Top Commentators Widget users rejoice! Thanks to my heartburn and insomnia, I finally managed to fix and test the TCW and made some improvements as promised earlier. The updates are as listed in the readme file:

1. Re-arranged functions to avoid redeclare error in WP 2.5.
2. Modified widget control form to repair unclickable control form.
3. Added NoFollow option to links.
4. Added show comment count option.
5. Fixed the reset period. It’s not tested extensively, but it should be working better now.
6. Fixed the URL filtering.
7. Include option to list users by e-mail or user names. This is for you folks who worry about the hijacking matter as reported in various other sites in the blogosphere.
8. Include option to filter users by e-mail.

Get the updated version from the WordPress Plugins Directory, or click on the Update Automatically option if you’re already using WP 2.5. I’m glad it’s done and over with for now. I’m waiting on those bug reports to make TCW a stable 1.0 which I plan on doing so within the next three months.

I apologize for taking so long to update this; can you believe that my greatest challenge was actually figuring out how to update the widget in the Plugins Directory using Subversion, adding to a couple of weeks’ delay at least on the update? It kept getting stuck under the Development Version which I didn’t quite understand. I almost surrendered on it around 10 minutes ago when suddenly — a little Update here, a little Clean Up there — and the dang thing finally updated in the repository! That really helped cure my insomnia, ’cause I’m feeling pretty sleepy right now.

Till next time.

Yes, my friends, the Top Commentators Widget is now officially part of WordPress.org Plugin Directory. I was driven to finish the setup for the widget’s hosting to WordPress.org, especially after seeing the built-in plugin update notifier in WordPress 2.3.

I am SO GLAD I finally completed what I had planned to do since June, but as you have read in my previous post, the tedious work that is Subversion was what made me chickened out of doing so sooner. I’m grateful that Ronald at Weblog Tools Collection did that tutorial on TortoiseSVN and explained in painstaking details how I should go about setting everything up. The slightly intimidating part of hosting in WordPress.org was actually the preparation of the ReadMe file — I’m glad the WordPress team prepared a readme validator to make sure I formatted it well.

Of course, I’ll still be maintaining the Top Commentators Widget page in my blog, but I’ll recommend everyone to start visiting the Top Commentator Widget in WordPress.org as the information in that page is more easy on the eyes.