OK, for some strange reason, having the Top Commentators update every week wasn’t working correctly. There were adding errors and a name that hasn’t commented in over a month (because she changed her name) suddenly appeared back on the list. So, now I’m going to try something new.
Instead of fooling around with the weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. I’m going to set the Top Commentator for 5 days. I believe it doesn’t reset to zero after five days. What the count show is how many comments the Top Commentators made in the past 5 days. It is a running total – as a new day is added, the fifth day is dropped. If you’re gone for more than 5 days without making a comment, you’re off the list.
I believe this is now tracking correctly. I had it set to monthly and the numbers were identical to 5 days, which would be correct since this is the 5th day of the month. What I can’t believe however, is how Saman Sadeghi and lyndonmaxewell have over 200 comments each. That’s an average of over 40 comments per day! Do you guys live here or something?
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>That’s an average of over 40 comments per day! Do >you guys live here or something?
Did you check the math of your plugin? But at least their hard work paid off well. Saman’s Technorati rank has broken the 50K mark and it’s lower now. He learned from his evil master.
It really has paid off though, a month ago my rank was 912,223. Right now it’s 40,796! This is mainly from the links on John’s site, but a few others as well.
But I gave credit were it’s due and I have credited John more then a few times! Also, I am handing out links left and right on my site. I feel like I need help out the rest of the community like they’ve helped me!!!
Thats really good, well done, how much time do you spend on your blog and networking??
I try to write an hour or two a day. Networking seems like it’s raised to over two hours…
That is some incredible results! about 870,000 jump! err.. can someone help with the percentage increase?
You sir are a comment freak.
I really don’t know how you do it. And it’s not just this site either. You’re comments are everywhere. It’s like you’ve got a crack team of monkeys working round the clock writing comments for you.
Daniel, you can be assured that it is a one-man show.
I wish I owned a troupe of monkeys though..
Yeah, especially if you could train the monkeys to bring you beer…
“It’s like you’ve got a crack team of monkeys working round the clock writing comments for you”
Quite amusing, I think there maybe a couple of teams in here tho…. Im all on my lonesome
Rest assured, there are no teams! Every comment you read is from me and me alone. I will never misrepresent myself!
Haha.. I am on my lonesome as well, jez. Seriously.
That’s an impressive jump in technorati!
That’s really crazy…how many comments do you post per day (on all blogs)?
I ‘learnt’ a lesson or two from the evil master as well. *evil grins.
Saman has 4.5x as many comments as me and I thought I was the comment whore. In fact, I’m barely on the list
It’s ok, Michael. Everyone knows that Saman is THE comment whore.
Thank you, thank you!
I can just see it now: “Look honey, they think I’m a comment whore!”
My Wife: “You’re an idiot.”
And he’s an equal opportunity comment whore too, being on top of the list at Stephen Fung’s blog as well as Jane May’s.
There are a few others too!
Saman=Best!
Haha.. I can’t believe you would tell your wife that. Yes?
I’m not surprised to hear that reaction. My wife would probably say the same of me with the much more limited amount of comments I have, let alone your number…
Just admit it Micheal, all of my hip trusting is distracting you!
Michael go checkout your MBL page..
I have added you you to my blog roll
…rest is in MBL
Saman has replace you as your successor, it seems.
It is a new generation race!
At some point you have to say “is it worth it”? LOL
223 posts in 5 days is not worth it.
no kidding…thats a lot of time spent commenting for a link…. but then, if they are commenting 200+ in 5 days, how long can they keep that up???
Hopefully not too long, then there might be more discussion and fewer comments for the sake of comments.
It’s totally worth it! My rank has risen and so have page views, now I can buy more diapers for my babies!
As for the lack of discussion, I really have tried to add to the discussion – and you will never see a spammy comment from me like:
Yeah!
Great!
Me Too!
How much of that do you think is down to comment whoring?
None – why how much do you think?
What a comment entails:-
1. a remark, observation, or criticism
2. gossip; talk
The paid links at the top of the page are $150 per month, for readers who post comments anyway, why isnt it worth posting a few more?
So, John is giving PPC (pay Per Comment)
Write 250 comments in a 5 days and get $150!!!
Hmm, if you think about it
$15 / 30 days in a month = $5
If you have to post 50 per day to get no.1 then thats 10c per comment.
That said, the lower end of the list requries a lot less commenting, but then you could be knocked off during google-bot time.
