Sort authors list by recent post

Do you want to sort the authors by whoever has most recently posted, or just get the most recent post for each individual author?

If i’m reading your code right, it follows the following logic:

1). Use get_users() to return a list of author objects.
2). A foreach loop to cycle through each of the authors individually.
3). Set up divs that pull out all of the author’s metadata and display it.
4). Use query_posts() to get and then display a list of said author’s most recent posts.

Looking at the codex for get_users(), it seems that there is no way, using that function, to achieve what you want. You CAN achieve something like this using new wp_query() by passing ‘orderby’=>’ author date’ in the parameters (you can pass two values to the orderby parameter). Given this, you might think of doing is reorganizing your logic as follows:

1). Call a new wp_query and loop through all the posts it returns.
2). Within the while loop, create a new wp_query based on the data returned to you via the first query.This should include the author id of the first returned post, and an array of author names/ids to exclude from consideration. This should to return a loop focused only on the author of the MOST RECENT post, and will exclude duplicate author records in the list.
3). Use the data returned in this loop to echo out the author’s meta data, and a list of their most recent posts (‘orderby’=>’date’).
4). Add the author’s name to an array of author’s names/ids that is appended every time you iterate through the loop. This array is passed every time to the second loop (in step 2), as a list of authors to exclude from consideration. This should exclude records of duplicate authors.

I didn’t give you an example of code because I want to make sure this is what you’re looking to achieve.

Ok, this is totally untested, but I believe it encapsulates the idea I was trying to put forth. It’s probably not going to work without serious surgery, so I would NOT just dump it into your theme. Backup your file before you try it out, if you do at all.

<?php
$excludeauthor = array();
//FIRST LOOP - TO GET LIST OF RECENT POSTS
$post_query = new WP_Query($args); ?>
<?php if ( $post_query->have_posts() ) : ?>
<?php while ( $post_query->have_posts() ) : $post_query->the_post();

//declare author array as global
global $excludeauthor;
$present_author = array($post->post_author);

//Arguments for the second loop that will make a loop based on the
//author of the most recent post(s).
$args=array(
	'orderby' => 'date',
	'post_status' => 'publish',
	'posts_per_page' => -1,
	'author__in' => $present_author,
	'author__not_in' => $excludeauthor
);

	//SECOND LOOP - Queries specific author of most recent post
	$author_query = new WP_Query($args); ?>
	<?php if ( $author_query->have_posts() ) : ?>
	<?php while ( $author_query->have_posts() ) : $author_query->the_post(); ?>
	<?php global $present_author; ?>

		<?php //Get all the information regarding the present author as an object ?>
		<?php $author = get_user($present_author); ?>

		<?php //Create all the html output for the author and post ?>
		<a name="<?php echo $author['user_nicename']; ?>">
		</a>
      	<div class="author-posts-wrapper" id="author-<?php echo $author['ID']; ?>-posts-wrapper">
       	<div class="author-posts" id="author-<?php echo $author['ID']; ?>-posts">
          <div id="author-page-name">
		<a href="<?php echo get_author_posts_url( $author['ID'] ); ?>">
		<?php echo $author['display_name']; ?>
		</a>
		<br>
           <img src="/tht/wp-content/images/author_twitter_icon.jpg">
		<span id="author_twitter">twitter here</span></div>
          <div id="author_bio">
		<?php echo $author['description']; ?>
		</div>
		<br>
 		<div id="authors_recently">
		<em>Recently:</em>&nbsp;

		<?php //OUTPUT THE ACTUAL HTML PART OF THE LOOP FEATURING THE AUTHOR'S MOST RECENT POST(S) ?>
		<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php the_title(); ?>">
		<?php the_title(); ?>
		</a>
		&mdash;
		<?php echo get_the_date(); ?>
    		<?php endwhile; ?>
        	</div><!-- #author-post-list -->
  		<?php else: ?>
         		<p>This author has not yet published any posts</p>
 		<?php endif; ?>
        	</div><!-- #author-posts -->
      	</div><!-- #author-posts-wrapper -->
		<br><hr>

	<?php //ENDS SECOND LOOP ?>
	<?php else:  ?>
 	 <p><?php _e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' ); ?></p>
	<?php endif; ?>

<?php
//When the second loop ends, add the present author to a
//list of authors to exclude from later loops, but ONLY if
//that author is not already in the list of authors to exclude.
if (!in_array($present_author, $exclude_author)){
array_push($present_author,$excludeauthor);
}

//ENDS FIRST LOOP?>
<?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?>
<?php else:  ?>
  <p><?php _e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' ); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>