From Matt, the grand high poobah of the WordPress community, on the things you shouldn’t need to think about:
I try to build everything imagining I have a million users. (Someday!) Small things add up — if there is an option in the interface that people have to think about for only 2 seconds (which is probably low) across a million users that’s 23 days (555 hours) of time lost to the world! (Call centers track efficiency per second because of similar constraints. Small things add up.)
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This is why we say no by default to pretty much every suggested option, and we do our best to remove the ones that have built up over the years. (I just axed a whole panel earlier tonight.)
All that said, hard-core developers often need flexibility in the system to expand WordPress to things we’ve never even imagined, and that’s where our plugin system comes in. While we often say no to new options, we rarely ever shoot down a suggested extension to our plugin API. The beauty of this is it allows for near-infinite flexibility in how you interact with the program (there are some amazing plugins out there) while still keeping the core light, clean, stable, and fast.
Yep, WordPress sets everything to a default, yet it is just about infinitely flexible thanks to the plugins.
It Just Works.
And with the appropriate plugins, It Works Even Better. 
4 Comments
Ian,
What are the appropriate plug-ins, and what do they do for you? And how do you avoid getting flooded with comment spam?
Will
OK, here’s what I have running now, with explanations:
Spam Karma 2 — Best spam plugin ever. Nothing gets through, once it gets its bearings.
CJD Spam Nuke — WordPress stores spam comments in its database, but you can’t view them directly. This plugin lets you look at them and delete them all if you want (SK 2 makes it mostly redundant).
Comment QuickTags — Adds quicktags to comment forms. Quicktags let you click a button to add an HTML tag.
Enhanced Post List — Allows users more freedom in viewing archives, and hasn’t conflicted with anything else.
Footnotes — My most recent addition. Add a footnote in the middle of a post, and it gets formatted and numbered correctly. I haven’t examined the HTML it generates, which I suspect is not standards compliant, but it works correctly in all major browsers, so I’m content at the moment.
TFS - Text Filter Suite — A group of plugins that will alter the text of an individual post or all your posts. Most are silly (e.g., “Talk Like a Pirate”, which also can activate only for posts dated on Talk Like a Pirate Day), but one is damn useful: AcronymIt, which automatically adds an <acronym> element around any acronyms in its database, which saves no little time in markup.
WP Add QuickTag — Lets you add quicktags to your admin interface with no hassle. I use it for <cite> and <acronym>. For some reason, quicktags don’t show up in Safari (but do in Firefox).
I do get flooded with comment spam, but don’t have to deal with most of it. SK2 catches the majority, and when a new variety appears, it gets moderated so I can approve/disapprove it. If disapproved, the originating IP, and any links and email addresses go into the blacklist, ensuring that future spams of its kind get spanked.
Thanks!
De nada.