For the non-Wordpress Blog obsessed, just move on before your eyes glaze over, for others, read on.

I’ve been long-obsessed with doohicky gadgets for web pages as you can probably see from my mambo site (which is nicely growing cobwebs at the moment), so I have been very, very happy since I started using Wordpress, as there are many, many more doohicky gadgets available that actually DO something important, rather than add decorative or fun features.

My long time gripe with Mambo, was that there was very little in terms of spam protection available for the average user other than turning off commenting or guestbooks, but for Wordpress, there’s a plethora (aint that a great word?) of spam protection doohickies available, as well as other neeto gadgets you might want. So, I thought it might be a good idea to list the plugins that I think are worth installing.

Spam Protection

As well as Akismet, that comes bundled with Wordpress 2.0, I use the Bad Behavior plugin, and the MOTHER of all spam plugins, Spam Karma. (You can’t have too much spam protection can you?) Spam Karma puts each comment through a number of behind-the-scenes hoops and gives them a “karma” rating. Those with sufficient karma points go straight to production, where those it thinks are slightly suspicious get the opportunity at a “second chance” by asking the user to fill-in a captcha to post. Those that fail badly go into moderation. It has tons of configurability, which is easily done through the wordpress admin interface, without having to delve around in ANY code whatsoever. Not one spam comment has made it through thus far, and only one comment has been tagged as spam that wasn’t, but it’s easy to whitelist certain IPs and allow them through.

Quicktag goodness

You’ll notice that when you go to post a comment (POST COMMENTS DAMMIT! kthx), you’ll see a little quicktags toolbar that allows you to bold/add URLs/add smileys to your comments. They are the result of the LMB^Box Quicktags and LMB^Box Smileys plugins. I firmly believe that EVERYONE has the god-given right to insert the :eek_wp: emoticon if they feel the desire to do so. ‘Nuff said.

For the admin interface, there’s the Image Browser plugin, that allows you to upload images directly from the admin interface, without having to ftp-in, and it creates thumbnails too! Just a time-saver for the lazy blogger!

Comment goodies

To feed my obsession with comments (lord knows why, since hardly any of you buggers do it!), I have also added the Recent Love plugin, which lists recent comments on the sidebar over on the right, and the Comments Preview and Subscribe to Comments plugins.

So, there it is, you have no excuse. If you’re a Wordpress user, these plugins have officially been certified by me as “idiots like me”-friendly.

If you’re not a Wordpress user, then post a comment, so you too can experience the fun!

No Tags