Paul Annekov

<h4>Looking for maintainer. Write me to paul.annekov@gmail.com</h4>
Flexible Recent Posts (FRP) plugin gives you possibility to add widget to your blog with recent posts using user-defined template.
The main features are:
<ul>
<li>Template for each post in widget. You can write your HTML-template or overwrite default in widget form.</li>
<li>Shortcodes support in template. You can use built-in shortcodes to insert info related to current post in widget: <code>title</code>, <code>featured image</code>, <code>excerpt</code>, <code>date</code>, <code>permalink</code>, <code>author</code>, <code>comments</code>.</li>
<li>Restrict terms from which you want to display posts. Display posts from all terms or from selected only.</li>
<li>Number of posts to display. Set number of latest posts that will be displayed in widget.</li>
<li>All posts links. Select option to display link near the title or/and after all posts that will open selected posts category page. Set link title or custom link URL.</li>
</ul>
Useful links:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flexible-recent-posts/other_notes/" rel="ugc">Template shortcodes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://frp.idea.informer.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">Feature requests</a></li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/tags/flexible-recent-posts?forum_id=10#postform" rel="ugc">Bugs</a></li>
<li><a href="https://flattr.com/thing/646464" rel="nofollow ugc">Donate (Flattr)</a></li>
</ul>
Translators:
<ul>
<li>Russian (ru) – <a href="http://www.steelrat.info/en/" rel="nofollow ugc">Paul Annekov</a></li>
</ul>
Licenses
<ul>
<li>Uses <a href="http://www.fatcow.com/free-icons" rel="nofollow ugc">FatCow Icon Set</a> licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/" rel="nofollow ugc">Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Shortcodes</h3>
Plugin template system supports 5 shortcodes related to current widget post, that you can use in your template:
Title [frp_title]
Displays post title.
Example: <code><h4>[frp_title]</h4></code>
Excerpt [frp_excerpt length=””]
Displays post excerpt using <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/get_the_excerpt" title="Visit function reference page" rel="nofollow ugc">get_the_excerpt</a> function. 
You can specify excerpt length using <code>length</code> attribute. If not specified – default WordPress excerpt length used.
Example: <code><div class="excerpt">[frp_excerpt]</div></code>, <code>[frp_excerpt length="15"]</code>
Date [frp_date format=”F j, Y” time_since=”0″]
Displays post date. You can add <code>format</code> shortcode parameter to change date format. Read about format value <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Formatting_Date_and_Time" title="Visit customizing time and date reference page" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a>. 
Add <code>time_since</code> parameter with 1 as value to display amount of elapsed time: <code>30 seconds ago</code>, <code>5 minutes ago</code>, <code>12 hours ago</code>, <code>3 Jun</code>.
Example: <code><div class="date">[frp_date format="Y/m/d g:i:s A"]</div></code>, <code><div class="elapsed">[frp_date time_since="1"]</div></code>
Link [frp_link]
Displays post permalink.
Example: <code><a href="[frp_link]">read more</a></code>
Featured image [frp_thumbnail size=”32×32″]
Displays featured post image. Add <code>size</code> shortcode parameter to change image size. You can define size using WIDTHxHEIGHT as value or size name (built-in or defined in theme).
Examples: <code>[frp_thumbnail]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="thumbnail"]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="128x128"]</code>, <code>[frp_thumbnail size="full"]</code>
Author [frp_author link=”1″]
Displays name of the post’s author. Set <code>link</code> parameter to 0 if you want to disable link (author’s site) from author name.
Examples: <code>[frp_author]</code>, <code>[frp_author link="1"]</code>, <code>[frp_author link="0"]</code>
Comments [frp_comments no_text=”1″]
Displays the number of comments. Set <code>no_text</code> parameter to 1 if you want to disable comment text (just “23” instead of “23 Comments”).
Examples: <code>[frp_comments]</code>, <code>[frp_comments no_text="1"]</code>, <code>[frp_comments no_text="0"]</code>

Flexible Recent Posts

Displays recent posts using flexible template system. Define template for each post entry, set needed taxonomy and much more.