In other words, it is your idea of working for it, isn’t it? It is a nice way of having many ‘small talks’.
Working for it, not sure Id consider it work, just a bit of fun. I wont be doing this for long, just want to see what those links are worth.
TBH I would be better off putting my efforts into trading links / reviews with other sites, but having been a reader here for a while Ive often wondered just what the top commentors spot are “worth”, so now Im going to find out
In a way, that could be pretty true.
Still, it is all in the name of fun!
Exactly, there seems to be some friendly rivalry between commentors, Ive enjoyed my spam fest so far, I was just responding to a question of whether it was worth it.
If you measure received traffic vs time invested then its definately not worth it, but as an alternative to watching TV it ok
Yea, have you heard of MobTV? I watch television programs at the same time on my terminal, anyway.
It was never a rivalry for me, I just wanted to get my name out there – and now it seems like I managed to post the most comments.
That wasn’t my intention either…
never thought of it that way…hmm…
Now that John has been banned from Technorati it’s not worth the extra time to spam his comments.
I’m back to only posting comments when I feel they are relevant to the article.
Oh yeah, Are we about done with all the ReviewMe articles? I want to see your blog get back to what it was before.
You are right, Steve. In that sense, wouldn’t you say that the commentators here are not doing for any benefits but out of some fun?
I’m still here because of the community!
I don’t think he’s banned a lot of his posts are still there though there is something weird going on with his listing.
I agree as well. John will be sure to be ‘let off’ soon.
I’m not really banned. Links to me are still being counted and my links to others are counted as well. It’s just Technorati is refusing to increase my current rank. However, I can still increase the rank of others. Just right now, others can’t increase my rank.
There are three more ReviewMe reviews and then we’ll be back on the normal cycle.
You’re pretty generous for such an evil dude!
I do agree. It’s all about ROI and while it’s worth it for a certain number of posts for me, it’s quickly becoming a less attractive venture.
Agreed!
40 comments a day? krazy krazy…They must have a roboform comments program on johnchow.com
Nope, I’m just that good!
Props to Saman…that’s what i call dedication.
Great!
(sorry, I had to do it)
Yea, that is indeed some serious dedication for a lone person.
Pardon me, but aren’t you commenting just as much as me?!
Holy mackerel! 223 comments…ummmmm, Sam, wow! that’s all I can say….WOW! Good job top commentators, you have taken it to a new level. Unless ofcourse, there’s a glich in the system. But regardless…good stuff!!!
there has to be a glitch! I barely send 223 IMs a day!
It’s not a glitch, it’s all part of being in the Clan of Evil!
you either wrote a script, or you you have way too much time on your hands. I guess the latter…how much time DO you spend here?
“you either wrote a script”
Dont give him ideas!!
He just has an absurd amount of time on his hands. But that’s ok, the more time he spends here, the less time he spends on his blog. That makes it easier for me to get my slice of the pie
Should have made an effort to do it a few months ago when you held the top spot, or close month on month….
Real uncommon, but not impossible. You already have one person who made it happen!
Haha wow.
When my name disappeared today temporarily (as well as Jane’s) I thought John blacklisted the previous month’s comment winners to give everybody a fair chance..
But looks like I still get to be a comment whore!
SWEEEET
One of the top ten comment ‘whores’, to be exact.
Nice John, but I think you should take a look at the mysql db yourself and see if the values are really correct; 40 comments a day just seems weird – even to me
It’s not weird if you’ve been reading through the comments. Those two have been going insane.
Yep, John. Running total. I mentioned this in a comment on your other post about Top Commentators…and how I’ve got mine set at 7. But do you listen? Noooo.
That’s it!!! I’ve had it!!! I refuse to be your comment whore!!!
*runs & hides*
Um…I was only kidding. We’re still cool, right?
Anyone want to get a bet going on the over/under between Saman and lyndon?
I wouldn’t bet on it: last week was slow for me, so I was able to be on the Internet a lot. That won’t be the case this week – the rest of you spammers can have a chance!
Just don’t get to comfortable at the top of the list, I’ll be back!
lol.. And who’s going to fork out the bets? Banker anyone?
Nah.. we should just keep it to this way.
Why, are you scared?
Really though, let’s not spam!
Not this week, as others have said, commenting so furiously is not sustainable. In terms of traffic Im not convinced the time invested is worth it, time is probably better spent on the blogs than comment spamming.
