Liz Strauss Comment Counter, a WordPress Widget By Ozh « planetOzh

Liz Strauss Comment Counter is a highly configurable “internet badge” that shows the number of comments your WordPress blog has. Use it either to show off how social your blog is, as an incentive for commenters to be part of it, or just because it’s fun :)

Live example:

This plugin was made in honor of Liz Strauss from Successful Blog and her dedication to building community and fostering interaction between a blog and its audience. Extra credits go to Lorelle for inspiration and networking, and obviously to Feedburner for being so seminal in cool web badges showing off.

Features

Performance: the plugin generates a static image every time a comment is left (or an admin moderates one). The benefit is that, when showing the badge, nothing dynamic is generated on the fly by the webserver.

Failover: if for some reason your server was not able to generate a static image (write permissions or whatever) the plugin falls back to generating the badge on the fly, so you always have something to show.

Minimal overhead: state of the art code that loads only when needed, and the plugin adds a grand total of zero extra database query.

Compatibility: the admin interface either runs as a widget (with no extra “Settings” page created) or as a traditional plugin.

Flexibility: just like your Feedburner badge, except there’s more options!

Neat interface: one click color presets, killer Farbtastic color picker, and cute FamFamFam icons

Ready for translation: polyglots, a .pot file is included. If you happen to translate the plugin, be sure to send me your work so I can include it in the archive! (Please send your .mo and .po files to ozh at planetozh dot com)

Fun: well yes, it’s just fun to show how many comments you have :)

Screenshots of the admin interface

General view of the interface:

Super hot color picker :

Color presets if you’re not sure what colors to start with:

Download

Installation

If your theme is widget aware, head to “Design / Widgets” and add the widget to your sidebar

If your theme is not widget aware:

1. edit the beginning of the main plugin file (wp_ozh_lcc.php) and replace define(’LCC_AS_PLUGIN_ONLY’, false); with: define(’LCC_AS_PLUGIN_ONLY’, true);
2. in your theme’s sidebar.php, add <?php if (function_exists(’wp_ozh_lcc_badge’)) wp_ozh_lcc_badge(); ?> where you want the badge to appear
3. go to “Settings / Liz Comment Counter” and have fun with the options

FAQ

Why show my comment count?
As you want. Either because it’s fun, egoboosting, an incentive for others to participate, an indication of the “socialness” of your blog. And, anyway, because it’s fun:)

Where is the static badge saved?
In your uploads directory, typically wp-content/uploads/cmt_badge/cmt_badge.png

How do I manually insert the badge in a document?
Like this:
<?php if (function_exists(’wp_ozh_lcc_badge’)) wp_ozh_lcc_badge(); ?>

What version of WordPress is this for?
Anything from 2.5 and above will be fine.

Who is Liz Strauss?
I’ll let her answer: About Liz Strauss. If you are looking to build connections and conversation or to grow a community of fiercely loyal fans, Liz is the person to see. Check her blog!

Who are you?
I make WordPress Plugins!

I love this plugin, how can I say thanks?
Make my day: blog about the plugin and let your readers know about it. Make Liz’ day: read her blog and comment!

Share This

Related posts

• No related posts.