Last few weeks I have spend a lot of time fixing GD Star Rating bugs, and even more time trying to figure out bugs in other WordPress plugins. JavaScript code is very easy to break, and in most cases it will not going to affect the page rendering, only some of the elements.

People notice GD Star Rating stops functioning and they assume that the problem is with GD Star Rating. Rating is interactive feature and when it stops working, it is the first thing blog visitors see. But in most cases some other plugin uses JavaScript and when that stops working, all JavaScript stops working.

The best thing is to check each plugin you install on you blog to see if this plugin breaks something. To see JavaScript problems you need to have Mozilla Firefox borwser (version 2 or 3) and Firebug plugin. Firebug also have it’s own plugins like Firecookie. You can install that too.
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I have compiled a list of potential problems that can cause GD Star Rating to stop working. I will try to update this list as soon as I identify the problem that is not related to the plugin but with something else. List is located on the Wiki on Google Code project page:

http://code.google.com/p/gd-star-rating/wiki/PotentialVotingProblems

Please, if you have some problems with GD Star Rating, first check this list, and eliminate the problems listed before you post a comment or forum topic. I don’t have much free time, and this will help to avoid repeated anwsers to the same problems.

Also, check user guide, many useful things are listed there.

New version is here. First of all, I have fixed all bugs I have found related to rating rules. But, the most problems are coming from the fact that I have added some improvements with previous version that required for blog admins to review settings of the plugin and check if things are ok. Anyway, I have fixed things I have found so far to be problem.

So, please review the settings after updating plugin, check if things are set as they should be. If you still have problems, please use the forum and describe the problems in more details, include your settings (screenshots will work) so I can hunt the bugs. Also, check the user guide it’s very detailed.

This version includes some very important new features, and also partial implementation of features planned fo the future versions announced in roadmap for the plugin development. So, read on to find out what’s new.

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This release has some very important bug fixes related to time restrictions, auto inserting rating into comments and votes deletion. So, I strongly reccomend to update your blogs with this version.

Also, there are couple of new things. First is new widget that will display average blog rating calculated on the basis of all posts. You can see it in the sidebar on this blog. I have added more options for better control of restricting votes with logged IP addresses and cookies. And, more options are now by default hidden on the settings panel, making it easier to use. And if you need some of the hidden options, you can turn them on from general tab.

As always, all comments and bug reports are welcomed. Next version will be released sometime next week.