RobMarsh

Recent Posts displays a list of your blog’s newest posts. The output can be customised in <a href="http://rmarsh.com/plugins/post-options/" rel="nofollow ugc">many</a> ways.
This plugin requires the latest version of the Post-Plugin Library: <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/post-plugin-library.zip" rel="nofollow ugc">download it now</a>.
<h3>Version History</h3>
<ul>
<li>2.6.2.0
<ul>
<li>new {imagealt} output tag — rather like {imagesrc}</li>
<li>{excerpt} can now trim to whole sentences</li>
<li>content filter can now take parameter string</li>
<li>widget can now take parameter string</li>
<li>output can be appended to posts & feeds</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.6.1.0
<ul>
<li>the current post can be marked manually</li>
<li>widgets now honour the option to show no output if list is empty</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.6.0.1
<ul>
<li>bug fix: installation code was failing on some systems</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.6.0.0
<ul>
<li>version bump to indicate compatibility with WP 2.6</li>
<li>fix to really include attachments</li>
<li>new parameter for {imagesrc} to append a suffix to the image name, e.g. to get the thumbnail for attachments</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5.0.11
<ul>
<li>new option to include attachments</li>
<li>{php} tag now accepts nested tags</li>
<li>new output tag {authorurl} — permalink to archive of author’s posts</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5.0.10
<ul>
<li>fix for page selection in old versions of WP</li>
<li>made omit current post try harder to find current post ID</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5.0.9
<ul>
<li>new option to order by date of last edit rather than date of creation</li>
<li>new option to match the current post’s author</li>
<li>extended options for snippet and excerpt output tags</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5.0.7
<ul>
<li>new option to show by status, i.e., published/private/draft/future</li>
<li>{categorynames} and {categorylinks} apply ‘single_cat_name’ filter</li>
<li>fixes bug in WP pre-2.2 causing installation to fail</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5.0
<ul>
<li>{image} has new post, link, and default parameters</li>
<li>new {imagesrc} tag</li>
<li>fix to empty category bug</li>
<li>excluded posts bug fix</li>
<li>fix for intermittent bug with ‘omit current post’ option</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b26
<ul>
<li>reverted thumbnail serving (speed)</li>
<li>fix current post after extra query</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b25
<ul>
<li>option to sort output, group templates</li>
<li>removed ‘trim_before’ option added more logical ‘divider’</li>
<li>{date:raw}, {commentdate:raw}, etc.</li>
<li>fix for {image} resizing when and not </li>
<li>{image} now serves real thumbnails</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b24
<ul>
<li>fix for recursive replacement by content filter</li>
<li>fix to {gravatar} to allow for ‘identicon’ etc.</li>
<li>fix to {commenter} to allow trimming</li>
<li>fix a warning in safe mode</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b23
<ul>
<li>new option to filter on custom fields</li>
<li>nested braces in {if}; condition now taggable</li>
<li>improved bug report feature</li>
<li>better way to omit user comments</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b22
<ul>
<li>show_pages option can now show only pages</li>
<li>fixes for tag bugs</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b19
<ul>
<li>fix for content replacement filter</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b18
<ul>
<li>fix output filter bug</li>
<li>add conditional tag {if:condition:yes:no}</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b16
<ul>
<li>fix for {php}</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b15
<ul>
<li>fix bugs, add ‘included posts’ setting</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b14
<ul>
<li>fix file-encoding, installation error, etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>2.5b11
<ul>
<li>some widget fixes</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
2.5b9
<ul>
<li>clarifying installation instructions</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="http://rmarsh.com/plugins/recent-posts/" rel="nofollow ugc">previous versions</a>
</li>
</ul>

Flexible Recent Posts vs Recent Posts