Shankar Ganesh

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WordPress: Top Commentators Plugin Options

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Mostly everyone who has a WordPress blog has started using the Top Commentators Plugin. Unfortunately, this plugin doesn’t have a preferences page so you’ve to modify its options only using the Plugin Editor available at Plugins >> Plugin Editor.

Don’t worry, modifying the options for the Top Commentators plugin isn’t that tough using the editor. It’s really easy. Let me tell you what what options are available and how you can modify them. All of these are listed at PFAdvices.

  • Make the top commentators list reset in a time interval

Look for the text “reset”. You can modify the text inside the quotes to anything like hourly, daily, weekly, yearly according to how often you want to reset the plugin. There’s an additional parameter you can use – that’s #. If you want to reset the commentators list every 10 days, you can use #10.

  • Limit the number of people shown on the list

Check for “limit”. Limit the number of names you want to be shown using this option. For example, if you want only three people to be shown in the list, it should be like this: “limit” => 3.

  • Filter a name from appearing in the list

You can use the “filter_users” option to prevent any name from appearing in the list. If you find anyone spamming around, you could use this. You could also prevent your own name from appearing in the list using this option. For instance, “filter_users” => “Shankar”, “Shankar Ganesh” will filter the two names Shankar and Shankar Ganesh from appearing in the list :D

  • Filter a website URL from getting into the top commentators list

You can filter any website URL from the list using “filter_urls“. Note that this will not filter the names with the associated URLs.

  • Display a message when no comments made

You can set a message to be displayed when nobody has started commenting yet using the “none_text” option. For example “none_text” => “No commentators yet” will display the same message under the heading ‘Top Commentators”

  • Link or don’t link to the commentator’s website

Set the make_links option to 2 if you don’t want to link to the commentator’s website. By default the value is 1.

  • Limit a name’s length

Using the name_limit option, you can limit the number of characters that’ll get displayed if you find your blog’s commentators names are too long.

  • Name seperators

Set the HTML code that seperates each name from the other using the start_html and end_html options. By default, it’s <li> and </li>.

  • Extra tip: Make the Top Commentators list appear only on the homepage

The top commentators list is usually displayed site-wide across all pages on your blog. You can make it appear only on the homepage by using this block of code:

<?php if ( is_home() ) { ?>
<?php if(function_exists(‘ns_show_top_commentators’)) { ?>
<li>
<h2>Top Commentators</h2>
<ul><?php ns_show_top_commentators(); ?></ul>
</li>
<?php } ?>
<?php } ?>

Hope you found the post useful!

Written by admin

June 17th, 2007 at 6:52 am

Posted in wordpress

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  • http://daily-tech-news.blogspot.com/ Ramkarthik

    Cool. I will have to use these once I get my WordPress blog. Thanks.

  • http://sizzledcore.uni.cc/blog/ Haris

    Cool, thanks for sharing. This will really help the beginners like me who don’t know PHP.

    Thanks again for sharing.

  • http://sizzledcore.uni.cc/blog/2007/06/17/speed-linking-june-17-2007/ Sizzled Core » Speed Linking – June 17, 2007

    [...] WordPress: Top Commentators Plugin Option by Shankar Ganesh [...]

  • http://techyantra.net Beta3

    one doubt. are you sure its “limit”=>3 to limit users to 3??

    Just asking coz it means limit equal to or greater than 3. so doesn’t it mean minimum 3 rather than maximum 3?

    Secondly in C/C++ its always written as >= i.e greater than/less than is always followed by ‘=” rather than the reverse, if u get what i mean. I am not sure abt PHP though…

  • http://techyantra.net Beta3

    Sorry i got the trick => is similar to ‘=’ . Forgive my ignorance :P

  • http://www.manast.com Manas

    Thanks for the tips.. I am going to install the plugin sometime now. ;)

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Beta3: No problem
    Manas: Fine, will you be installing the ‘subscribe to comments’ plugin as well? ;)

  • http://www.kuanhoong.com/ kuanhoong

    Good write-up. I think almost everyone is using this plug-in now

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    I’m glad you liked it, Kuanhoong. Yeah, everyone seems to use this plugin.

  • http://www.alltipsandtricks.com/blog Simonne

    This is very useful. I did not know how to take my name out of the list ;)

  • http://www.manast.com Manas

    @ Shankar – Installed the plugin and the Subscribe to comments one as well. ;)

  • http://www.brownbaron.com/blog/ Brown Baron

    This plugin is one of my favorites as it’s a great way to give recognition to your most active readers. The link love is great too lol.

