So you’ve installed the Top Commentators plugin for WordPress. Login to your WordPress dashboard, and naviagate to the Appearance >> Widgets menu. Click on the drop down arrow of the top commentators widget to reveal the configuration menu shown below.
As you can see, it’s pretty self explanatory. You can configure as follows:
Change the Widget title to suit your own taste eg. Top Commentators, Site Contributors, Nice People who leave comments etc. 
If you like you can add a description below the widget title to tell visitors how to get on the top commentators list, there’s more….
As you can see, it’s pretty self explanatory. You can configure as follows:
Change the Widget title to suit your own taste eg. Top Commentators, Site Contributors, Nice People who comment etc.
If you like you can add a description below the widget title to tell visitors how to get on the top commentators list.
You can exclude any users you like. If you normally reply to comments on your blog you can exclude yourself from the list by adding the name that you use to comment. This is also useful for eliminate any spam that gets through the askimet or other comments spam filter that you’ve added to your blog. You might site robots leaving you comments just to get links back to a certain site and this is a good way to eliminate this.
You can specify a time period that the top commentators plugins runs over. This is really up to yourself on how you want to run your site. If you choose a month or a year then you’re rewarding visitors who comment on your site over a longer period of time and this may encourage a long term readership. Alternatively, you can set this to run over a shorter period of time to reward visitors who are helping your site with regular discussion over the last few days only. We’ll be showing how we configure this during the life spam of this site so our readers know exactly what they need to do to stay on the top commentators list!
You can limit the number of names on your top commentators list. If you’re looking to promote interaction on you’re site it’s probably better to increase the number as you’re readership grows.
You can also set the number of characters used in the commentators name. What you choose here depends really on where you’ve placed the top commentators plugin on your site.
If you have no commentators, which we’re sure you hope you don’t after going to the bother of installing the top commentators widget then you can enter some text as an alternative to a blank list. Hopefully you never need this one!
You can block spammers by filtering full or partial urls or email addresses.
Decide how you want to show your top commentator list. You can do this as bullet points or as a numbered list suing the drop down menu.
You can choose to hyperlink each name. To us, there’s no pint really installing the top commentators plugin unless you choose to do this. If you’re trying to promote interaction on your website through user comments then it’s best to give the commentators a link back to their own website to help them get some traffic too.
If the commentators name is hyperlinked, then you can choose the link type to be nofollow if you like. Again, we see this as pointless and we feel that if people are actively commenting on your site and keeping your site alive then it’s best to reward with them with a backlink for doing so.
You can set up the plugin to show the number of comments of each of the top commentators on your list. Do you want to let commentators know how many comments are needed to get on the list or do you leave it as a mystery and hope that they keep commenting until the y get on your list? The choice is yours.
You can set up the plugin to group your top commentators by either email or User Names. This is just to avoid the same people appearing in you’re list under multiple aliases. It’s a handy setting to have and we’re sure that you’ll have everything configured to your liking in no time, and ensure only genuine commentators are making it to the top of your top commentators list.
You can set up the list to appear on your homepage only. Here at TopCommentator.com we’ll have it on all our pages to ensure people who take the time to comment here are rewarded throughout this site.
You can set the list up to only display commentators who have provided a url. This is down to personal choice. There’s no real value to anyone being on the list unless they have a link back to their own site, so we’ll probably leave them off the list. Why not drop someone an email instead thanking them for the feedback, maybe next time they come back and provide a link to their site.
You can set the top commentator list up to display gravators or leave it blank. Anyone is actively commenting to gain exposure for their own site should have a gravator so we’ll be leaving this one switched on. Using a gravator provides a more personal touch and will probably encourage more people to click back towards your site. If you switch this option on you can configure it to show the gravator at a size that suits your site.
March 12th, 2010 at 7:16 am
This plugins is very simple, I like to place it in my new blogs. thank dude..