What is a plugin?
- WordPress: Plugins (generally a better search interface than the one inside WP!)
How I assess plugins
- compatible with current version of WordPress
- last updated?
- thoroughness of documentation
- install on boilerplate version, which runs clean with debogger, log deprecated, etc. Does plugin run clean? If not, don’t use.
- number of downloads
- average rating (if a large number of ratings)
Plugins I use
(talk about the difference between core plugins and nifty plugins)
Core plugins
These plugins are ones that I consider core to this installation. They validate under HTML5, CSS3, Log Deprecated Notices and Theme Check. Akismet actually comes bundled with WordPress. As time permits I will expand slightly on the choice of each plugin.
Production
- Akismet
- After the Deadline
- bib3html
- W3 Total Cache
- NextGen Gallery
- Social Connect
- Sharedaddy
- email option does not validate
- google+ does not validate as HTML5 via the W3C validator
Development
Bootstrapping plugins
These plugins are plugins that I am grateful to have while I am getting the site up and running, but do not expect to keep using over the long run. They may fail one or another validation test or may simply be a wonderful bridge to functionality that is important to offer from the start but will get incorporated directly once I have the chance.