  • http://techie-buzz.com Techie Buzz

    Awesome post, this is a real good way to decipher what a software does for the end user.

  • http://www.teknobites.com ram

    Good post buddy, this is a useful plugin to increase comments.

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Manas: I’m glad you installed it.
    @Brown Baron: You’re right.
    @Simonne, Techie Buzz, Ram: Thanks, and I’m glad you enjoyed this post.

  • http://www.nirmaltv.com Nirmal

    Nice tutorial. I’m using the top commentator widget, which is can be customized easily.

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Nirmal: Hmm… I should give the widget a try.

  • http://www.avirtualexit.com Gili

    Very nice Shankar. Stumbled.

  • http://blogs.mysites-advisor.com/index.php/2007/06/19/whats-other-talking-today/ What’s Other Talking Today? | Blogging on Tech, Web 2.0 and Money Making Tips

    [...] Top Commentator Plugin option by Shankar Ganesh [...]

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com Madhur Kapoor

    Nice post Shankar , i messed my page while trying these a while back , now it wont happen .

  • http://www.whoismadhur.com/2007/06/19/links-for-19-06-2007/ Madhur Kapoor’s Blog » Links for 19-06-2007

    [...] WordPress: Top Commentators Plugins Options by Shankar [...]

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Gili: Thanks for the stumble.
    Madhur: Thanks for dropping by!

  • http://www.thetechieblog.net/2007/06/21/internet-tv/ Internet Tv

    wow great list! stumbled

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks for the stumble, Internet TV.

  • http://www.benh.org/techblog Benedict Herold

    It would be really great if someone rewrite the plugin with a options page. because editing the plugin will make us loose the settings whenever new version is updated.

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    I second your suggestion, Benedict. An options page for the plugin would be great.

  • http://nimrodjo.com/2007/07/01/new-plugins/ NimrodJO Blog |Reviews|Edu|Tech|Wordpress » Blog Archive » New PlugIns…

    [...] to know is this plugin can only be modify through Plugin Editor but don’t worry because the important facts can be found on PFAdvice also. I hope you enjoyed reading this [...]

  • http://webkinz-cheats.org webkinz- cheats

    Good post buddy

  • http://www.techlivez.com shashank

    which is a the best top commentator plugin..

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @Shashank: As far as I know, there’s only one such plugin, available here.

  • http://www.techlivez.com shashank

    how to auto approve comments with this plugin …

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    @shashank: Comment approval doesn’t depend upon this plugin. It just lists the top commentators. That’s its only function.

  • http://www.mechanicki.com Mechanicki

    Hello, One thing that has been missing from this and PFAdvices is where to place the code. The instructions assume the default WP theme. I’m having a hard time figuring out where to put the code in a non-default theme. Any suggestions? Thanks.

  • http://www.hopefulspirit.com Hopeful Spirit

    I’m using the Cutline theme, but I can’t figure out where to put the code, either. When I add it to the sidebar.php file, it shows the headline only, but not the names or # of comments.

    Step-by-step directions would be very helpful if you would be so kind as to post them!

  • Cristina

    hi nice post, i enjoyed it

  • http://www.shankarganesh.com/ Shankar Ganesh

    Thanks, Cristina.

  • http://trilinearjet.wordpress.com/2007/06/17/speed-linking-june-17-2007/ Speed Linking – June 17, 2007 « Trilinearjet’s Weblog

    [...] WordPress: Top Commentators Plugin Option by Shankar Ganesh [...]

  • http://tripinator.com Chris (Amateur Traveler podcast)

    One thing that seems odd is that there are more comments just on this thread than are showing up. So do comments time out then?

  • http://www.teenblogger.net/3-ways-to-get-more-comments-for-your-blog/ 3 ways to get more Comments for your Blog — TeenBlogger.net

    [...] to leave a comment on your blog. If you want to tweak the comment a bit, have a look at this really nice tutorial by Shankar Ganesh. This plugin is a must-have if you want more comments for your [...]

  • http://thebloggingart.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/3-ways-to-get-more-comments-for-your-blog/ 3 ways to get more Comments for your Blog « The Blogging Art

    [...] to leave a comment on your blog. If you want to tweak the comment a bit, have a look at this really nice tutorial by Shankar Ganesh. This plugin is a must-have if you want more comments for your [...]