wordpress interface for Geoff Stearns’ excellent standards compliant Flash detection and embedding JavaScript. The syntax is [kml_flashembed movie=\"filename.swf\" height=\"250\" width=\"400\" /].
    • Review: Works as advertised. Gotta have it.
13. Live by Sean Hickey
    Lets you watch activity on your blog in real time.
    • Review: Freshly installed, not sure yet.
14. Linkblock widget by M. Holger
    Displays one specific category of links; up to 9 instances of this widget may exist. Heavily derived from the Text widget code included with the widget plugin by Automattic, Inc.
    • Review: Was handy but broke with the release of WordPress 2.2.
15. MoveComments by Alex Günsche
    Move one or more comments from a post or page to another
    • Review: Works well for me, may be cumbersome when working with a large volume of comments and posts.
16. MightyAdsense by mightyhitter
    Keep your adsense code & output it in posts.
    • Review: Makes placing Google ads in your blog a snap.
17. WP-Polls by GaMerZ
    Adds an AJAX poll system to your WordPress blog. You can also easily add a poll into your WordPress’s blog post/page.
    • Review: Excellent! Many options, great administration features.
18. WP-Polls Widget by GaMerZ
    Adds a Sidebar Widget To Display Poll From WP-Polls Plugin. You Need To Activate WP-Polls First.
    • Review: Lets you place polls in widgets. Haven’t used it yet, but probably will once I have more polls.
19. PingFix by Jan Piotrowski
    Enhances (and replaces) the built-in ping/notify functionality. Pings only when publishing new posts, not when editing. Pings future-dated posts when they appear on the blog, not when they are published (activated plugin WP-Cron recommended).
    • Review: I can’t imagine why pinging should work any other way.
20. WP-PageNavi by Lester ‘GaMerZ’ Chan
    Adds a more advanced paging navigation to your WordPress blog.
    • Review: Nice. Easy access to many options.
21. Paged Comments by Keyvan Minoukadeh
    Breaks down comments into a number of pages
    • Review: Get rid of those unsightly long comment lists. Set up was a little rough, but I like the results so far.
22. Related Posts by Alexander Malov, Mike Lu & Jon Bourne
    Returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches.
    • Review: Good idea and implementation. Seems to work better on longer posts.
23. Subscribe To Comments by Mark Jaquith
    Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. Based on version 1 from Scriptygoddess
    • Review: I like using this feature while on other people’s blogs so I thought I’d add it to my own.
24. Google Analytics by Denis de Bernardy
    Adds Google analytics to your blog, with all sorts of advanced tracking toys enabled.
    • Review: Works as advertised and adds a little more depth to your Analytics reports.
25. Search Docs by Owen Winkler, Andrew Sutherland
    Get Codex and WordPress Support Forum search results directly in any page of the Admin panel. This plugin is a collaborative effort of Owen Winkler and Andrew Sutherland. Thanks also to Robert Deaton.
    • Review: I like it since it usually provides better results than searching Google or WordPress.org.
26. Search Everything by Dan Cameron
    Adds search functionality with little setup. Including options to search pages, attachments, drafts, comments and custom fields (metadata).
    • Review: Should come standard with WordPress.
27. the_excerpt Reloaded by Kaf Oseo
    This mod of WordPress’ template function the_excerpt() knows there is no spoon.
    • Review: Good for tweakers. Also required by another plugin.
28. WP-Plugin List by Martin Wiso
    By placing <!–plugin list–> in your page or post by sources code or using toolbar icon ‘Plugin List’ in your Rich text editor(only if enabled) plugin replaces it with list of currently installed WordPress plugins.
    • Review: It generated the majority of this very list. The descriptions have been manually edited to remove some links. The “Reviews” are not part of the plugins normal output.
29. WordPress Database Backup by Scott Merrill and Austin Matzko
    On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Navigate to Manage → Backup to get started.
    • Review: Pretty handy. I use it right before I think I’m about to do something stupid. I use it a lot. 😉
30. Widget Collapser by Jared Bangs
    Collapses Sidebar
    • Review: Neat when it works.
31. PHP Code Widget by Otto
    Like the Text widget, but it will take PHP code as well. Up to 9 instances of this widget may exist. Heavily derived from the Text widget code included with the widget plugin by Automattic, Inc.
    • Review: I use it to replace the standard Meta Widget.
32. Future Calendar by Aaron Dowden
    A simple plugin that utilizes a modified get_calendar function that shows what dates have a future post scheduled in a calendar format, and makes it easy to change the current timestamp.
    • Review: I don’t use it much if at all, but if I ever write 20 posts ahead of time, I’ll be prepared.

Comments(2)