This evening, I made a switch to a new plug-in to handle my Technorati Tags. Since the move to WordPress 2.0, I’d been having problems with my old tag manager, Bunny’s Technorati Tags and Ultimate Tag Warrior came highly recommended, so I decided to give it a try and see. Immediately I noticed that it was in a much bigger league and even though Bunny’s has just recently been fixed with 2.0, I made the call and switched.

So I’m liking this new plug-in and everything looks sunny and joyful, except for the fact that all my tags that were assigned in the past via Bunny’s are no longer around. That sincerely blows, but whatever. There’s a way to rescue them, but as of this moment a bit to A.D.D. to manage it slogging through help files and forums. When I do get it down, I’ll note how I did it here. For now, I just wanted to post something, just to see UTW in action. Sweet.

Update:

Now I am seriously impressed. Within ten minutes of posting this entry, the creator of UTW popped on by and clued me in on how to rescue all my old tags. That is way cool. Thank you Christine D. UTW is a great plug-in and it’s developer made my day!

Since I’m already on a roll with the whole making lists of favorite things, I thought I’d post my most favorite of the plugins I use with WordPress. I made the switch to WordPress from Movable Type about a month ago and since then I’ve been using quite a few of the hundreds of plugins out there. While I’m sure there are a whole bunch of great ones I’m missing and there might be better versions of plugins that I’m using, in my limited experience, so far, I’m loving these plugins. Try them out or let me know if you’ve found better.

1. Spam Karma 2: I hate spam. I hate the spammers that send spam. I have been blasted by comment spam for years and have employed various methods and tools to stop them. Spam Karma seems to be the mother of all comment moderators. It works on a scoring system, running each comment through a battery of tests dependent on several factors such as inclusion in RBLs, number of links, IP address and much more. Honestly, since installing WordPress, the spammers that were giving me headaches have gone, but I’m not stupid enough to think they’re not going to come back after their spider finds the new comment system. So the big tests lie in the future, but so far, it’s worked very well and people I know that are using it vouch for it. I’m impressed.
2. Bad Behavior: Prevents spambots from accessing your site by analyzing their actual HTTP requests and comparing them to profiles from known spambots.
3. Google URL Redirector: This plugin strips URLs from your comments and uses the Google “nofollow” redirector to prevent comment spammers from taking advantage of your pagerank. A basic, necessary plugin.
4. Referrer Bouncer: The other half of the blog/spam nightmare is referral spamming. I get slammed by these assholes around the clock. My referral stats are not public, but to check them routinely shows that my top referrers are gambling and loan portals. Fucking scumfucks. It’s tricky stopping this too. Referrer Bouncer is a plugin that helps you edit your .htaccess file to block the bad guys and bounce referrer spammers back to their own sites. . Like I said, it’s a tricky business and nothing works perfectly, but it’s better than nothing.
5. WP-ContactForm: Allows you to ad a customizable contact form to any page or post. It works perfectly and I use it on this site.
6. Backup Restore: Makes backing up your theme and SQL database a simple, one-click procedure.
7. XFish Meta: Allows you to enter per-post meta keywords and descriptions.
8. WP Email Notification: Some people are just resistant to RSS. For those who prefer the old fashioned way to be notified of updates, this plugin manages a mailing list that will email users the site updates automatically.
9. RunPHP: Allows you to put PHP code into a post and have it eval()’d.
10. Google Sitemaps: Google has a new service called Sitemaps. Basically, by creating an XML file that functions as an RSS update notification to let Google know when your site has been changed and helps the bot crawling your site to do a better job. This plugin took care of all the work for me.
11. Simple Search and Replace: This lets you search for and replace text sitewide, throughout all of your posts. This came in REALLY handy when I switched to WordPress and was tackling the project of making all the posts on this site valid XHTML.
12. WP-CC: Not like you couldn’t just manually put the Creative Commons license info into the footer yourself, but this plugin does the job for you. Hey, why not? More importantly, it also adds CC info to the headers and to your RSS feeds.

