recommend wordpress plugin
 

rating for article & have top list feature (e.g. top to rated articles from a certain category)

preferably one package/same author for less issues?

thanks

also one that can post draft to published at random times

WP-PostRatings...Post Star Rating...WP Review Engine...GD Star Rating are all different WP plugins you can check out. Not sure which ones will offer the toplist feature though.

GD Star Rating works great for me using WP and it is updated often, not a dead project.

thanks, that gd star one looks good.

also looking for random posts generator that:
randomly picks x number of articles from a category and list them on a page