[wp-hackers] 2-3 plugins

[Dougal Campbell]

Matt Mullenweg wrote:
> If you could bundle 2-3 plugins with the next release of WordPress, what 
> would they be?

I'm not a typical user, so my personal plugin list isn't of much use.

But I still have an opinion on the matter :) In some cases I may name a 
specific plugin due to familiarity, but generally speaking it's the 
*idea* that I'm promoting, rather than a particular implementation.

Gravatars/Favatars: lightweight, adds visual interest, indirectly 
encourages more participation in commenting. The main downside is that 
gravatars depend on a third-party service. But I think it's definitely 
worth consideration. When I eventually get around to redesigning my 
site, some form of gravatar plugin will definitely be included.

Some sort of "local weather" plugin. You know, for when you can't be 
bothered to look out the window. Seriously, though, much like *vatars, 
these tend to be visually interesting and moderately dynamic, with just 
enough "neato" factor.

Customizable Post/Comment Listings: Good sidebar fodder. Dynamic, easy 
to fold into the default templates with a simple conditional.

Contact form: Let's face it, this is a popular request. Something 
simple, with built-in protection against empty form submissions, and 
maybe even hooks into our spam filtering (though merely to flag the 
message, not to reject it outright).

Subscribe to Comments: Let's face it -- while many of us reading this 
mailing list might be RSS power-users, your average joe still doesn't 
know RSS from TCP/IP. But everybody knows what email is.

Tags (Bunny's, Ultimate Tag Warrior, etc): The ability to add additional 
keywords beyond a post's main categories in a manner that enhances its 
"findability" is quite useful and powerful. Let's make the long tail 
even longer.

Lastly, I would specifically vote *against* including any extra 
anti-spam plugin. I know, I know, you're all in shock. Trust me, I hate 
spam *at least* as much as you do. But the default WP grey/blacklist 
(when used properly) works pretty darned well for most sites. And 
spam-blocking is tricky and potentially dangerous if you aren't careful. 
I don't think any of us want new users losing comments just because they 
enabled a default plugin without realizing the potential implications.

Caveat: We might consider Eric Meyer's Gatekeeper plugin. It's not an 
automated spam killer, it's simple in function, and will stop some of 
the more stupid spambots without adding too much burden on commenters.

-- 
Dougal Campbell <dougal at gunters.org>
http://dougal.gunters.org/