Top Commenters On The SideBar

160 responses..

If you notice on the right hand side I added a top commenters. I wrote this wordpress plugin last night. It basically gives a link (not nofollow) to the top 10 commenters over the last 7 day period. So people who comment frequently get a reward. I mean you are adding value to my site with your input so why shouldnt I give you a link?

This is also a fun thing for me to keep my somewhat php skills alive. That also means you might see some errors as I play with formating.

Also if I think you are just trying to rack up your comment count you will be blacklisted.




Related Posts:

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  • Top Commentors MyblogLog Integration
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  • posted on February 25th, 2007:
    Written By: ShoeMoney

    160 Comments

    @February 25, 2007 1:04 pm

    Jeremy don’t you worry about search engines penalizing you for ranking to so many outbound people ?

     
    @February 25, 2007 1:06 pm
    ShoeMoney Says:

    I write my blog for people not search engines. I am always shocked peoples first instinct when making a site is OMG WHAT WILL THE SEARCH ENGINES THINK!.

    To answer your question no. I am not worried.

    @July 18, 2007 12:14 pm
    Deelip Says:

    Thats impressive.
    Bloggers also should think about the readers not only about the search engines and monthly revenue.
    Good work!

     
    @July 29, 2007 5:38 pm

    You know you really don’t need to worry about seo at this point.

     
    @January 15, 2008 2:38 pm
    Chad Says:

    That’s awesome more bloggers should think about the people rather than the search engines.

     
     
    @February 25, 2007 1:17 pm
    dillsmack Says:

    OMG YOU ARE LEAKING PAGERANK

     
    @February 25, 2007 1:43 pm
    Glen Says:

    Sites don’t leak pagerank, they simply ’share the joy’ ;)

     
    @February 25, 2007 1:55 pm
    john wayne Says:

    Free pr6 link! I can dig it!

     
    @February 25, 2007 1:56 pm
    ShoeMoney Says:

    it helps if you have a website =P

     
    @February 25, 2007 1:56 pm

    I like this feature a lot. I’m seeing it integrated into more and more blogs, and I think it’s great for growing the community aspect that makes blogs so popular.

     
    @February 25, 2007 1:58 pm

    I’m already getting traffic from it :)

    @November 30, 2007 7:33 pm

    Can you tell me your CTR?

     
     
    @February 25, 2007 2:38 pm

     
    @February 25, 2007 2:42 pm
    Marko Says:

    This is awesome!

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:02 pm
    morgan thomas Says:

    funny I don’t have a website worth linking to, and don’t list one, but I do comment.

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:20 pm

    Are you going to make this plugin available for others?

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:21 pm
    ToddW Says:

    Sounds like a pretty useful add-on maybe make it available for others too :)

    Great way to grow your blog “community” IMHO.

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:22 pm
    ToddW Says:

    EDIT: I’m guessing that you did it for the last 7 days so that it’s constantly changing and not ratings overall because some people would be at the top forever… ?

    -Todd

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:23 pm
    ShoeMoney Says:

    I will release it when its done

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:23 pm
    ShoeMoney Says:

    yes:

    $commenters = $wpdb->get_results(”SELECT COUNT(comment_author) AS commentcount, comment_author, comment_author_url FROM $tablecomments
    WHERE unix_timestamp(comment_date)>unix_timestamp(NOW())-(60*60*24*7)
    AND comment_author_url !=”
    AND comment_author !=’ShoeMoney’
    AND comment_author != ‘ddn’
    AND comment_approved = ‘1′
    AND comment_type =”
    GROUP BY comment_author
    ORDER BY commentcount DESC
    LIMIT 15;”);

    @December 26, 2007 4:42 pm

    Im not much of a coder…I really like this feature though, do you have any post on how to add it to the ones own site easly.?

     
     
    @February 25, 2007 3:29 pm
    John Says:

    That’s interesting - you’re right though, people design websites for people, not search engines. If you design it for people then the search engines will like you anyway… however this ties in with the “top x lists” seem to go well down on the internet. I remember in the early days of my website the BBC’s site reprinted my top ten list of games on the site - seems people want to know what/who’s popular (or in this case commenting).

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:33 pm

    This is a great idea. It will be interesting to see if your overall contributions go up with this new incentive to comment. You should track it for a few weeks and see if the trend goes up.

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:39 pm
    KING Says:

    Nice idea, should work well

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:39 pm
    ToddW Says:

    I love how these small “ideas” we (programmers) have turn into huge pieces of software by the time we’re done with them.

    You start simple then keep adding on and on to the point whre you just give-up! Well, that’s what I end up doing!

