seeking wordpress 'popular posts' plugin

November 29, 2008 10:53 AM

Where can I find a plug-n-play wordpress plugin that displays (to readers) which posts have received the most pageviews?

You would think this would be simple to find, on some plugin directory or Google search, but I have not had any luck. The plugins that I find turn out to display popularity by comments (not pageviews), or they're so old that they were not made to be sidebar widgets, or some other problem.

I just want something in the sidebar that basically says, hey, here are the five (or whatever) posts on this blog that have been viewed more than any other posts on this blog.

posted by bingo to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I googled around and found the following:
JAW Popular Posts Widget: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/jaw-popular-posts-widget/

http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress (search for the popularity contest widget), there's other stuff there.

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/blog-navigation-wordpress-plugins-related-recent-most-popular-posts-and-more/ (Look under the subheading "Most Popular Posts WordPress Plugins") - You can sort by views and comment activity.
posted by EastCoastBias at 11:50 AM on November 29, 2008

EastCoastBias: Thanks for looking, but you are really just uncovering the same problem I've already had. All three of those links lead directly or indirectly back to something that Alex King created in 2005, when Wordpress was a lot different, and when plugins weren't made as ready-to-install sidebar widgets, but needed additional tweaking.

I am looking for something created more recently, that needs little or nothing more than to be uploaded to the server and activated.
posted by bingo at 12:02 PM on November 29, 2008

All three of those links lead directly or indirectly back to something that Alex King created in 2005, when Wordpress was a lot different, and when plugins weren't made as ready-to-install sidebar widgets, but needed additional tweaking.

The Popularity Contest plugin has an Options panel so you can configure how 'popularity' is determined: category archive views, pageviews, RSS feed views, etc. It may be old, but it's considered the most popular and comprehensive plugin for that sort of thing. There's also a widget for it.
posted by deern the headlice at 2:15 PM on November 29, 2008

The Alex King plugin may be "considered the most popular and comprehensive plugin for that sort of thing," but it doesn't work for me, and the widget you linked to just displays errors on the blog itself.

To clarify so no one else wastes their time on this: I am looking for alternatives to the Alex King plugin. That's what the question is about. Assertions that I should just accept that it's the only way to go are just as well left implied.
posted by bingo at 10:38 PM on November 29, 2008