After receiving an email message today from Matthew Jabs, I realized I never disclosed all the plugins I use on this blog. Some of them change and some are well-known, but I've never formally endorsed them or otherwise. It's time to change all that. I'm going to list what I use and tell you what's wrong with them, if anything.
Add Link Attribute - Here are some of the author's own words that I can't say any better: "This is a WordPress plugin that lets you insert your own HTML tag attributes into (assumedly any) template function-generated links, without the need to rewrite those functions directly… The purpose is to avoid having to edit the core source code just to add an attribute into an HTML link of say your link or archive list…" I use it to add the "nofollow" attribute to external links (other than comments) on all pages except the index.php page. Go ahead, look at the source for the sidebars from any page and you'll see it in the links (except the front page of course). This is an effort to keep Google from thinking that each page has duplicate content in the sidebars. I also use it in the footer. I wrote about it before in my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for WordPress, Part 2 article.
Akismet - Bundled with WordPress. I still use it, but it doesn't query their server very much anymore because of other anti-spam plugins.
Add Meta Tags - There are several plugins that do this or have it as part of a suite of functions. I prefer this one. It automatically turns my categories into meta keywords.
Contact Form II - It's similar to the original, just formatted better in my opinion. You can drop a line into any page or post and a contact form will appear in its place. I use it for my contact page.
Dofollow - There are plugins that are similar to this but I prefer this one. Unconditional link love. I'm not worried about comment abuse. I know how to use the delete key. Again, I wrote about it before in my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for WordPress, Part 2 article.
Easy Admin Access - This throws up a line above the blog with a drop down menu allowing you to go straight to any of the standard admin functions (as long as you're logged in). This is handy all by itself but I still ended up adding lines to it to go to my plugin configurations and such. I would love it if it would build the menus from the menus in the admin center, including plugins. I don't think the author wants to get into that deeply and I'm considering doing it myself but haven't come to a decision. It will be my first authored (revised) plugin if I decide to do it.
Exec-PHP - It allows the PHP tags in posts and pages so you can run code without editing theme files. I mentioned it before in my WP Plugins: Exec-PHP, Smart Archives, and WP Categories and Posts article and referenced it in other articles.
Feedburner Feed Replacement - I have not yet replaced it with the official replacement at Burning Questions - The official FeedBurner weblog. I'm in no hurry because it's still the same version. This plugin redirects my feeds to the FeedBurner service.
Google (XML) Sitemaps - This creates a sitemap file for Google to use in crawling the pages in my blog. My pages usually get crawled within 2 hours after posting a new article.
http:BL - I've mentioned this in three articles: The http:BL WordPress Plugin, Another Anti-Spam Measure, I’m Getting Zero Spam Comments and Updated: http:BL and Simple Spam Filter. I rarely see spam comments and this is one of the reasons.
MoveComments - Move one or more comments from a post or page to another. I rarely have to use it, but it's a heck of a lot easier than doing it manually. I wrote about in my WordPress Move Comments Plugin article.
No Self Pings - I installed this so I wouldn't have to go back and delete ping comments when referencing another of my own articles. Some people like seeing those ping comments. I am not one of them.
Plugin Output Cache - POC for short. When used within a plugin, it can speed up queries tremendously by caching the results until the plugin in question changes something.
Recent Posts - I replaced the standard WordPress function with this one because this one uses the POC plugin to cache the query, making it fast.
Show Top Commentators - I wrote about his in my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for WordPress, Part 2 article, but only as an aside for the rest of the article.
Similar Posts - Similar to another "related posts" plugin, I like this one better. It uses the POC plugin to make it fast.
Similar Posts Feed - A companion to the previous one (which is required in order to use this one). It does the same thing, but adds them to your feeds.
Smart Archives - My Extended Archives page uses it. I'll probably be replacing it with a similar plugin soon. I wrote about it in my WP Plugins: Exec-PHP, Smart Archives, and WP Categories and Posts article and referenced it in other articles.
Social Bookmark Creator - I use a heavily self-modified version of this for my social dropdown menu. I've hinted at it before, but I never specifically wrote about it.
Subscribe To Comments - I briefly mentioned it in my Don’t Read My Blog, Dammit! article, but I didn't say much. This is the one where you can subscribe to comments without actually commenting.
TanTanNoodles Simple Spam Filter - I've mentioned this in two articles: I’m Getting Zero Spam Comments and Updated: http:BL and Simple Spam Filter. I rarely see spam comments and this is one of the reasons.
Ultimate Google Analytics - A plugin for the Google Analytics service. It has a few options for how you want your site analyzed.
Viper's Video Quicktags - It allows me to easily embed YouTube or Google Videos. The quicktag doesn't appear when the visual editor is in use.
WordPress Database Backup - I use it to email myself a compressed backup of my database every day. Better safe than sorry. Despite some peoples' objections, it works well enough to do a database restore from and it's kept up-to-date by the new author.
WP-PostViews - This is the plugin I use for counting how many times a post is read. The drawback is that it doesn't work when WP-Cache is enabled. I'm considering writing a non-database plugin to counter that drawback. I wrote about it in my Most Views Plugin for WordPress article.
wp-cache - I use this only when necessary, like during a Digg-fest. At least one plugin doesn't work while it's enabled and it's really not necessary to use it all the time. It won't speed up my JavaScript widgets.
WP Categories and Posts - I wrote about this before in my WP Plugins: Exec-PHP, Smart Archives, and WP Categories and Posts article and referenced it in other articles. My Extended Categories page is based on it.
Yet another threaded Comments plugin - I haven't mentioned this at all I don't think. It's a non-JavaScript version of threaded comments that I had to heavily modify to get it to work right with my theme. I like it.
