Since my blog functions mainly as a discussion forum, I've found that the Recent Comments widget is really helpful in letting readers know when someone has contributed to a discussion. But in my case, the widget usually fills up with pingbacks and my own comments--neither of which are as important as the actual readers' comments.

It seems to me that it would be helpful to include two additional options for the Recent Comments widget:

[Checkbox] Hide pingbacks

[Checkbox] Hide comments from authors

Thanks very much.