Wordpress Sucks Ass (I need recs for plugins!)

Posted by Becky on Jun 27, 01:44 PM

I’m setting up a Wordpress install on a new project I’m working on with Alex and thus far I’m not overly impressed with what I’ve seen. There’s so much bloat on the main dashboard, Recent Comments? Okay, that makes sense, but what about Wordpress Development Blog, Plugins and Other Wordpress News? Why do I need those in my dashboard? If I were interested in seeing any of that I would subscribe to it, it just seems unecessary. I’m beginning to regret my decision to be lazy and not bother converting layouts over to Textpattern (or even just using Expression Engine). The only positive thing I can see is that there are a lot of plugins out there and I’m having a bit of fun going through them and seeing which ones I need and which ones I don’t. It’s not enough fun to make me consider switching though. Textpatterns administration interface may be ugly and dated, but it does the job much better than Wordpress could ever dream of doing it.

Since I haven’t used Wordpress in so long, what are some of the basic plugins you use? I’ve already set my sights on something to highlight author comments and I’m in the market for a really good contact form (the one I currently have embeds styles into the header, yuck). I know I can go to WP-plugins, but I’m looking for personal recommendations!

Anna

June 27, 2008

I use intouch and it works pretty well.

You can see it in use on my site here

Enzo

June 27, 2008

I use Contact Form 7 and it uses Akismet to filter out spam (or so, the developer says). I’m not sure if you’d like the AJAX thing in it though.

If you like, you can also use Jem’s mail form…

Amanda

June 28, 2008

There’s actually a plugin you can get which allows you to dictate what shows up on the dashboard of your installation if it’s bugging you. I have an insanely slow connection, so I strip off everything (literally, everything), and only have the very basics. It’s called Dashboard Editor. :)

Becky

June 28, 2008

Enzo: If you like, you can also use Jem’s mail form…

Her mail form sucks, too much spam. I was hoping for something like the plugin I use here which inserts a form only. Thus far all the plugins I’ve tried have inserted styles into the head (and I’d prefer to cut down on bulk.

Amanda: There’s actually a plugin you can get which allows you to dictate what shows up on the dashboard of your installation if it’s bugging you. I have an insanely slow connection, so I strip off everything (literally, everything), and only have the very basics. It’s called Dashboard Editor. :)

Oh thank you Jebus. I still think it should be a default feature though, the WP devs need to get their heads out of their asses :P