Community Cloud Plugin

I’m a firm believer that one of the best ways to get noticed, attract readers and develop a community is to link and link often. The more link love you give, the more link love you will receive.

As a result of this philosophy, I’ve incorporated several things into this blog including a weekly list of links to articles I think readers might find interesting, the Top Commenter’s plugin and removing the nofollow tag from comments left by repeat commenter’s. All of these things help bring in new readers and encourage comments and participation in discussions.

Along the same lines as the Top Commenter’s plugin, except with tag cloud goodness, comes the Community Cloud Plugin for WordPress. I recently ran across this plugin and love the idea.

What is the Community Cloud Plugin?

The Community Cloud is a plugin that was recently developed by the good folks at Web Addicts. The plugin displays a “tag cloud” of all the people in your community (blog) who have added value by commenting and participating in discussions. The more a person has commented, the bigger and bolder their link is. Here is an example of what it looks like:

You can also see a live version of the plugin by visiting the Average Joe Blogger Community page.

Installation of the this plugin is pretty straightforward and is basically the same as any other WordPress plugin. Just upload and activate. However, be aware that some users have noted it was necessary to change the permissions on the plugin files in order to make it work. I had absolutely no problems.

To use the plugin simply create a new page and add <!–community cloud–> somewhere in the body. Or add it to your sidebar by using the sidebar widget.

Community Cloud Admin

Configuring the “tag cloud” to fit within your blog design is a breeze. The following items can be configured via the WordPress admin.

Excluded Authors - enter any blog authors that you do not want to appear in the community cloud. Can also be used to filter out individual commenter’s.

Commenter Threshold - the number of comments a person must write before appearing in the community cloud.

Font - specify the minimum and maximum font sizes in either pixels or % as well as font colors.

Order of Commenters - specify the order in which the community cloud will display commenter names.

Conclusion

The Community Cloud Plugin is a great way to give a little extra link love to those who help keep your blog going by commenting and participating in discussions. I love the idea and I’ve added it here on Average Joe Blogger.

What are your thoughts? Is this something you would consider adding to your blog?

Download the Community Cloud Plugin

Tags: Comments, plugins, Wordpress