fruityoaty.com

One of my few readers (I think I have 9 loyal ones and 15 random visitors per week who, according to my stats never return, hahaha!) named Valerie commented on a this previous post asking about some of the WordPress plugins that I’ve integrated into 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 here. Leave some nice comments!

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.

Akismet Spam Count (optional, cool)

Akismet Spam Count retrieves the number of spam messages Akismet has caught and displays that number on your website. Akismet is required in order to use this plugin. (Scroll down on my blog and check out my footer to see my current spam count!)

Spam Karma 2 (an alternative to Akismet - I don’t use this)

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 Image Plugin (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 Widgets plugin and WordPress 2.0+)

If you have a widget-enabled blog (WordPress 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 don’t use this)

Try this non-widget alternative. It currently works with WordPress 1.5 and WordPress 2.0.

C. Subscribe to Comments (as of writing, I’m using version 2.0.8)

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,

fruity and PORN-FREE
Extenze Longlasting Stamina