Top Commentators Widget upgrading works

I am in the midst of updating the Top Commentators Widget, and have a few changes in mind for this:

  1. Modifying commentator queries based on e-mail addresses instead of URLs. I have read a few posts currently in the Web about how Top Commentators plugin can be hijacked by spammers, by way of typing in legitimate site URLs of honest commentators in a particular blog, then possibly inserting the spamming URL in the content of a comment. The suggested fix to this issue is to do queries of top commentators based on e-mail addresses, which are hidden from comments (as is most often practiced). I have suggested a fix that does just that in one of the comments of the Top Commentators Widget, but I have not tested it extensively. I’ll be doing so before releasing the next version of this widget.
  2. Fixing the unclickable form fields in the Control Form. There’s only one, really, that I have identified as problematic, and that is the “Specify number of days” field under the reset period. The problem is apparently caused by the label tag wrapping around both the reset period and reset day fields. I have redone that part in my current test.
  3. Option to list only commentators with URLs.
  4. Fix the exclude URLs field, which seems to not work the way it suppose to.
  5. (Added 4/Mar/08) Option to display or not display comment count.
  6. (Added 11/Mar/08) Option to set NoFollow on all links in the list.

There were a few more issues I would like to fix but which may be out of my control. For example, a few commented that changes were not reflected even when saved (this could be permissions issues or browser not refreshed after changes were applied), and the control form not showing at all (certain browsers can’t display the JavaScript-and-CSS-based form properly; you may want to try using a different browser just to make sure).

Related post:  WordPress Top Commentators Widget v.1.4

If you’re currently using the widget and have anything else to add before the update is released (probably end of March), please use the comment form in this post, instead of the widget home post, and I’ll see what I can do with the request.

Spread the love

Check out my other posts: « / »

Posted on 20 February, 2008 under Discovering WordPress and tagged with , ,

6 comments

  1. Those sound like great updates to me.

  2. i will use this plugin too..
    i have found many many great info on your blog, will record it on my “should visited blog..”

  3. zirpy says:

    nice updates! I’ve been using this widget on one of my blogs, and it’s great.
    one thing though, after I upgraded to wordpress 2.5, on the widget administration, the top commentator widget gives an error.. hope it will be fixed on the next release

    thanks for the great plugin!

  4. Aron Beal says:

    Hi,

    I was wondering if the most recent 1.1 update made it into the subversion repository? After updating from the last changed revision listed there, I appear to be running 0.999a.

    1. Lorna says:

      Very curious. I noticed the subversion is showing the older version as you mentioned, but the latest one (1.1) is reflected when you click on Other Versions. I’m not sure what’s happening, but I’ll try on my end to rectify it. Thanks for the heads up.

Comments are closed.