What’s the most annoying WordPress plugin? It’s almost certain that no consensus will be reached on this, but let me start by nominating WP Greet Box.
If you’re not familiar with the WP Greet Box plugin by name, you’ve probably seen it in action a time or two. Upon entering some WordPress sites you are “greeted” with a box that pops open at the top of the content area with a statement that begins something like, “Hello Googler…” or “Hello Digger…”. This greet is immediately followed by a request to vote up the post, subscribe to the feed or some other action that is to the benefit of the blogger.
I’m not against spreading blog content through social channels, I’m just against the route that these blogs (via the plugin) take to do it. When I click on a link to visit some blog, one of the last things I want is to be immediately panhandled asked to vote your story up or grab your feed. How about you let me cruise through your content first and then you can plead your case?
Making an immediate call to action request of visitors before they have even seen your story is like a car salesman asking for your money before you perform a test drive; it’s not a good practice to get in to. Better to save requests like these after you’ve written your last sentence.
What do you think of the WP Greet Box plugin? Or better yet, what do you consider to be the most annoying WordPress plugin?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Whew! I was nervous to click the link… Didn’t want to come here and see my plugin as the “most annoying”! haha
I agree though, users should at least have time to judge whether the article is worthy of a call to action before one is presented in such an “in your face” manner.
Josh,
I like your plugin. I’m still thinking about installing it instead of the Sociofluid plugin I went with last night.
Haha, well that’s a relief! However, I would honestly recommend that if you plan to install mine, you should probably wait until the next release… This past release let loose a LOT of bugs that we’re trying to squash.
Sorry, forgot to nominate the one I think to be the most annoying… I don’t know the name of it, but it’s the one that stuffs that huge toolbar that sticks to the bottom of your viewport at all times…
In my opinion, it’s more “in your face” than the greetbox plugin.
Josh,
I don’t know the name of that one either, I was actually searching through that toolbar the other day trying to find out it’s name. That one is annoying as well, and I might have mentioned it had I known it’s name.
What is the plugin that he makes ? Always interested in what people are doing in plugins.
He makes the Sexy Bookmarks plugin. If you click on his name you can find out more about it. It’s become quite popular
I am at the site. You kn0w – there is no easy way to find out what the plug in does. I can see updates, download it, see the history of it. Where is a simple page that just says what it does?
Hey Patrick,
Yea that’s one of the most complained about things in regards to the site… I’m working on creating a new theme which will feature a “static” front page that tells all about the plugin, how it works, what it does, etc…
Look for it in the next few months or so.
Thanks for reading and responding Rob. I’ll look for it in the future. Thanks for doing WP plugin development too. It is people like you that make WP the kickass platform that it is.