As a blogger owner, we should reward the readers and commentators who have given a hand to contribute to our sites. In fact, there are many ways to do in which one of the most popular means is link back the sites of top commentators by using plugin Top Commentator Widget on the right/left or bottom of the blog depending on its layout. On Star Blogger, you might see it on the right column.
To install this plugin, you need to download source code here. As usual, the following steps to install are very easy that include upload to host, active via Dashboard admin. Then you will should drop & drag the widget which contains top commentors information to anywhere you want to display. It is easy as well.
Reward the loyal readers and commentators
In my opinion, this plugin is a very helpful to express our gratification to the loyal readers and give special thanks to the top commentators. However, there are some points to discuss here before you decide to install it.
You might easily recognize that this plugin will take you a decent space for placing advertising information. When your blog drives more traffic, then of course you will have more co-operation opportunities to sell advertisement/products. So you should save your blank space as much as possible for future. Here is an example from my friend blog Tek3D and you might agree with me about the disadvantage when we use this plugin.
You can keep the free space I mention in the picture for other thing
Simple Steps to Change to Horizontal Style
To resolve this problem, I think, we can simply change the Top Commentator display to horizontal style and eliminate some unnecessary elements. If you are a Thesis user, you can do the following instruction step by step.
Step 1: Edit Top Commentators Widget plugin php file.
Open the file named topcommentators_widget.php. I highly recommend you open it with Notepad ++.
At 191, 192, 222, 223 lines, you can add the signal “//” before them. You can also cut these lines that will help plugin not to display name and total comment number.
If you are not sure about what should be done, just cut the following code in this file:
echo ns_substr_ellipse($k->comment_author, $limitChar);
if($showCount == 1) echo " (" . $k->comment_comments . ")";
Step 2: Edit CSS file
Open the custom.css file (in case of Thesis) or CSS file (other theme) and add the following code:
/* Top comment widgets */
.custom li#top-commentators{overflow: hidden;}
.custom li#top-commentators ul li{float:left;margin:4px;padding:2px;}
img.tcwGravatar{border: 2px solid #ddd;}
img.tcwGravatar:hover {border: 2px solid #999;}
Step 3: Configure Option Widgets Topcommentator
Then you can configure the option of Widgets Topcommentator that let you increase or decrease the Avatar size of the top commentator. You can choose the number of comments will be display to let it fit with one line.
And that is what I have now on Star Blogger.
How about your idea about this matter my reader? Feel free to express your words here.
You might also like:
I like Top Commentator plugin but I am waiting for Mr.Hutek for edit some in my unique theme.
Reward the loyal readers and commentators << Why you dont use H2 h3 for this line ?
I like use but Do you think: h2,h3 is better ?
I think you can use H2 or H3 for sub headline but I prefer the current than any others. You can do a try mate.
This is a good one, it saves a lot of the space on sidebar as I see on your blog!
Nice way of thinking!
You are welcome Hesham! Your presence make me feel really great. I think this small tip may be helpful with someone.
Great tips for Thesis users.Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome Lakhyajoyti!
Works great if your blog’s audience are tech-savvy, chances are most of them have a gravatar.
I used similar tips before.Have a nice day
You are welcome Hung. It is likely 2011 will be more busy year with new projects.
I think we can use this tip for other themes also, not only Thesis.
However, I still want to keep the vertical style because it can display commentators’ name and number of comments, so it will give these links more exposure.
Of couse Tuan. We can use this small tip for other theme, as I also mention in the post mate.
Hi Vuong,
Just moved over to Thesis, why I haven’t earlier I do not know. This is a great tip for releasing valuable space. This could apply to a few plug-ins. Obviously the coding would be different.
Pete
Hi Peter. You are welcome. This small tip but might be very worth in case you have many ad slots. Thesis is one of the best theme thanks to its SEO ability.
You can get Top Commentator or top contributors plugin to do this without touching the code and save time too. Thanks anyway
Maybe you have not read carefully my post buddy. I use Top commentator plugin in conjunction with this hack
.
That is why I recommend you both, top contributor can do this without touching code, see at eblogviet.com
Yeah Tinh, I have done a search with your suggestion and surprisingly, Top contributor is a good alternative. Thanks mate.
Well depicted step by step procedure, thanks for posting!!..
You are welcome!
wow it is so awesome.. i just need to replace the code and get use of the widget space.
You are welcome! It works really well but I no longer use Thesis but Genesis for more choice.