That said, I just had to know what the traffic increase would be
Head over to my site, I have posed about the increase in traffic – and I still spend just as much time writing content as I did before!
Seems like after sometime youll reset it daily??????
If it keeps on with more people jumping into the fray, you may be certain for it to happen, eventually…
I doubt it, what benefit does John gain from this really, ultimately it will just slow his page loads down, which is already happening….
That page load time is slow cos of the mybloglog avatar. 100+ comments in a post means 100+ photos from that slow mybloglog server. That’s why it is slow.
But the page load will not wait for the image will it, the page will load and images render concurrently.
What I mean is, load doesnt stop and wait for each avatar, it serves the html and images are rendered afterwards
Words occupy very little space. Actually, I would go along with Mr.Byte on this though.
He has a point, my point is that there are a lot of extra DB requests to buld the comments section, which has got to be an overhead also, though, that depends on the speed of Johns server, which I think is pretty good.
Not sure that would work, it would jump around too much, there has to be “some” consistency
WOW haha, 200+ comments in five days. I spend more time reading the comments than the actual posts here!
@ John. This place is practically my ‘second’ home in the virtual world. :O Proud to be kicking around here.
Wheres your first, your own site I assume??
Definitely. What else is closer to your heart than your very own site?
That is sure a lot of commenting. Saman might spend more time here than you do John.
I wouldnt be surprised, maybe he could become an author!!
A full-time author, for that matter.
But, I wouldn’t say no!
People are determined to build their link by commenting here… So they live half their days here, just refreshing and spamming Oops! commenting in this site. I do comment here but let me also try spamming. John doesn’t mind people spamming cos it indirectly builds page traffic. So nobody minds if anybody comments.
As I said before, I think its (IMO) starting to slow page loads, which is not really in Johns interests.
Comparing load times to those a few months ago its a lot slower, or is it just me??
Not really spam comments, there are a few one liners, there is still some discussion tucked away in here somewhere
I agree, with every bits of small talk, you still get some form of discussion out of it.
Like I’ve said, I always try and contribute to the conversation. If I can’t, I move on!
Actually getting into the top commentors list not only gets backlink from John’s site but also get some traffic and future regular readers….
Well, you are pretty right on that aspect. I can almost see you there on the list as well!
5 days seems awfully short…
but that allows others to compete… and the people in the top list wont dominate unless the comment even more…. It’s our evil John’s idea, don’t ya get it???
You have to work your way to the top, and who says that 5 days is too short? Never.
5 is a moderate balance…its neither 2 short nor 2 long…if its too short some commentors may not try to compete and giving 5 days helps the usual top commentors a chance to strive
Hmm yea, it gives a sort of a longer term pace to set on.
Its a rolling 5 days though, so in a sense it will reward consistency as opposed to hammering it at the start of the month….
It also differentiates the active commentators from the plain spammers alone.
Not really, if your not active you dont get on the list whether its monthly or weekly.
TBH, I think this is too much effort for a spammer to be bothered with. A spammer would rather hit mutliple sites once than pour effort into one site, and then find that they were banned for spam.
It calls for consistency, which you had mentioned.
I agree. No right-minded ‘spammer’ would put all their effort into a single site.
No right-minded ’spammer’ would put all their effort into a single site
Are you saying I have mental health issues
5 days. That’s a good time frame for people to come back when they have time instead of coming everyday simply to get attention.
Hmm… To be the top commentator, I’d have to post for about an hour a day for a month. Time I could better spend writing to my own blog. But the extra traffic from being on the top commentator’s list here would mean extra traffic. But that would mean less actual content to read.
Damn Catch-22 situations…
This is a great idea to let people feel like they always have a chance go get a small backlink
so…I’ve got a question… how do you edit the code for the top commentors so that John Chow isn’t counted when he comments on his own posts???
or are you just never in the top 10
you edit the Plugin file. There’s a spot for it to exclude names.
Perfect…thanks
John,
have you considered releasing this plugin to the public?
or at least releasing it to me?
You seriously post a lot of great articles.. lots to learn from you…
I have marketing my blog for nearly 6 months now.. creating much traffic at 69,000 on Alexa now.. but your ideas and articles I believe will help build up my web traffic more in the future =)
Alvin Phang
There’s definitely traffic to be gained from community participation. The whole thing does get a wee bit incestuous but it’s hard to argue with success.