As a blogger, WordPress website owner, and seasonal plugin developer, I always prioritize transparency. While working on my blog and other websites, I noticed an issue with the comment count being inflated due to including my own admin replies. This made the displayed comment count inaccurate, and I knew it was important to fix this.

Rather than using plugins that displayed misleading data, I created a custom solution to accurately track and display only the genuine blog comments, excluding my own replies. After all, who wouldn’t want to brag about how many real comments they received on their blog, right?

Why I Created This Plugin

I’ve always believed that providing honest metrics is important, especially when it comes to engagement on my blog. Using a standard plugin like Simple Blog Stats, I noticed that the comment count often included my replies to readers, which inflated the numbers. For example, my site might show 2,456 comments, but 232 of them would be my responses, not the feedback from actual visitors.

I didn’t want to mislead anyone, so I developed this plugin to exclude my own replies from the total comment count and display only genuine comments from my readers. It’s not for public use, but rather a personal solution to keep my site’s comment stats accurate.

Key Features of the Plugin

• Recent Comments Shortcode: recent_comments number="5"  This feature allows me to display recent approved comments, excluding those left by me (the admin). I can control how many comments to display by specifying the number attribute. This shortcode will show the 5 most recent comments, ensuring only genuine visitor feedback is counted.
• Total Comments Shortcode:  total_comments  This feature counts and displays the total number of approved comments, excluding any replies from the admin user (user ID 1). It gives an accurate total of how many comments my site has received from visitors.

Installation and Use

Since this plugin is for personal use, it’s a simple and private solution for my websites:

• Upload the recent-comments-shortcode folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
• Activate the plugin via the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.

Once activated, I can use the shortcodes anywhere on my site to display accurate comment data without including my own replies.

Why This Plugin Is for Personal Use Only (For Now)

This WordPress plugin is not intended for public distribution at the moment. I created it as a personal solution to track and display the genuine comments from my readers on my own WordPress blog, as well as the other WordPress website that I manage and work on. This plugin also help me keep my comment tracking accurate.

It has been especially useful as a sidebar ornament or as an additional feature to display comment information on the WordPress sidebar. While it has been incredibly helpful for me, I’m not planning to release it for public use right now.

Maintaining support for a public plugin requires a significant time commitment. Given my busy schedule, it’s difficult for me to dedicate the necessary time for user support. I need to prioritize my current projects, and adding the responsibility of maintaining a public plugin would stretch my time even further.

However, I’m not closing the door on the possibility of making it public in the future. If my schedule allows, I may reconsider sharing it with others. For now, though, this plugin is just for me to document my personal achievements and ensure my comment stats stay accurate – nothing more. It’s a challenge, but it’s something I love doing. Making my website just the way I want it gives me fulfillment and keeps me inspired. 😊