On my online WordPress journeys I come across a number of WordPress plugins.
Some are interesting, some are annoying, and some are very useful. Here I have listed 5 that are definitely interesting and could be useful for some users.
Areas covered by these plugins are twitter, tweetbacks, spoilers, email to staff, and statistics.
- WP Twitip ID – This plugin, which is by the same author as CommentLuv, adds a field to your comment form to allow users to input their twitter username. Tawny Press at Innoventions provides detailed instructions on adding the twitter field manually. I followed these instructions before the plugin was created and they worked great – my problem was I couldn’t decide where to display the twitter username in the comments. Silly, huh? So, if you love twitter and want your commenters to join you there, you can use this plugin or follow Tawny’s manual instructions.
- Tiny Spoiler – This plugin allows you to add spoilers to your content and then show or hide it with a plus or minus sign. I don’t have a use for this right now but this would be ideal for a gaming site that includes hints and walkthrough information.
- Mail to Staff – I don’t have a use for this plugin either because I am the only user of this site but this plugin will allow you to email all users. It provides an easy method of internal staff communication. In the back of my mind I keep thinking someone asked me about something like this in the last couple of months but it isn’t coming to me. That’s not that surprising since I can’t really even remember what I had for lunch ;-)
- Blog Stats – This plugin is for the stats junkie (you know who you are). This plugin provides stats on RSS subscriptions, page rank, Alexa rank, and technorati rank – you know, all those stats we say we don’t care about but secretly obsess over. The plugin provides the stats within the WordPress admin and updates them daily.
- Tweetbacks for WordPress – This plugin works like trackbacks in that anytime a link to your article is tweeted, that link is added to your tweetback section in the comments. It works with all of the major URL shortening services. I have not tried this yet because it has some pretty detailed installation instructions but I am going to test this one. I would like keeping track of when my articles are mentioned on twitter. If I do test it, I will provide a more detailed review.
So, do you think any of these seem useful? Have you tried any of them or do you think you will?
photo credit: ConspiracyofHappiness
Hi Kim!
Say, the Tweetback one does sound interesting, doesn’t it? Do keep us posted on your install – I’m a little intimidated by your initial description of what’s required. It sure would be nice to have the info! Thanks. I’ll look for your tweet about it.
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Oh I’ve been looking for a Twitter ID plugin! Thanks!
So the WP Stats plug in is a lot more detailed than the generic wp stats? I might give that a try. I am obsessive, I admit it.
Tiny Spoiler might also be useful for a humor site like mine, I’ll have to give it a try.
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WP Twitip ID worked great with WP 2.6. Luv it for a few days, then upgraded to 2.7. Still looking for the fix.
Tweetbacks, downloaded it this morning and testing. That looks like a fantastic plugin merging my favorite form on communication “Twitter”.
Thanks for the post luv and the other tips. Always helpful as I figure out WordPress and its many features.
Tawny Press´s last blog post – Learning from 7 Random Things….
I must agree that the spoiler thing would be great not only for gaming sites but for riddle like ones too. Nice list Kim! :)
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I can see WP Stats becoming popular with bloggers. Cuts down the time of going to each individual website to see thier statistics. I agree that every loves to check out their stats. Blogs are starting to get filled with the little logos for the stats to in order to push them up. I guess it’s fun too see our progress.
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I’v ebeen trying to stay away from plugins unless absolutely necessary. Isn’t it true that they could slow down your site and also make it more vulnerable? I do have a stats plugin installed and yes I’m a junkie. :)
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@Betsy – I’m hoping to test it this weekend. I’ll do a write-up about it after – assuming I’m successful ;-)
@Tracy – Tawny is having trouble getting the twitter id plugin to work with 2.7 And I didn’t even think about using the spoiler plugin with a humor site – that’s a great idea.
@Tawny – Have you contacted the author about it? He’s one of the most responsive plugin authors out there.
@Stratos – I didn’t even think of that use for the spoiler plugin – that’s a really good idea.
I also do recaps at my other blog and so I can see using the spoiler function to hide um, well, spoilers about the next episode or some bits of gossip.
I wish they had a function on forums that allowed you to kick a person off the internet for 24 hours when they go for the 14 inches of blank space instead of using the spoiler function. Could somebody invent that?
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@Gennaro – We love our stats. :-) I’m not going to install it though.
@Vered – Too many plugins can slow things down and a poorly written one can definitely cause a security risk. I try to stick with ones written by and recommended by trusted authors.
@Tracy – Oh that blank space thing is really annoying.
i like the WP Twitip ID plugin. i even tried it, but the tweet field threw another field off and i said forget it. i posted for help in andy’s forum and the last i checked there was no response, but i’m sure he responded by now, i just havent check.
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The Tweetback does sound interesting, but I think I will pass on getting new plugins for the time being. I have a couple that I need to fix already. It’s amazing how many are available!
