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Download WordPress Great Pens Plugin for Thesis Theme Multi-Authors Blogs

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Wordpress Great Pens

If you know me, then you know that I love to work with Thesis Theme, and probably you know that I have redesigned our blog recently, I added some features and enhancements to it’s layout, and one interesting addition is the “Great Pens” widget on the sidebar, it has a list of our recent authors and their article links, also if you notice, clicking on the author’s avatar/image will take you to his/her blog, this means extra link has been added allover the blog, this is amazing because I have no idea how many backlinks this widget could give to each of our guest bloggers considering total number of posts on the blog.

Update: Latest Contributors with Images Widget is available for download!

You Asked for it!

Some of my dear friends and readers asked me to share the code I am using here on our blog, and I have no problem with that, I even created a nice WordPress plugin -my first plugin- today and added the code into it, I call it “WordPress Great Pens“. Installing this plugin will add a new widget to your WordPress, it will allow you to display a list of your recent contributors depending on your blog categories, along with a link to their latest articles, plus number of comments.

By this way you don’t have to suffer from adding the code manually. However you still can find the code inside the wp_great_pens.php code and even the style.css file has all needed styles!

I would like to mention that Great Pens plugin will list only 6 authors, this is the default, there is no options panel for it, this means there is no way to increase the list of authors rather than editing the wp_great_pens.php file.

Don’t worry, it’s not that that hard, there is a note I inside the file, you will find it easily!

Just search for “//Number of related pens that will be shown“. Remember, be careful while editing any file on your server! OK?!

Is it FREE?

A Gift for Multi-Authors Blogs

YES! it’s a GIFT for you! Feel free to use it, share with your friends, edit the plugin, and do what ever you want with it! All what I am asking is some credit or a small mention on your blog and maybe linking to this post,  just to spread the word in a try to reach more people who are looking for something similar. I am asking for this favor because I am not planning to develop this plugin anymore, but I am just imagining there might be someone interested in developing the Great Pens plugin once they discover it, so.. I hope they will find it through your blog!

Plugin installation!

As simple as any other WordPress plugin! no extra work, just extract the file and FTP it’s content to your wp-content/plugins folder

Read Before you download WP “Great Pens” plugin!

Pay attention plz, this plugin works tested on blogs that uses Thesis Theme, some parts of the code may not work on your blog if you not using Thesis!

So PLZ be careful with that! you still can download the plugin and check it out, maybe you can modify it to work on your blog theme. I appreciate if you share your version or modifications with us!

Note: Probably you will get this warning message after activating the plugin:

The plugin generated 2 characters of unexpected output during activation. If you notice “headers already sent” messages, problems with syndication feeds or other issues, try deactivating or removing this plugin.

After searching, I found out that this is a minor warning message, you don’t have to worry too much for that message, add the widget to your sidebar or footer and if the plugin is working as expected them just ignor the message. This plugin is tested on WordPress 3.0.3 and Thesis 1.8.

Note: download require sign-up for ThesisAwesome.com free download center

Ready? Download WP Great Pens plugin!

Get WordPress Great Pens plugin for Thesis Theme

Enjoy!

Trying, and let me know how it looks on your blog!

About

I create websites with WordPress, and I develop Schema Plugins to help SEOs. I am a social network lover. I am also the night creature who works hard to keep this project up. Owner and founder of the Famous Blog.

