‘Comment Rankings’ WordPress plugin
I quickly whipped up a WordPress plugin to do something that I wanted, which was to display stars in a post’s comments next to the comment’s author. Each star represented 10 comments that the author had made on the blog so far; I find it interesting to see how many people in the, say, top 10 people that comment on a blog make up a large percentage of the total comments on a blog. (For those who are wondering, the top 10 commenters on my blog make up 67% of all the comments.)
Screenshot
You can see the plugin in action by simply looking at any of the comments on this blog. Here’s a screenshot, as well, just in case I ever decide to remove it from my blog:
Download the plugin
Click here to download the plugin. Download, extract, and upload the entire folder to your /wp-contents/plugins/ folder (so the final path should be /wp-contents/plugins/comment_rankings/) and activate it.
This plugin is also listed in the official WordPress Plugins database.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Popularity: 25% [?]
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Nice work Gary!
What about adding a feature that will assign stars based on the relative ranking of comments? Would be something like: select users->comment counts, sort by counts, find the position of the user in that list, and find in what percentile they fall relative to the other users (each 10% gets a star)?
Michael,
I think that would confuse visitors because they would see a certain number of stars in one post, and a different number in another post. Consistency and simplicity is best
Also, it makes it easier to try and achieve a certain number of stars 
Actually not quite – I’m talking about summarizing all the comments, not just a single post – therefore the amount of stars should be consistent for the user. however it brings in a competition element, since a new poster who posts a lot becomes a threat for the established posters
.
Note to self: keep commenting to get that first star!
I think that using stars is a bad idea. To most every user, stars brings to mind “quality”, not quantity, so it seems like you’re rating yourself a full 10 stars of quality. I see your post up there and see 8 stars and think it was rated an 80%. Your blog readers aren’t necessarily going to read how each of your features work (like this entry), so they will assume the same.
I think a percentage bar would be better if you want to reward users (or simply show statistics) based on number of posts. I think stars should be reserved for an average rating of a comment or an entry. So, a crappy comment gets 1 star and an insightful one gets 10. That way, your users won’t see crappy comments with 10 stars just because someone posts a lot of comments. They’ll think, “Who is the audience and why did that post get such a high rating?”
Also, requiring e-mail is a bit unfriendly.
[...] Comment Rankings displays stars in a post’s comments next to the comment’s author. Each star represented 10 comments that the author had made on the blog so far. [...]
Nice plugin. I would like not to show any stars next to my name, since I “answer” all my comments. Can I exclude myself in any way?
I see a problem with the star system. If someone comments enough, e.g. you, eventually there will be rows upon rows of stars.
One more comment till my next star!
[...] more info and download…. [...]
[...] ມື້ນີ້ລົງປລັກອິນໃຫມ່ Comment Ranking ໃຊ້ໄວ້ສຳຫລັບຕິດດາວໄວ້ຫລັງຊື່ ຂອງຄົນທີ່ໂພສຕ໌ໃນບລັອກຫລາຍ ໆ ເຊິ່ງ 10 ໂພສຕ໌ຈະນັບເປັນ 1 ດາວ ມີທັງຫມົດ 5 ດາວເປັນຈຳນວນສູງສຸດ ໂຫລດມາຈາກບລັອກນີ້ [...]
[...] installé un peu plus tôt aujourd’hui le plugin pour Wordpress Comment Rankings. Il s’agit d’un plugin tout simple qui ajoute une étoile à nos lecteurs qui ont plus de 10 [...]
Thanks for the plugin!
Hi, your plugin is really nice but I think you should add a feature to disable displaying stars for some users (at least for the owner of the blog, that usaually is the greats commenter): I left 1092 comments on my blog, that means showing 5 rows of stars.
[...] Plugin Home | Download [...]
[...] King has created a new plugin called Comment Rankings which displays stars in a post’s comments next to the authors name. The stars correspond to [...]
[...] Comment Rankings displays stars in a post’s comments next to the comment’s author. Each star represented 10 comments that the author had made on the blog so far. [...]
[...] a quick update on my ‘Comment Rankings’ WordPress plugin that I released 2 days ago. It looks like my plugin is the #1 hit when searching [...]
[...] Comment Rankings despliega estrellas en el comentario de una entrada próxima al autor del comentario. Cada estrella representa 10 comentarios que el autor haya dejado hasta ese momento. [...]
[...] This is done by the Comments ranking plugin [...]
[...] Comment Rankings despliega estrellas en el comentario de una entrada próxima al autor del comentario. Cada estrella representa 10 comentarios que el autor haya dejado hasta ese momento. [...]
[...] Comment Rankings displays stars in a post’s comments next to the comment’s author. Each star represented 10 comments that the author had made on the blog so far. [...]
Great job garry. I put it in my blog now!! THX!
Very nice idea for a plugin!
I’m currently using a heavily modified version that shows different stars (1-49 comments = no stars, 50-249 = white stars, 250-499 = light-blue stars, 500 and more comments = dark blue stars) and ignores comments made by the entry_author.
[...] Anzahl an Kommentaren neben dem Namen des Kommentatoren anzeigen lassen und bin dabei auf das Comment Rankings Plugin von Gary King gestoßen. Da mir die vorgegebene Sternchenverteilung nicht genug war, habe ich das Plugin so [...]
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thanks, I was looking for something simular to this. I like it. I am going to add this to my blog. Keep up the good work.
[...] Comment Rankings uses a star ranking system to rank those who make the most comments. The number of stars will correspond with the number of comments made. [...]
[...] viel Platz weggenommen und ich habe auch eigentlich gar keine Verdient. Wovon ich spreche ist das “Comment Rankings Plugin”, was für eure Sternchen neben den Kommentaren verantwortlich ist. Denn nun ist endlich Schluss mit [...]
This is my first post
just saying HI
http://www.trickybuddha.com/2007/it-is-a-serious-offense-to-mock-god#comment-10438
[...] Plugin Home | Download [...]
[...] Comment Rankings : plugin qui permet d’associer à chaque commentateur un nombre d’étoile dépendant du nombre de commentaires qu’il a posté. Très bonne idée, mais pas complètement réalisée : en effet, le nombre d’étoile n’est pas paramétrable ! On ne choisit pas la relation entre le nombre de commentaires et le nombre d’étoiles. Conclusion : l’admin (vous) vous retrouvez avec trois lignes d’étoiles, ce qui est moche, et pas utile. Une bonne idée pour ceux qui aiment la programmation : améliorer le code de ce plugin, pour un faire un best-seller ! [...]
[...] Sesudah Tulisan… Trims untuk Raffa yang memberitahukan saya link untuk mendownload plugins Comment Rangkings [...]
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
[...] Comment Rankings 1.0 [...]
[...] Comment Rankings 1.0 [...]
[...] Comment Rankings показва звездички до потребителя в зависимост от броя на коментарите публикувани от него [...]
[...] Comment Rankings vous permet d’afficher une étoile aux auteurs des commentaires sur votre blog. Chaque étoile correspond à 10 commentaires poster sur votre blog. [...]
loved this comment plugin. thanks!
Gary,
I’ve been using your plugin for a while now. Recently I upgraded to WordPress 2.7 and now I can’t seem to get it to work anymore. Have you (or someone else) tested it with 2.7?
It did work up to WordPress 2.7 BETA2.
Any plans to make the plugin ready for 2.7?
Thanks for any respons in advance.
Cheers,
Niels
Is it possible that if a person gets 10 stars that you reset them back to just 1 star or 0 stars?