This is post #2 of Blaugust Reborn
This time I am going to use a topic idea that Chestnut suggested some days ago in the Blaugust Reborn discord channel. It was basically this:
Make a list of the plug ins/widgets that you use on your blog
I changed the quote a little to fit the context a bit better. :p
I try to use only as many plugins as I actually need due to performance reasons. And thankfully WordPress makes it so I don’t need that many to begin with.
This is my short list of them:
P.S.: I am not listing Akismet since it already comes with a default install of WordPress. You just need to enable it, which I recommend since it is a pretty good anti-spam plugin.
Jet Pack by Automattic
Jet Pack is probably one of those plugins that pretty much everybody who uses WordPress has installed. Which isn’t a coincidence since Automattic is also responsible for WordPress.com
It also does a lot of stuff. Here is a few:
- Full integration with WordPress.com so people can use their WordPress logins to comment
- Enable likes on posts and comments
- Automatically share posts in social media
- Add share buttons to your posts
- Site stats and analytics
And a lot more. It also has a paid subscription service that adds more options but the free option already offers more than I actually use so I can’t say comment on the subscription plan.
BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin by Inpsyde GmbH
As the name implies this plugins allows you to setup a backup for you WordPress installation.
You can choose what to backup, what file format to use for it, where to backup to (for example, Dropbox) and even schedule for automatic backups.
Since I am pretty forgetful about backups having a plugin like this is pretty much a blessing. This way if something goes wrong I can just go to Dropbox and get the latest copy of my backup.
RSS Feed Checker by Andy Clark
RSS Feed Checker allows to create a blogroll with the name of the site and their latest post under it, listing the links in chronological order.
If you ever saw the blogroll from Blogger and got envious from it then this is pretty much the same thing.
The only drawback is it doesn’t seem to be able to get the sites icon like the Blogger widget does. It also hasn’t been updated in 2 years but it has been working for me so far.
Shariff Wrapper by Jan-Peter Lambeck & 3UU
Shariff Wrapper allows us to add share buttons to our content that doesn’t automatically transmit data from our visitors to some social network.
It has support for a lot of services and has several style configurations.
If you have concerns over privacy and want to give your visitors a convenient way to share your content this is a good plugin to have.
Broken Link Checker by Janis Elsts, Vladimir Prelovac
This plugin checks regularly for broken links in your posts. If it finds any it then generates a list of them that you then choose if you want to dismiss, unlink, edit each link or tell it is not broken.
I think I installed this one when I migrated from Drupal back to WordPress and wanted to make sure all my internal links weren’t broken.
Nowadays I don’t have much use for it so I will probably be uninstalling it soon.
Classic Editor by WordPress Contributors
Apparently WordPress will be changing their default text editor to one called “Guttenberg” with version 5.0. They are also giving an option of testing “Guttenberg” now for those who want to test the waters.
For those who don’t like the new editor the current one will still be available but it will be in the form of the “Classic Editor” plugin.
I am testing the “Guttenberg” editor right now and honestly I am not sure if I like it. And since I have a terrible memory I am adding the Classic Editor here in case I forgot all about this and need a link for the Classic Editor later. You can thank me later Rakuno of the future. :p
So, these are my plugins. I hope it might be of interest to someone, even if it is just for future me. 🙂