Over the coming months, I will gradually be compiling an ongoing list of my favorite wordpress plugins into a single post that will hopefully prove useful to those that are new to WordPress. Included in the post are brief descriptions of what each plugins does and links to full reviews I’ve done of each individual plugin.
A little while ago Stasys actually took this a step further by compiling a list of the Top 3o of the Most Popular WordPress Plugins. Stasys actually went through and compiled a list of the most popular plugins recommended by various WordPress users and tallied them. He then figured which ones are the most often recommended.
For your reference, here are the top 5 most recommended plugins from around the blogosphere:
I have no real complaints with these 5, although I’m surprised Related Posts wasn’t #1. To see the other 25, click over to Staska!
Kyle Eslick
Kyle Eslick is the founder and primary author of WordPress Hacks. You can learn more about him at KyleEslick.com or you can follow his personal tweets here.
WordPress is just amazing, and was recently honoured as the best open source CMS around. So not just is WordPress ...
Nice share.thanks 
I too have quite recently started using CommentLuv and KeywordLuv and I have noticed a big difference in the number ...
No Way! That sounds like a great membership! It is definately a nice opportunity. 
Wordpress is a powerful tool not just for blogs, but also for different news sites. Using some customization and hacks ...
This was what I needed. I didn't have to search more than 2 links to find everything all on your ...
I’m quite fond of WP AJAX Edit Comments. From a reader perspective it is excellent as it means you can go back and correct your mistakes after commenting.
And of course the notify comments plugin that you are using.
Andrew,
I think that the idea of the plugin is great, but when I tried it about 6 months ago I ran into some problems and some readers voiced frustrations with it (accidentally clicking to edit a comment when they didn’t want to).
I have that plugin down on my “to-do” list for a future plugin review. I’m hoping it has been improved since I last tried it!