Cal Evans, PHP community member extraordinaire, has a new post sharing his suggestions of the top five influencers in the PHP community that "make it awesome" and help make it one of the best he's been involved in.

It is no surprise to anyone who has talked to me for more than five minutes that I think the PHP community is the most vibrant and engaging developer community out there. So as we approach the end of the year, I am going to list out the influencers that help keep this community at the top. These are the people that you need to seek out and thank because without them, the PHP community would not be what it is today.

He goes with categories rather than mentioning names (because, really, there's way too many too name them all):

• 5: Core Developers
• 4: User Group Leaders
• 3: Conference Organizers
• 2: Conference Speakers, Bloggers, and Teachers
• 1: Any developer using PHP

That last one, while it might seem like an "everyone else" kind of category, is one of the most important in my opinion. After all, what is a language without its users. Core developers and community group/event leaders wouldn't have anything to talk about if no one was there to talk. There would be no one to teach or be taught to and the core developers wouldn't have any reason to drive the language forward. Even if you're not well-known in the PHP community, you and your code are making a contribution to the community, even if only in a small way.