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{ 57 Responses }

  1. Rhythm says:
    WaoO Very nice Plugin .. i will also put now in my website . i am so happy to use Thesisawesome . And hope the website will give more Awesome Updates . Thankyou Regards Rhythm..
  2. Amandeep Singh says:
    Is there a way I don't have to install an additional plugin and instead put it in the code?
  3. Kenedy says:
    I have 2 questions? 1: is this plugin working with the newest wordpress 3.3.1 and 2: Is there someone developing it? Regards
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Yes, it works, and yes I am managing the development of the plugin.
  4. Sreejesh says:
    After installing this plugin, when I click on Empty cache link of W3 Total cache. The page goes to white page of death!!! Also no post title displayed next to the authors gravatar. Please give your attention
    • Hesham says:
      This plugin is coded for Thesis Themes only, I see that you are not running Thesis on your blog, so this is probably why it's not working!
      • Sreejesh says:
        I do have a thesis theme but not used in my main blog. And I did try your plugin in my thesis test page.
  5. Bican Valeriu says:
    I just downloaded this plugin...I will install it soon and come back with an opinion
  6. Karan says:
    Dunno why but it is not working for me..:( Shows nothing when placed in the sidebar, not even blank space...
    • Hesham says:
      It will not work if you don't have contributors on your blog!
      • Karan says:
        Works for me now! :) Just have to stylize it now.
  7. Usama says:
    Wonderful plug-in. An attracting phenomenon for commenting. Thanks for sharing the plug-in.
  8. shashank chinchli says:
    awesome .. This plugin would be too useful for me! It made wonders for me sir! thanks for the same :)
    • Hesham says:
      Shashank, glad to hear that.. enjoy!
  9. Daniel Lew says:
    I just downloaded this plugin, thanks very much, might try it on one of my many sites :)
    • Hesham says:
      I hope it will be useful for you Daniel, it's an ideal for multi-authors blogs, or blogs who are accepting guest posts
  10. Suresh Khanal says:
    I envy those all who use Thesis. I am not using it. Thesis started to be strong enough in my wish list. It would have been great if similar plugin is available that displays the recent posts of top commenters blog. This will be useful for single author blogs too! Even commenters would love!
    • Hesham says:
      The most interesting thing about Thesis Theme for me is the learning opportunity! it's my favorite Theme and I highly recommend it! Recent posts of top commenters? I am afraid this is not possible in a simple way, you can not grab recent posts from other blogs that easy! Commentluv is running on a whole server to provide links if you know what I mean!
  11. Tinh says:
    Great plugin and I will surely need this one for my new project sooner. Thanks Harsh
    • Hesham says:
      N.P ... mmm.. Harsh who? lol!
      • Jarret says:
        Hesham, I think he's mixed you up with Harsh Agrawal from the Shout Me Loud blog. Has anyone tested your Famous Pens Plugin on a WordPress site that doesn't use Thesis?
        • Hesham says:
          Yeah I know lol! It will not work for non Thesis blogs, but maybe next week I can find a way to make it work, but we will need at least All in one SEO plugin to be installed to get the fields from it! (not sure yet) I will update if things went good!
      • Tinh says:
        Ekek, my apologies! I did not mean @ Harsh but @ Hesham LOL It did not work on my Thesi 1.8, I am trying it again now
        • Harsh says:
          I tried it on one of my tech blog (callingallgeeks.org) and it's still live and it works great... Though I suggested few feature amendment into it and lets see if Hesham put them up or else I will try to iterate this plugin and make it much better :)
          • Hesham says:
            Oh! I just remembered this now, I will see what I can do, maybe we can release a new update or something soon :)
  12. Dev says:
    Hey Hesham, Awesome plugin. I just installed on my blog and it's working like a charm. The only problem is it reduces the speed of the blog. Anyways, Thanks for awesome work man. However, can you please tell how you're showing the latest contributors widget in the footer. Thanks ! !
    • Hesham says:
      Nice! Speed? it dose a super query that's why! (thinking you are not a normal blog anymore! you are much more than that - thinking of more fast hosting service!) The "Latest Contributers" might be my second plugin! P.S. I hope you mention my plugin in a nice blog post!
      • Dev says:
        That's awesome to hear man. Can't wait to see you next plugin. I will surely going to mention your plugin someday. Thanks for the plugin. Btw. Are you using lazyload plugin?
        • Hesham says:
          No, I have implemented the code in my Thesis skin!
  13. Cindy says:
    nice work on the plugin, Hesham :) can the plugin also display contributors not depending on category and just display them in general?
    • Hesham says:
      You mean like the way I display contributors here on the footer? Well.. this plugin will only do what is says here, and it has to use categories or tags to grab the article links! Listing contributors .. that might be my next plugin!
  14. Aaron says:
    It really looks great on here Hesham. Thanks for sharing it with us. Now I just need to get on that list :)
    • Hesham says:
      lol! getting on the list is so easy my friend :) waiting you!
  15. Joy says:
    Thanks Hesham. This sounds like a good plugin. I am sure that many of your readers will find it to be extremely useful.
    • Hesham says:
      I can not say no to my friends :)
  16. Lynda says:
    This is a really nice plugin. I want to use it for one of my blogs but it doesn't run on Thesis. Will it work on any wordpress-powered site? thanks!
    • Hesham says:
      Thank you Lynda, but I am afraid it will not work your blog if you don't have Thesis Theme! I will see if I can do a work around and make it work for other blogs, but at least you will need to have All in SEO plugin enabled on your blog! not sure yet regarding my time, but.. well stay tuned, good things could happen at any time :)
  17. Nasrul Hanis says:
    Nice plugin there, buddy! I admire your work on Thesis! It's awesome!!! Keep up! :D
    • Hesham says:
      Oh! let me know if you decided to use it on your blog! I would love to see it in action ;)
      • Nasrul Hanis says:
        I'm testing it.. however it got some problems. Maybe because of my wp version. I'll let you know when it's ready! ;)
        • Hesham says:
          You need to have custom fields at least for titles, let me know more details! drop me an email if you need to!
          • Nasrul Hanis says:
            Oh? That's why.. ok, Hesham. I'll email you if needed. Thanks for your help!
          • Nasrul Hanis says:
            Now I understand why you said it's quite hard to be used by non-Thesis users. Because I just realized that this plugin relies on the custom titles! I'd applied your plugin at one of my blog --> http://dailyhealthcare.net/ Btw I hope you add some user-friendly features such as option panel so it'll be easier for the users to modify the settings. Other thing to say - this plugin is really awesome!! Thanks Hesham and keep up the good work! :D
            • Hesham says:
              Cool! I hope I can find enough time, but you always can edit it manually till some super happen :) P.S. this plugin is created for multi-authors blogs, so maybe you don't need to use it on a blog you are the only one who blog at :)
  18. Onibalusi Bamidele says:
    Wow, This is really cool Hesham, You are always coming up with great things. BTW: I don't think this is your first plugin, what of the MMO social button?
    • Hesham says:
      The MMO was adoption from another plugin! but this one is my real first one lol! however I am not sure if I will have time to develop it more, I just think there are some other stuff worth my time ;)
  19. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Hesham, I like Great Pens on the sidebar, to see the most comments post and the possibility to direct in and read it if I have miss it.
    • Hesham says:
      This is why I have a nice long list, I am even thinking to organize it more in categories! this will be my next task!
  20. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Hesham, I love the idea for this plug-in. Nothing like giving your guest posters props. If you have many guest posts it's a no-brainer download. Thanks for your generosity! Ryan Biddulph
    • Hesham says:
      It's very useful in many ways :) I appreciate your kind words Ryan! have a great day my friend!
  21. Mike says:
    Awesome plug-in, Hesham! Although I don't run Thesis for my blog, this plug-in is surely very useful for multi-author blog. If you combine this plug-in with a plug-in to cache the gravatar, it would be a perfect combination! You can cut numerous HTTP request to the gravatar server and boost the blog load time. What do you think about my idea lol :)
    • Hesham says:
      Awesome way of thinking Mike! Not so sure about my time, and maybe I am not going to add development to this plugin, also I am not a perfect developer, but I was just trying to help my fellows who asked for it! Thanks for the tip :)