When I [1] installed the Top Commentators plugin, it was for one purpose — to say thanks, with a linkback, to those who contributed to the conversation. It was an automated way to give some link love to folks taking the time to offer their input, insight, and feedback.

Unfortunately like any automated system, the opportunity is there for [2] it to be gamed — and that was happening more, and more. It’s no longer automated when you have to spend a bunch of time manually fixing things and removing schlock.

Spam — both bot created and people created — was making it so that I ended up linking to spammy, off-topic, or just plain crappy blogs. Those who really provided value to the conversation were being pushed out by spammers. There were even some cases where the spammer would use the name of a real contributor, with a link to a spam site instead of the one who left the original comment. There are [3] also a few other reasons.

So I’m ditching the Top Commentators plugin and going with something better. Something that will provide actual value to both readers and the top comment contributors.

Enter Top Contributors

Originally I planned to write a plugin, but in order to get the level of control I wanted, it would take a lot of time and effort. So this is going to be a manual process.

Each month, I will be highlighting in a post those who have really added to the conversation by offing their insights in the comments. I’ll pick a relevant post from the commenter’s blog, and link to it. I find about 60% of new blogs from my comments anyway. This will just be a way to share them with my readers.

I also plan to approach top comment contributors about doing a guest post. As I’ve said before, many of those commenting provide input that really adds to the post (and in some cases their insight is better).

This blog is really a conversation — an ongoing conversation about success, creativity, and personal freedom. I’m looking forward to sharing the conversation with other contributors, and helping readers follow the conversation back to their place.