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:47 pm
    mao Says:

    Nice idea (already done, thought).
    I think you have to adjust the html code or maybe check it with Firefox 1.5.x

     
    @February 25, 2007 3:59 pm
    Josh Says:

    Excellent idea. Very noble of you to share the love. Still, you are right, this could help the community flourish by inspiring more interaction.

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:06 pm

    Thanks for rewarding us commentors for contributing to the blog!

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:09 pm
    Ryan Says:

    OH NO NOT THE EVIL SEARCH ENGINES!

    Great idea, and my personal opinion is that you should embrace your top commentator whores:

    http://www.ryanjparker.net/why-you-should-embrace-top-commentator-whores/

    I hope you don’t mind me becoming a whore. ;)

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:11 pm
    Ryan Says:

    I’m sure you’ve already seen it but PFA has one called “Show Top Commentators” that a lot of sites already use.

    The only complaint I have is that the URL filtering doesn’t seem to work right.

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:13 pm
    Ryan Says:

    Yeah with the amount of traffic he gets here this is a good turnover ratio. I use 1 month on my site, and a lot of sites do this, too, but at some point if you left it on forever new people would never be able to catch up.

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:29 pm

    Great plugin! Let us know when you release it

    I know this is version 0.1 but for a performance boost, you might want to break it down to two queries. This one EXPLAINs as “Using temporary; Using filesort”

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:38 pm
    Kris Says:

    Yee,
    it’s time to start commenting more seriously :)

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:44 pm
    2k a day Says:

    I know I’ve left more than 3 comments. I want to be on the list!

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:45 pm

    Very, very cool. I would love to run such a plug in, but right now, I’m not locating the section. Do you have it down for revision?

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:47 pm
    SUP3RNOVA Says:

    Sweet idea Shoe. I think you’re going to see your comments shoot up a little :).

     
    @February 25, 2007 4:58 pm
    Rami Says:

    That’s a pretty good idea.

     
    @February 25, 2007 5:18 pm

    awww I liked it better when it had MBL faces :)

     
    @February 25, 2007 6:06 pm
    HMTKSteve Says:

    I agree. You write for your target audience. You don’t see automakers making cars based on what the police think do you?

     
    @February 25, 2007 6:27 pm

    Very good idea - wonder how long it will take to be more trouble than it’s worth thanks to spammers. :)

     
    @February 25, 2007 6:34 pm
    dillsmack Says:

    Which wouldn’t matter, because you’re caching the output.

     
    @February 25, 2007 7:01 pm

    I like the concept but are you not worried people post useless comments just for the link?

     
    @February 25, 2007 7:02 pm

    There already is a Wordpress plugin for this feature. I’ve been using it for a few weeks and it helped stimulate some comments on my growing blog.

     
    @February 25, 2007 7:23 pm
    Andy Beal Says:

    I added this at Marketing Pilgrim last week and have been happy with it so far. You will have some try to game the system, which is why I added a comments policy. ;-)

     
    @February 25, 2007 7:24 pm

    Nice Feature!

     
    @February 25, 2007 7:58 pm
    doolally Says:

    Hi,
    Are you still going to force OpenId, Won’t this make the benifit of being a top commentator redundent?

     
    @February 25, 2007 8:31 pm
    calvin Says:

    Hmm… I want that link. Who doesn’t? Don’t you want to be linked by highly ranked, viewed and read blog on the planet. You must be out of your mind if you don’t! Seriously - I read shoemoney - almost daily now. Kinda like his writing style - very informative and speak his mind out loud. Perhaps - those are the skills to pay bills.

     
    @February 25, 2007 8:41 pm
    MoneyMan Says:

    I wonder if this will spawn many “this is my comment.” comments, ie, meaningless ones. But definitely a way to get more comments, something every blogger wants. The collaborative aspect of comments is often a great way to get new ideas.

    And last but not least: this is my comment. :)

     
    @February 25, 2007 8:45 pm
    ShoeMoney Says:

    well that will be very easy to tell… all comments are moderated so people will be blacklisted fast.

     
    @February 25, 2007 9:07 pm
    ToddW Says:

    Homepage only.

     
    @February 25, 2007 9:50 pm
    Nathan Says:

    You will get an increase of comments for sure… I know I’ve never commented before but now I’m going to say what I think more often.

     
    @February 25, 2007 10:03 pm
    fusion Says:

    Thanks shoe… as usual :) CRAZY IDEAS

     
    @February 25, 2007 10:08 pm

    what about myopenid.com users?

     
    @February 25, 2007 10:17 pm

    great way to reward people for posting good comments… as you have in past, I continue to impressed when some of the big guys in the internet marketing world willing give back.

     
    @February 25, 2007 10:41 pm

    Pretty neeto of you to do this Shoe.