There’s a few other plugins I’m currently using, but have not decided whether they are truly necessary. All the above plugins I feel I have an actual use for. If anyone knows of better versions or a good plugin that I’m missing, let me know and I’ll check it out.

I was just reading this chick’s post about the lifecycle of bloggers and it’s true for the most part, I feel like it’s missing some key points. Her list applies to most bloggers, not this one. Therefore, people of Earth, I present to you:

The Lifecycle of Blogging Losers

1. You start reading blogs because you’re a twisted, lonely shut-in.
   Maybe it was your parents neglecting you. Maybe it was all those years you spent with your mouth duct-taped to the end of a bong. End result, you’re a neurotic, anti-social, freak-a-zoid that has spends all his time locked away alone with the shades drawn, mumbling and twitching with no real friends. Living like that, eventually, you’re going to start reading blogs, sure. Shoving a lit stick of dynamite up your ass works too.
2. You start a blog because it beats talking to real people.
   People, you can’t shoot them, you can’t talk to them and you certainly can’t keep their heads in jars to keep you company. So what do you do to pass those slow nights when you’re just burning to tell someone about the bugs that are crawling beneath your skin? Hell, you start a motherfucking blog! Somebody, somewhere is interested in what you have to say. They just have to be! Right?
3. You become giddy with self-perceived false blogging power.
   You are so witty. What will you say next? Somebody in Cambodia reads your blog like once a month! You deserve awards, chariots and laurels, but for now, you are content to keep up with the daily gems of brilliance. Someone will notice your genius and shower you with cash, bitches and a neverending weed supply any day now. You are part of an elite group of uber-hip people.
4. The cold, hard truth sets in. You’re a blogging loser.
   No one gives a fuck about your blog, much less you. It’s too late though, that obsessive trait that defines you has found a new outlet. You are compelled to post. If you don’t post, you are an even bigger loser. You realize that all those times you casually dropped your URL in conversations resulted in people visiting your website and rather than seeing your blinding intelligence, they saw you for the addled nutcase freak you are. Yes, that’s why all those people don’t talk to you anymore.
5. Your blog bites you in the ass and leaves teeth marks.
   Somebody, your boss, your grandmother or possibly the Pope stumbles across your blog and reads that post about how you inhaled all the freon out of the refrigerator and ran naked down the street tearing invisible rats from your body and throwing them at pedestrians. You get fired/disowned/excommunicated. However, this does not stop your manic blogging, it only serves to further twist you and seperate you from all those stupid humans. You feel compelled to wear tinfoil clothing around the home.
6. In a fit of despair, you take down your blog, only to restore it. Rinse, repeat 50x.
   Life is pointless. You have nothing to say that isn’t monosyllabic. The tinfoil hat can’t block the evil rays beamed at you. How can you possibly continue this blog? So, you face that bleak, grey vista and tear that blog right the fuck down. You are king of this castle! Unfortunately, something like five minutes later, you realize that unless you either go outside and interact with real people or start that blog right the fuck back up, you are going to tear you eyes out and glue them to your fingertips. So, the blog goes back up. This cycle can go on for years.
7. You execute a short-lived attempt at having a point.
   You’re getting old, you must have some purpose by now. You must! Unfortunately, the only point you have is that losers like you are pointless. So much for that.
8. The meltdown
   After a particularly dark night of the soul coupled with some bomb weed and bad sashimi, you give up all your mortal possessions and flee to the mountains. Living in a cave, you grow a big-ass beard and subsist entirely on roots, grubs and small forest critters. You discover a certain profound truth to this austere, rugged life. You begin speaking to the animals of the forest. You hang with Sasquatch. At last, you feel complete. Yet, if you’re so complete, why can’t you stop writing “posts” to your “blog” by smearing feces on the cave wall? With the realization that you cannot escape your pathetic blog, you return to civilization and to the internet.