Bernhard Riedl

<ul>
<li>extends information on Users page in Admin Menu with comment counts</li>
<li>settings page configurable for standard functions</li>
<li>easy to integrate (ships with multi/sidebar- and dashboard-widget functionality)</li>
<li>possible to integrate in “Right Now” box or to display as widget on the dashboard and on the user’s profile page</li>
<li>high performance because users’ comment counts are re-used within a page-call</li>
<li><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/featuring-countcomments/other_notes/" rel="ugc">API for developers</a></li>
<li>fully compatible with <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Administration_Over_SSL" rel="nofollow ugc">https/SSL/TLS-sites</a></li>
<li>fully multisite network compatible</li>
<li>clean uninstall</li>
</ul>
Requirement for this plugin: Your users have to be registered and logged in to comment – Thus, Featuring CountComments will not work properly in weblogs where anonymous comments are allowed!
Please find the version for WordPress
<ul>
<li>3.3 and higher <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/featuring-countcomments.zip" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a></li>
<li>3.2 <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/featuring-countcomments.wordpress3.2.zip" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a></li>
<li>2.8 to 3.1 <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/featuring-countcomments.wordpress2.8-3.1.zip" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a></li>
<li>minor 2.8 <a href="https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/featuring-countcomments.wordpressminor2.8.zip" rel="nofollow ugc">here</a></li>
</ul>
Plugin’s website: <a href="https://www.bernhard-riedl.com/projects/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.bernhard-riedl.com/projects/</a>
Author’s website: <a href="https://www.bernhard-riedl.com/" rel="nofollow ugc">https://www.bernhard-riedl.com/</a> 
Attention! – Geeks’ stuff ahead! 😉
<h4>API</h4>
Parameters can either be passed <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_parse_args" rel="nofollow ugc">as an array or a URL query type string (e.g. “display=0&format=0”)</a>. Please note that WordPress parses all arguments as strings, thus booleans have to be 0 or 1 if used in query type strings whereas for arrays <a href="https://secure.php.net/manual/en/language.types.boolean.php" rel="nofollow ugc">real booleans</a> should be used.
<code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user($params=array())</code>
Counts the number of comments made by a user who is currently logged in or has a particular attribute.
$params:
<ul>
<li>
<code>user_attribute</code>: one of the user’s attributes (matching <code>query_type</code>), for example, the user_id or a WP_User object; if no user_attribute is given, will fallback to currently logged in user
</li>
<li>
<code>query_type</code>: corresponding SQL-field of user’s attribute or WP_User object; default is <code>user_id</code>
<ul>
<li>user_id</li>
<li>display_name</li>
<li>user_nicename</li>
<li>user_email</li>
<li>user_login</li>
<li>WP_User object</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<code>format</code>: if set to true (default), the output will be formatted using the attributes <code>zero</code>, <code>one</code>, <code>more</code> and <code>thousands_separator</code>; false = process plain count value
</li>
<li>
<code>zero</code>, <code>one</code>, <code>more</code>: for formatted output – %c gets replaced with the number of comments
<ul>
<li>‘zero’ => ‘0 comments’</li>
<li>‘one’ => ‘1 comment’</li>
<li>‘more’ => ‘%c comments’</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<code>thousands_separator</code>: divides counts by thousand delimiters; default <code>,</code> => e.g. 1,386
</li>
<li>
<code>display</code>: if you want to return the count (e.g. for storing it in a variable) instead of echoing it with this function-call, set <code>display</code> to <code>false</code>; default setting is <code>true</code>
</li>
</ul>
The following example outputs the comment count of the user with the registered e-mail address ‘j.doe@example.com’.
<pre><code><?php

global $featuring_countcomments;

$params=array(
 'query_type' => 'user_email',
 'user_attribute' => 'j.doe@example.com'
);

$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user($params);

?>
</code></pre>
<code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_comment($params=array())</code>
Counts the number of comments made by a user who wrote a certain comment or the current comment in the comment-loop.
$params:
<ul>
<li>
<code>comment</code>: a comment object or comment id; if empty retrieves current comment
</li>
<li>
<code>format</code>: if set to true (default), the output will be formatted using the attributes <code>zero</code>, <code>one</code>, <code>more</code> and <code>thousands_separator</code>; false = process plain count value
</li>
<li>
<code>zero</code>, <code>one</code>, <code>more</code>: for formatted output – %c gets replaced with the number of comments
<ul>
<li>‘zero’ => ‘0 comments’</li>
<li>‘one’ => ‘1 comment’</li>
<li>‘more’ => ‘%c comments’</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<code>thousands_separator</code>: divides counts by thousand delimiters default <code>,</code> => e.g. 1,386
</li>
<li>
<code>display</code>: if you want to return the count (e.g. for storing it in a variable) instead of echoing it with this function-call, set <code>display</code> to <code>false</code>; default setting is <code>true</code>
</li>
<li>
<code>in_loop</code>: if set to true (default), the query count for all user who wrote a comment which belongs to the post of the handed over <code>comment</code> will be cached; otherwise the comment count will be retrieved only for the user who posted the <code>comment</code>
</li>
</ul>
The following example outputs the number of comments of the author with the current comment in the comment loop:
<pre><code><?php

global $featuring_countcomments;