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Okay, Kim. You got me. I’m a closet stats junkie. I love ’em! And honestly I always have. Even way before I started this whole crazy blogging gig. When I worked as a paramedic on the campus of the University of California Santa Barbara, I had to compile the monthly stats for the calls we handled. The other paramedics hated doing it, but I loved diving into the numbers. It was interesting to me to see how many times we went to Stork Hall for alcohol intoxication after midnight on Wednesdays…
So I’m getting me THAT plug in fer sure!
Also, since I’m a twitter kind of dude, Tweetbacks is 4 me!
Thanks for the plug ins!
George
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I am using tweetbacks (part of tweetsuite) right now in my blog. Initially tweetbacks was slowing up the page a lot, but the latest version )included as part of tweetsuite) is really fast. just that not many people tweets about my post :|
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@Natural – I’m sure Andy will get it fixed. It seems like a lot of people want to add the twitter field to their comments form.
@Carla – There are SO many plugins. Some are useful, others not so much.
@George – LOL I’m like that about dates. I’m glad you like some of the plugins.
@Raju – I’m not familiar with tweetsuite – I’ll have to take a look at that.
it was really useful and learnt about new plugins.
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@ vered – I could be wrong but apart from poorly designed plugins and those that aren’t up to date, the worst thing that you can have that will make your site more vulnerable are those plugins that are not activated. Bloggers should remember to remove all plugins that are no longer being used.
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Good set. I used to use WP-Stats. It was really nice knowing that detailed statistics were only a click away from my dashboard (and sometimes embedded within it.) However, I got rid of it because it is tied into central WP stats and seemed to slow my blog down at times. (I used it in conjunction with a post popularity plugin.)
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Jeez, it’s been a while since I was here. Sorry about that.
I like the idea of the Mail to Staff plugin. I think it would work well if you’re using WordPress as a membership site or a directory, which I am. So I’ll give it a bash and let you know.
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@Arun – Are you going to try any of them?
@Sire – That’s a good point. Yesterday I went through all of my sites and deleted the plugins that I wasn’t using anymore.
@Shirley – WP Stats does seem to slow things down. It’s nice to have the data right on the dashboard but there is a cost to it.
@Dave – Don’t be sorry – I’m just getting back to visiting other sites – I feel behind and guilty about it.
Let me know how Mail to Staff works (I don’t think you are the person who originally asked me about a plugin like that though).
Hi Kim: I just installed the WP Stats plug in and it’s working great. Thank you.
WP Stats is a very nice plugin. It keeps me from having to go to my Google Analytics page or Feedburner.
And the Tweetbacks is also very nice. They have a really easy to follow tutorial on how to implement it into your blog on SmachingMagazine.com. Twitip-ID looks really interesting. Checking it out now.
Going to give WP Twitip ID a try. I used another Twitter plugin before, but never worked with Wp 2.7. Great list, cheers.
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@Marelisa – Great! I’m glad that it’s working properly.
@AJ – Thank you for visiting and commenting. Did you install Tweetbacks? I saw the instructions for it, which looked a little daunting for many users but didn’t read them thoroughly.
@Andrew – Thank you for visiting and commenting. Tawny, in the comments, mentioned that Twitip wasn’t working with 2.7. Let me know if you get it to work.
I got the tweekbacks plugin to work. I had to update my comments file to a wordpress 2.7 comments file. Now the tweetbacks plugin works great.
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@Nicholi – I got it to work last night with a non WordPress 2.7 comments form. I’m having a bit of trouble getting threaded comments to work because I have such a customized comment form. I’ve been working on it on and off.
Nice list Kim. I might use the Spoiler plugin in my gaming blog.
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@Madhur – I was thinking of your gaming site when I was writing the article :-)
Email Staff plugin is for registered users only right? I guess, I have seen this before.
Though, I have been hearing the name WP Stats for a long time now, I thought it’s to provide analytical information on number of posts, comments etc. Didn’t know that I can use it for ranks. I am a bit pissed off with the current Show Off rankings widget because it injects some URLs as well onto my home page. But are we talking about ranks for the admin or something like a widget for all users as well?
@Ajith – Yes, Email Staff is just for registered users of a site.
And you just caught an error. WP Stats is like a simplified google analytics in your WordPress dashboard. This one is called Blog Stats (I just changed the name) and gives all of the other statistics listed above. As far as I can tell the data is just for the admin of the site. But, I could be wrong because I haven’t tested it.
Oh okay :) Should check it out…
Set up Tweetbacks yestery. Love it. Thank you very much for the tip. Great idea, I will contact the developer of WP Twitip ID . I really enjoyed that one for a day :) Thanks again.
Tawny Press´s last blog post – TweepSearch for Twitter
@Tawny – I set them up here too and they are working great. I wasn’t quite sure what would happen.