One of my few readers (I think I have 9 loyal ones and 15 random visitors per week who never return according to my stats, hahaha!) named Valerie commented on this previous post asking about some of the WordPress plugins that I use for my blog.
Valerie is a vegetarian web developer who has a blog called 21st Century Girl which is about knitting, books, vegetarianism, recipes, animals and her other interests. I think that she has lost interest in blogging because of lack of readership and/or comments, so please do encourage her to continue by visiting her blog. Pretty please leave some nice comments! This post you're now reading is my reply to her comment. 
As for my own blog, I still haven't categorized and tagged any of my posts (feeling very lazy about starting this cumbersome task), however, I did finally fix my Flickr images streaming on my sidebar. I had temporarily disabled my Flick sidebar images last week. I wasn't aware that I was streaming test photos from the PUBLIC Flickr stream (NOT MINE!). Some people contacted me and asked me why I was streaming PORN. FOR THE RECORD, THOSE, UMMM, PICS WERE DEFINITELY NOT NOT NOT MINE! 
As for those WordPress plugins that Valerie had asked about, here's my long answer (the ones that I don't currently use, I have tried and tested):
A. Combat Spam 
fruity says, "Spammers will be shot in front of a live studio audience."
Akismet (it's effective!)
You don't have to do anything to configure Akismet besides entering your WordPress.com API key, just activate and relax. However you do currently need at least WordPress version 2.0 or above. Akismet filters and puts the spam it catches into a queue in your WordPress administration for you to review and delete.
Spam Karma 2 (an alternative to Akismet, but the author is no longer developing, maintaining or supporting the plugin as of January 1, 2009)
Spam Karma 2 (SK2) is an anti-spam plugin meant to stop all forms of automated blog spam effortlessly, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible to regular commenters. SK2 currently requires WordPress version 1.5.1 or above.
Peter's Custom Anti-Spam (use with Akismet or Spam Karma 2 for extra protection)
I like this because it prevents most automated spam algorithms from coming through at all, whereas Akismet filters and drops your spam into a queue for review. Stop a lot of spambots from polluting your site by making visitors identify a random word displayed as an image before commenting. You can customize the pool of words to display.
B. Recent Comments
Fresh Comments Widget (requires widget-enabled theme and WordPress 2.0+)
If you have a widget-enabled WordPress blog (widgets allow you to easily add cool features to your sidebar), try Fresh Comments widget. Add an enhanced recent comments widget to allow you to have more control on how fresh comments can be displayed.
Brian's Latest Comments (I no longer use this)
Try this non-widget alternative. It currently works with WordPress 1.5 and WordPress 2.0.
C. Subscribe to Comments (I no longer use this)
Allows readers to receive notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry. STC currently works with WordPress 1.5.1+ and WordPress 2.0+ as of STC version 2.0.4. Excellent. Some of my readers have told me they really like it.
Adieu,
Massa P aka "fruity and PORN-FREE"
hi, want some fruity karma? please bookmark this, 
about this, and subscribe to the blog full RSS feed OR e-mail feed.
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Thanks, for this list of WordPress plugins with brief explanations of the features. Much appreciated.
I am using a 'threaded comment' plugin. I can't remember the name or the website, but it's not that hard to find. It's great because you can respond to individual comments.
"ohmibod" - strange, but I love it!
I never had trouble with spam since I'm using Haloscan, or maybe there isn't that much traffic on my blog or maybe spammers hate me, whatever… I dont know.
@Ajay: Thanks! Yes, I read that Bad Behaviour is good too. I'll check it out tonight as well as your plugins. Readers, check out Bad Behaviour from this site.
You forgot Bad Behavior.
You're welcome.
Bad Behavior should be the first line of defence. I use SK2 as the second line of defence and the Akismet SK2 plugin for SK2 as the third line.
I just added the Peter's plugin because I still have lots of spam getting through BB and being blocked by SK2. I don't want that either.
Do check out my plugins. You may want to take a look at Transpose Email. I've a release planned in two weeks with Quicktags Support.
Thanks! I should really re-do my blog. Maybe divide my interests. Thanks for the kind promo!
Thanks for mentioning my Fresh Comments plugin.
You pingbacked my blog with your old slug too. I did a little search and found this page.
By the way, I love Azumanga too.
WordPress plugins? Ho-hum. Oh, the Flickr thing was a mistake? I prefer real porn over food porn (clever), darling.
@Mark Jaquith: Oh, cool! A comment from the developer of the very excellent Subscribe to Comments. THANK YOU for the info. I will try your "Redirect Old Slugs" plugin because I'm the type that always changes my slug names.
@Valerie and all my 8 other readers: Check that out, too! I didn't even know about this problem. I'm such a WordPress noob.
I've got another one for you. When you originally posted this entry, the title was "WordPress Plugins" which gave you a post slug of "wordpress-plugins".
You subsequently edited the post, changed the title to "WordPress Plugins and Porn-free," and then updated your post slug to "wordpress-plugins-and-porn-free".
This means that all the pingbacks you sent when you published your entry point to a non-existent page (the one with the old slug). I clicked the one you sent me for "Subscribe to Comments" and got your 404 page.
Install this… it'll forward your old slugs, so you can change your mind on the post slug after publishing and your readers will be forwarded to the new URL.