I get some really great comments here. Many of you join the conversation with such insightful stuff, that I’m always interested to see what you say.
As a way to say thanks to those commenting, I’ve added Jeffrey Strain’s Top Commentators plug-in to the site. I’ve seen it on some of my favorite blogs and wanted to use it here.
The top 10 commentators each month will be rewarded with a backlink from the sidebar and your name proudly displayed. It’s my way of giving a shout-out to those of you who really contribute to the discussion.
Please keep in mind “nice site” and “me too” comments don’t really add much and I can filter out commentators just trying to get listed. Not that I don’t like being told “nice site,” but I’m really looking to reward those who add to the conversation.
So those who have been jumping in with all the great insights, keep it up. And if you’ve just been lurking, maybe this is a little more incentive to speak up.
I love hearing what you have to say…
I just added it last week as well. It certainly seems to help with a little well-deserved incentive for wonderfully chatty readers! 😉
Tony, I’ve never seen that plugin before, but I like it (and seeing my name there). If blogging is all about community, seeing your name at a site you visit every day is like a home sweet home mat with your name you see when you come home everyday.
Awesome.
Shane
Tony,
Thanks for sharing this. I have been looking for a top commentators plugin. I just wish it was widget ready so you did not have to deal with code. Oh well, I will give it a try. Thanks again.
Wendy – I agree. I love the chatty ones. This gives a little link love back.
Shane – You always have great things to add to the conversation. I’m glad (and not surprised) to see you up at the top.
Cord – The bit of code to add isn’t too bad. I had to tweak it because of some of my sidebar customizations, but not much. Let me know if you need some help. I’d be glad to give you a hand.
Tony,
Nice blog! 🙂
Drew (I’ll go for quality next time!)
Me too! Nice blog Tony. 🙂
Seriously, this is a very cool plug-in. The next blog I do will definitely be in WordPress.
…and you do have an awesome blog. I learn a LOT from your articles, and appreciate you being as open as you are with what you know.
I made the jump from Blogger to WordPress last year and I’m happy I did. For some strange reason, I feel like I own my own blog now. It’s a little more work configuring all the plugins and upgrading with all the new releases, but I also have much more control over the look and feel of the site now.
I appreciate sites that are easy to read and navigate; and SuccessFromTheNest is both. Oh, and the content is pretty good too.
😉
Tony,
What about those times when you read an impressive post or you’re a first time visitor and you fell in love with the site’s look and feel and you have nothing to say beside a warm thank you to the owner?
I’m suggesting here that maybe this is a good idea for a new wordpress plugin: a “thank you” plugin. What this does is simply add a little button to the end of the post labeled “Thanks!” .. when a reader clicks it, it increments a counter of readers who found the post helpful and interesting.
This idea came from a similar plugin for vBulletin
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?s=781600e7221247edc730948fed036645&threadid=122944
Maybe this way you won’t have to deal with “Thank You” comments but still allow people to express their gratitude 🙂
ahh, Tony, I love the idea of inspiring comments… a little incentive can go a long way. Brilliant idea.
I have been contemplating moving my stuff over to WordPress, I think you’ve just added another point on the “do it” side of the equation.
Drew – You too 😉
Phil – Thanks. One of the things I love about WP is the customization. I’m pretty picky about presentation.
Dave – I know what you mean about owning your blog. It’s like a rental car vs. your own.
AL – That’s an awesome idea. BTW – I love “thanks” comments 😉
Karen – When I decided to start blogging, WP was the only option for me. I looked at others, but coming from the world of Information Design, and being an open source advocate, it fits my needs perfectly. I’m also a tweaker, so I gotta be able to mess around under the hood.
Nice blog; me too. 🙂
This is a neat idea, Tony. It shouldn’t be too hard to incorporate Al’s ‘thank you’ idea into it; that would be awesome! and the only way I’d like to do it. I wouldn’t want to have a reward board if it might discourage the new or infrequent visitor from giving a quick hello.
I see that you figured out how to get your own name removed from the list – can you email me the directions on how to do that? I chmod-ed the file, and told it to take out “Wendy”, but it’s still there. Perhaps I changed the code in the php file in the wrong place?
W
Tony – I am always looking for new plug-ins that add value to my blog. After seeing my name “in lights” at Wendy’s blog, I have put this one on my list of to-dos. I am also looking for a good plug-in for finding related posts if you know of one.
Keep up the great work!
Heya Tony! Thanks for posting the announcement about this plugin. I love the idea and think I’ll adopt it over at my place. But I’m embarrassed to say I may not have noticed without the announcement.
You do a tremendous job of stirring up conversation here. But I still click through as often as not just to see your wonderful theme!
Carolyn – I agree. That would be cool. And don’t get me wrong. I love the quick hello. It’s only those semi-spammers that pop in to say “nice, come see my blog” that I’m opposed to. Short and sweet from a real reader is great. The idea behind this is to give props to those who add to the conversation. Sometimes, the comments are better than the post 🙂
Wendy – I emailed you the info.
Char – Me too. I don’t like to clutter things up, but your point about adding value is my view as well. I’m using the WASABI Related Entries plug-in – http://wasabi.pbwiki.com/Related%20Entries
Tony, your blog is too awe-inspiring for me not to comment! I can’t keep my mouth shut! (of course, unless I have a faulty harddisk 😀 )
I’ll have trouble going back to primary school – my teacher would stick my fingers to my lips.
Wow! That’s a really cool plugin (I say as I run to install it on my site). Looks like it certainly will help with comments. 🙂
Tony, love your cartoons! and site, too.
This is such a great plug-in, heard about it as Chris Cree’s blog. A wonderful idea too, to reward those who contribute. I love it.
But is there any hope for us Blogger users? Or am I finally going to have to switch? 🙁
Robert – Thanks for coming by and the kind words. Unfortunately Blogger isn’t as customizable as WordPress. There might be something out there, but I’m not aware of one.
Of course, I’m one of those OSS advocates and WordPress fanboys, so I say switch 😉
Sorry for this quick comment. But the only blogism I see missing is the header image not linking back to “home”, which seems to be a standard in bloging.
Otherwise your site rocks.
Derrik – Thanks for the heads-up. Seems the code I had for that got overwritten on my last template update. I added it back in.
That drives me crazy on other sites 🙂 .
Do you know if there’s an equivalent module for Mambo/Joomla, as well as a widget that could be hosted on a person’s personal server and linked to from Blogger sites?
JohnC – Jom Comment has a statistics piece, but I haven’t used it myself (BTW- It’s a commercial module). You might want to have a look. I don’t know of a self-hosted for Blogger solution.
When I decided to start blogging, WP was the only option for me. But i still use wp:) i think it is the best:)
I recently added this plugin too. So far it’s been working out as I’ve been getting more, “good” comments. Hopefully your’s works out as well.
I agree NICE POST a bunch of times adds no value. The link you give will it be a follow link or a no-follow? I have seen the Plug-in before but never used it on any of my blogs. I will think about using it and will check back to see if you were able to get extra comments. and not just spam.