danielpataki

Top authors allows yoy to list your top authors with plenty of options. You can set the following in each widget:
<ul>
<li>Widget title</li>
<li>Roles to exclude</li>
<li>Post types to include</li>
<li>Authors to show</li>
<li>4 Preset display templates</li>
<li>Custom display template that allows you to create a completely custom structure and modify the output before and after the list.</li>
<li>Archive (category/tag/taxonomy) specific author lists</li>
</ul>
For a more detailed description of how you can set up custom author lists take a look at the other notes section. The plugin also has some developer friendly features, take a look at the other notes section for more.
<h4>Thanks</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://twitter.com/sebvandijk" rel="nofollow ugc">Seb Van Dijk</a> for donating this plugin to me for free, I owe you one 🙂</li>
<li><a href="http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/" rel="nofollow ugc">Font Awesome</a> for the plugin icon</li>
</ul>
<h4>Usage</h4>
Most of the options for the plugin are self explanatory, I thought I’d highlight the archive specific authors and the display template.
If Archive specific authors is checked the plugin will handle authors differently on category, tag and taxonomy archive pages. It will narrow the posts down to only those in the given archive. Practically this means the following:
Say John wrote 10 posts on the website and Jill wrote 5. On normal pages John would be listed first, Jull would be listed second. However, John wrote 3 posts in the “Food” category while Jill wrote 4. On the archive page for the “Food” category – if Archive specific authors is checked – Jill will be shown first with 4 posts and John second with 3.
When you select “Custom Structure” as the preset display you should see three new fields: Display Template, Before List and After List. These fields can be used to control the HTML display of your authors. To make sure you can use the data retireved by the widget I’ve added placeholders which will be replaced by real data:
<ul>
<li>%posts_url%: The URL to the user’s post archive page</li>
<li>%website_url%: The URL to the user’s website</li>
<li>%gravatar_SIZE%: The gravatar of the user at the given size. For example, to display a 50px Gravatar your would use %gravatar_50%</li>
<li>%firstname%: The user’s first name</li>
<li>%lastname%: The user’s last name</li>
<li>%displayname%: The user’s display name</li>
<li>%username%: The user’s username</li>
<li>%post_count%: Number of posts</li>
<li>%meta_FIELD%: Displays the given meta field. If you store a user’s Twitter name in the ‘twitter’ meta field you could use %meta_twitter% to display it.</li>
</ul>
As of 1.0.9 there is also a custom ID field. This is for advanced use, mainly for developers. It allows for custom CSS stylings and even custom queries on a widget-to-widget basis.
<h4>For Developers</h4>
Currently there are three filters you can use to control the options available in the widget.
<ul>
<li><code>ta/usable_roles</code> allows you to change the roles that can be selected. It should return an array of roles in the form of slug=>name</li>
<li><code>ta/usable_opst_types</code> allows you to change the post_types that can be selected. It should return an array of post type objects</li>
<li><code>ta/post_query</code> allows you to modify the arguments of the WP_Query which retrieves the posts that we look up the authors for. Modify the arguments if you want to force category-specific top authors on single post pages, or other similar uses</li>
</ul>

Top Authors

One of the important options of this plugin for me is the 'visibility' option and i can't get it to work at all.



Love the idea but can't get the visibility option to work

A highly customizable widget that allows you to display the top authors of your website easily.

OTWthemes

You can create a fully functional website using this widget. Check out the showcase. 
Drag & drop the widget in as many sidebars or custom widget areas as you like and build as many independent lists as you like. It is very easy to build any type of list you’d like. 
It works similar to SQL query but no coding knowledge is required! 
<a href="http://otwthemes.com/demos/smart-post-lists-light/?utm_source=wp.org&utm_medium=page&utm_content=demo&utm_campaign=spll" rel="nofollow ugc">Check out demo site</a>
<blockquote>
<a href="https://1.envato.market/c/1246358/275988/4415?subId1=spl&subId2=2020&subId3=https%3A%2F%2Fcodecanyon.net%2Fitem%2Fsmart-post-lists-widget-for-wordpress%2F935289&u=https%3A%2F%2Fcodecanyon.net%2Fitem%2Fsmart-post-lists-widget-for-wordpress%2F935289" rel="nofollow ugc">Upgrade to Pro Version</a> | 
 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A8q7UQJzLg" rel="nofollow ugc">Video demonstration</a>.
</blockquote>
How it works
Go to your widgets section. Drag and Drop the widget in a sidebar(widget area) that you want your list to appear in. Fill in the form and click save. Here are the options you can choose from:
<ul>
<li>Select multiple categories and tags to list posts from.</li>
<li>Choose the number of posts to list and where to start listing from.</li>
<li>Order the list by: author, date created, date modified, post title.</li>
<li>Order to display posts: ascending, descending.</li>
<li>Select fields you want to show: title, date, excerpt, number of comments.</li>
<li>Select excerpt length in words</li>
<li>Choose to show image on: all posts, first only or none</li>
<li>Choose size of the image: thumb, medium, large</li>
<li>Choose image float: top of text, left of text, right of text</li>
</ul>
By filling a simple form this plugin will build an SQL SELECT query, return a result set and build html code based on it. The form controls select expression, where condition, order by expression, limit expression. 
No coding is required!
Showcase
You can create a fully functional website using this widget. Get some ideas at the <a href="http://otwthemes.com/demos/smart-post-lists-light/?utm_source=wp.org&utm_medium=page&utm_content=demo&utm_campaign=spll" rel="nofollow ugc">demo site</a>.
<ul>
<li>Sidebar examples</li>
<li>Footer examples</li>
<li>Blog examples</li>
<li>Portfolio example</li>
<li>Products example</li>
<li>Widgetized page</li>
</ul>
Customize front-end
By default the widget looks like all other widgets from the same sidebar (widget area) you drop it in. It has its own CSS file that overrides the default styles for your list elements. You can use that file to further customize the front-end outlook.
Get more of this plugin
Most themes for WordPress will come with default sidebars and a few footer areas where you can drop widgets in. If you want to have custom widget areas for instance in content areas of your pages and post, or any other area of your site:
<ul>
<li>Create your custom widget areas by using a plugin. It’s fast and easy.</li>
<li>Create your custom widget areas by little coding – advanced users.</li>
<li>Use an advanced theme with more widget areas defined.</li>
</ul>

Smart Post Lists Light

Create custom post lists based on options you choose from a form in a widget. Different types of lists, blog, portfolio, services pages. No coding.

Top Authors vs Smart Post Lists Light