$featuring_countcomments->count_by_comment();

?>
</code></pre>
<h4>Shortcodes</h4>
<a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode_API" rel="nofollow ugc">How-to for shortcodes</a>
General Example:
Enter the following text anywhere in a post or page to output the comment count of user <code>xyz</code>:
<pre><code>[featuring_countcomments_count_by_user query_type="user_nicename" user_attribute="xyz"] by xyz so far...
</code></pre>
Available Shortcode:
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_count_by_user
</code></pre>
Invokes <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user($params)</code>.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_count_by_comment
</code></pre>
Invokes <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_comment($params)</code>.
<h4>Filters</h4>
<a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_filter" rel="nofollow ugc">How-To for filters</a>
General Example:
<pre><code>function my_featuring_countcomments_defaults($params=array()) {
 $params['query_type'] = 'user_nicename';
 return $params;
}

add_filter('featuring_countcomments_defaults', 'my_featuring_countcomments_defaults');
</code></pre>
Available Filters:
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_defaults
</code></pre>
In case you want to set the default parameters globally rather than handing them over on every function call, you can add the <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_filter" rel="nofollow ugc">filter</a> <code>featuring_countcomments_defaults</code> in for example featuring-countcomments.php or your <a href="https://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin" rel="nofollow ugc">own customization plugin</a> (recommended).
Please note that parameters which you hand over to a function call (<code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user</code> or <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_comment</code>) will always override the defaults parameters, even if they have been set by a filter or in the admin menu.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_dashboard_widget
</code></pre>
Receives an array which is used for the dashboard-widget-function call to <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user</code>. <code>display</code> and <code>format</code> will automatically be set to true and <code>user_parameter</code> to null to receive the current user’s count.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_dashboard_widget_text
</code></pre>
Receives a string which is used in the dashboard-widget. <code>%c</code> will be replaced by the comment count of the user who is currently logged in.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_dashboard_right_now
</code></pre>
Receives an array which is used for the dashboard-right-now-box-function call to <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user</code>. <code>display</code> and <code>format</code> will automatically be set to true and <code>user_parameter</code> to null to retrieve the comment count of currently logged in user.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_dashboard_right_now_text
</code></pre>
Receives a string which is used in the right-now box on the dashboard. <code>%c</code> will be replaced by the comment count of the user who is currently logged in.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_user_profile
</code></pre>
Receives an array which is used for the user-profile-function call to <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user</code>. <code>display</code> and <code>format</code> will automatically be set to true and <code>user_parameter</code> to null to retrieve the comment count of currently logged in user.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_user_profile_text
</code></pre>
Receives a string which is used in the user’s profile page. <code>%c</code> will be replaced by the comment count of the user who is currently logged in.
<pre><code>featuring_countcomments_users_custom_column
</code></pre>
Receives an array which is used for the users-page-function call to <code>$featuring_countcomments->count_by_user</code>. <code>display</code> and <code>format</code> will automatically be set to true and <code>user_parameter</code> to the user-id of each row to retrieve the user’s comment count.

Featuring CountComments

Counts the number of comments for each user, who has been logged in at the time of commenting.

mattdu

This plugin uses the custom taxonomy features of WordPress to create “bylines” — essentially, tags representing authors who contributed to a post. The differentiating feature of this plugin is that it should not require any modifications to your theme files (assuming it is already displaying the post author).
This plugin would be useful for publishing situations where the majority of your content is from contributors who you don’t necessarily want to have access to your back-end. It still conveys the appearance that the authors are members of the site (it provides a built-in archive page for each Byline). If your theme displays tag descriptions, you could use the Byline description field to identify guests vs. “staff” writers or provide other author information.
You can see an example of this plugin at work at http://thedailycougar.com

Byline

The Byline plugin is simple and suitable for multi-author WordPress sites.

Best For Multi Author

Solves the co/multi-author problem without modifying the theme. Uses a custom taxonomy, "Byline," that replaces the Display Author.

Featuring CountComments vs Byline