    Anyway, you took the thumbs off? I can’t see them anymore (and OpenID causes problems for me… it always asks me to sign in when I try to post…)

     
    @February 25, 2007 10:50 pm
    ToddW Says:

    Quote Shoe:

    “well that will be very easy to tell… all comments are moderated so people will be blacklisted fast.”

     
    @February 25, 2007 11:48 pm
    SELaplana Says:

    I want to post comment here and want to received that link from your top commenters but I can’t because until now I am preferred to post comment about your blogpost through my blog.

     
    @February 26, 2007 12:10 am
    Joe Says:

    Awesome idea shoe!! I’m in!

     
    @February 26, 2007 6:57 am
    Elephant Says:

    BAH! I will make the list without a URL just to piss off 50 people.

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:07 am

    I have been seeing this type of thing pop up on other site recently. Not totally sure what I think about it. I mean it is great to get a linkback, but if folks are busy just saying, “great job!” or “good post” or “You’re right on - keep up the good work!” that is exactly what 99.9% of my spam comments are - what is the difference even if a human being is typing it?

    …although, you notice, I did list my URL - ah well, I guess I can be bought for the price of a quality backlink *sigh* ;)

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:23 am
    Nathan Says:

    Not sure if there is a way to connect URLs to an open ID. Although I’m sure Shoe could write something.

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:43 am
    thejeshgn Says:

    Very creative idea

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:52 am
    John Loch Says:

    Layout looks nice.
    Pooh.. didnt make the list !

     
    @February 26, 2007 8:02 am

    Oh look, now everyone’s commenting… Couldn’t have predicted that!

    Just a quick thing though… “A bunch of monkeys took 0.143 seconds to build this.” - I never noticed that bit before! :)

     
    @February 26, 2007 8:33 am
    GeorgeB Says:

    Is it just me? I don’t see the top commentors list…

     
    @February 26, 2007 9:27 am
    Mark1 Says:

    I understand the principle, but I’m sorry to say I’ve seen the noise to signal ratio, going wild in all the blogs adopting this list/reward. Well I guess I’ll quit reading the comments here, no biggy.
    Just look at the comments above and you’ll see see what is coming.

     
    @February 26, 2007 9:49 am
    HMTKSteve Says:

    I have not seen a traffic increase but my Technorati ranking sure shot up fast!

     
    @February 26, 2007 9:50 am
    HMTKSteve Says:

    It’s because we (programmers) get paid by the line and not the results!

     
    @February 26, 2007 9:51 am

    George - I don’t see the list either. Maybe Shoemoney took it down for testing / configuration?

     
    @February 26, 2007 10:13 am
    natekapi Says:

    Guess I should start including one of my URL’s in my replies from now on!

     
    @February 26, 2007 10:23 am
    Ryan Says:

    It’s only on the home page.

     
    @February 26, 2007 10:59 am
    jim Says:

    Very slick, I’ve found that doing this leads to a lot of conversation… which is the point of blogging anyway.

     
    @February 26, 2007 11:09 am

    On a couple other pages too I think, just not in single posts.

     
    @February 26, 2007 11:57 am
    Mong Says:

    Jeremy you are already delivering so much to webmaster community for ‘free’ and now this is like “bonus’ama” :-)
    Good Luck.

     
    @February 26, 2007 3:10 pm
    Gary Says:

    did you actually write the plugin yourself? It looks like a really clean plugin. The one I’m working with has some bugs so all my recent commentators are all jumbled up. Will you be releasing your version any time soon! Keep up the great work!

     
    @February 26, 2007 3:20 pm
    Chad Says:

    Is the comment list based on daily? It looks like it changed from total to daily.

     
    @February 26, 2007 5:53 pm
    Alex Says:

    I think that’s a great plugin idea.. look forward to implementing it as well..

     
    @February 26, 2007 6:37 pm
    Stuart Says:

    Suprised you didn’t use an already coded wordpress plugin, I need to use this on my blog. :)

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:23 pm
    jim Says:

    I have the same thing (except pulled out to the last thirty days) by taking this plugin and modifying the select query so that it only counted comments in the last thirty days.

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:28 pm
    RusPlaneta Says:

    It’s a brilliant idea.

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:33 pm
    Joe Says:

    Shoe , This was really cool of you man!!!

     
    @February 26, 2007 7:49 pm
    derrich Says:

    I planned on adding a Top Commentors section to my sidebar as well. But my server is down for the time being. Shoe, I trust you don’t mind if I use your 7 day “mod”?

     
    @February 26, 2007 8:53 pm

    I was putting up comments, but not all are showing, and I’ve certainly added more than 4, yet not on the list. Any restrictions or time limits going on? Thanks.

     
    @February 26, 2007 9:07 pm
    Bulbboy Says:

    My comments aren’t usually serious, neither are they of 2 word “good job” variety.
    Tending to post comments only when I think they are relevant, maybe I will post less comments knowing that they will scrutinised more closely.

