Top 10 Mariucans Explained *

Lately I've been receiving many comments from some very confused bloggers, regarding my Top Commentator widget.

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I did comment in October, wonder why I'm not on TC list. I have more than 5 comments. ECL

I think something wrong with your top commenter widget...so fast clear the figure. Bono

Aiks, Marzie! I dun understand about yr top commenter widget lar. Moment ago, I saw I have 17 comments, so I added another 4 more, meaning I should see a new record of 17+4=21 comments. But when I refreshed yr blog again for the new record to show, it says 15 comments! How? Why am I dropping? Jean

Jean, I'm so glad you asked. I thought it was just me being stupid for not understanding why numbers drop. Grandy

I am here to register a complaint with the top management of this blog. Mariuca, I am afraid you need to recalibrate your top commenters widget to be fair to commenters who have been showing up for the entire month of October. I noticed that I had dropped off your list earlier, but there were two or three in the top ten with only four (4) comments! I think you told me you had the widget set to count the most recent 500 comments, but you're now getting 500 comments per day! So I'm hoping you'll consider counting a larger number of comments that cover the entire month of October, not just the last day or two of October, when you crown your top Mariucan. Roxy

And my personal favourite!

What la can I do to get on the list? Sacrifice a goat? Burn some incense? Promise you my first born child? What? What? Tell me ... LOL! Nick

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So I decided to explain how this widget works to my understanding, as best possible.

The first Top Commentator Widget I used here at Wishing On A Falling Star was created by Amanda. I later switched to an improved Top Commentator Widget by Mxyzplk Money Maker, primarily because this improved version links back to my Top 10 Mariucans, whereas the first one did not. This second widget takes into account the last 500 comments received for ALL my posts.

Last month, due to increased competition among my Mariucans to secure a spot on my Top 10 Mariucans monthly list, I looked around for another widget and found one that allowed me to take into account the last 5000 comments! This widget is the one I'm currently using but after testing it out on my blog, I found that 5000 comments was way too high and did not accurately reflect the commenting level given by my more loyal Mariucans, which was unfair to them.

And so I turned to LJ to help me set the widget to include the last 1000 comments received here. By doing so, I managed to ensure my loyal Mariucans secured their spots on my list to not be easily dethroned by newcomers who have just joined the commenting fever here.

This month however, thanks to the dolly sponsorship for my Top 3 Mariucans in October by our darling Emila, the number of comments I've been receiving has tripled, which led to all the confusion and dissatisfaction amongst some of my loyal commentators as shown above. So allow me to explain how this widget works first.

My Top Commentator widget takes into account the last 1000 comments received for ALL my posts, old and new alike. Whenever I receive new comments, the older ones will get eliminated from the list, making room for the new ones to fulfil the 1000 comment limit set for this widget. Unlike the Top Commentator widget for Wordpress, this one cannot be reset to 0 at the beginning of every month. The number of comments recorded at the end of the month will be carried forward to the next, and will change accordingly, based on the number of comments you continue to make here.

Top 10 Mariucans at the last 1000 comments

I'll give u an example based on the picture above. Noticed how LJ, who has been my Top Mariucan for the last 7 months, drastically dwindled to a mere 11 comments from her last figure of 200+ last month? If you add up the different numbers next to each name on my Top 10 Mariucans list above, it will come up to 889. Where is the remaining 111 you ask? It is distributed among those who have been commenting here like Kim, Metz, Nessa, Bobby etc but did not comment enough to get at least 7 comments to remain within the 1000 range in order to appear on my Top 10 Mariucans list. For instance, my number 10 currently is Bono with 7 comments. So let's say Sushi is at the 11th spot with 6 comments, he won't make it to my Top 10 Mariucans list BUT his 6 comments still count towards that 1000 limit set for the widget.

The more you comment, the faster the older comments will be removed from the list. So in Jean's case above, her total number of comments reduced despite her adding 4 new comments is most likely due to the fact that some of the new comments (including her new ones) actually pushed the older ones out (including her old comments) from the list! Phew! That was a toughie to explain, but I hope everyone gets a better a picture of how this widget works now. :)

And after much tossing and turning to keep all my Mariucans happy, I've decided to double the number of comments in my widget from 1000 to the last 2000 comments received here. That should take care of my other loyal Mariucans who have been consistently commenting every day here, so they won't be easily pushed out of my list. At the same time, Mariucans who have been diligently commenting every day here are still tops on the list so their hard work won't be wasted as well! But please remember that you have to comment daily here in order to keep up with my Top 5 and to maintain your spot here for October. There's only a week left before I crown my Top Mariucan so hurry!

Top 10 Mariucans at the last 2000 comments

Also, I would like to thank Rizal who has so generously sponsored another 1000 EC credits to my October prizes, bringing the total amount of EC credits to be given away to a whopping 3750 ECs! Thank you Rizal! :)

Special thanks to LJ as well, who though is busy taking care of her mom in Singapore, was kind enough to help fix my widget to now include the last 2000 comments for Mariuca in my TC widget. Love ya! :)

Posted at 6.25 PM

* The first person to leave a comment on any post title that ends with a star will receive a link back to his or her blog for being my first commentator!

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