     
    @February 27, 2007 1:13 am

    Great Features from you again..

     
    @February 27, 2007 5:17 am
    Dan Says:

    I plan on adding a feature like this on my blog as soon as I start getting comments :) It’s a good way of getting people interacting when you are already established but how does one get readers to comment on a newer blog?

     
    @February 27, 2007 5:25 am
    Daniel Says:

    Jeremy, it would be cool if you could report what kind of increase on the number of comments per post you noticed after implementing the plugin

     
    @February 27, 2007 7:09 am
    HMTKSteve Says:

    I agree. Running a top commentators plugin does increase comments. There is probably also a correlation between the blog’s PR and whether or not the links are “no follow”.

     
    @February 27, 2007 9:30 am
    Gt3a Says:

    Just my $0,02 cents :)
    instead of

    unix_timestamp(comment_date)>unix_timestamp(NOW())-(60*60*24*7)

    try

    comment_date > NOW() - INTERVAL 7 DAY

     
    @February 27, 2007 2:00 pm
    jim Says:

    You comments probably were in moderation, they go in there if you haven’t had an accepted comment before or if it’s got a link.

     
    @February 27, 2007 2:59 pm
    derrik Says:

    Ive been doing this too and its workign well.

     
    @February 27, 2007 3:14 pm

    Look forward in you releasing the plugin.

     
    @February 27, 2007 10:17 pm
    Dave Starr Says:

    Don’t think it’s related to the Top Commenters implementation but there is some kind of distinct issue with the comments in general. Most of the time when I log in the “normal” way … I read your comments on the OpenID issues .., and have some of my own, have no idea whey you are actually uisng it, makes MBL look secure ;-) … anyway. the server just sits there afyter I click the Add Comment button and doe snothing … even an hour later nothing will have happened. A few weeks ago I pressed the button more thna 100 times and the next day saw that my comment had actually gone through … twice, sorry ’bout that.

    It’s aWordPress infrastructure, so sthings should work the same as other blogs (using Windows XP and FireFox 1.5.0.10 …. wonder what’s up?

     
    @February 27, 2007 10:19 pm
    Dave Starr Says:

    Hmmm, just to add some info to the hunt, it appears the problem might be relates to CoComment. My comment above sat more thna 2 hours without a response, I turned off coComment, refreshed the SM page and reposted … instant gratification.

     
    @February 27, 2007 10:23 pm
    Dave Starr Says:

    ok, indeed it seems to be a conflict with CoComment. Eeven though I am signed out of CoComment the CoComment bar still appeasrs in the comment box and the submit comment process seems to hang forever… physiclaly clicking the “x” on the Cocomment bar and then pressing “Submit” makes the comments work correctly … shame, though, becuase CoComment is very much a part of my blogging … ideas from the rish and famous … or just somebody who knows how CoComment and WordPress interact?

     
    @February 28, 2007 5:14 pm

    Just a test: If this comment is seen, then the OpenId method works on this post.

    Mark Johnson
    techzoogle.com

     
    @February 28, 2007 5:18 pm

    I just left a comment using OpenId but it didn’t show up. Not sure what happened as it seems to take it fine within the OpenID authentication area and it came back to this URL, I didn’t see my comment.

     
    @February 28, 2007 8:06 pm
    jim Says:

    hook me up with that job…

     
    @February 28, 2007 8:09 pm

    I did the same thing and it’s helped stimulate conversations a good bit. Actually, I had top commenters before, but it was top of all time, and there were a number on the list that had long since stopped coming by. So I shortened the window to make it more representative.

     
    @February 28, 2007 8:51 pm
    Marko Says:

    When will you be releasing this script? I’d love to add it to my blog.

     
    @March 1, 2007 9:05 am
    Kyle Says:

    This has been creating a lot of recent activity b/c people love backlinks from your site. Great addition, I just hope it doesn’t get to the point where people are commenting anything just for the backlink.

     
    @March 3, 2007 5:43 am
    infonote Says:

    It is an interesting idea. Can you publish your results about the effect of this marketing technique?

     
    @March 9, 2007 4:33 am
    KennyP Says:

    It’s so cool, I should leave more comment

     
    @March 9, 2007 4:08 pm

    This is a great way to pay back loyal readers. Thanks for the plugs.

     
    @March 9, 2007 11:44 pm

    i am wondering can we have link that show all time comment stats aswell. so that i can see all time comment poster here. Just an idea.

     
    @March 11, 2007 4:51 am
    geegel Says:

    I’d like to install it on my blog too. Seems a great way to promote comments. Can you share a link to the plugin?

    Regards, George

     
    @March 11, 2007 11:46 pm
    ToddW Says:

    Comments have gone up.