Control Appropriate Level of Comments in WordPress

Posted on August 8, 2007
Filed Under WordPress Configuration |

The Comments feature is an important web traffic driving force because it encourages interactive communications between the blog and visitors. Comments are also referred as Discussions in WordPress, therefore to configure Comments level, log into admin pannel, select Options tab, and then click the Discussions menu.

Most of the Comments configurations by default installation are appropriate:

In “Usual settings for an article” Section:

Checked - Attempt to notify any Weblogs linked to from the article (slows down posting.)
Checked - Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)
Checked - Allow people to post comments on the article

In “E-mail me whenever” Section:

Checked - Anyone posts a comment
Checked - A comment is held for moderation

In “Before a comment appears” Section:

UInchecked - An administrator must always approve the comment
Checked - Comment author must fill out name and e-mail
Checked - Comment author must have a previously approved comment

In “Comment Moderation” Section”:

Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 2 or more links.

But I made 2 fine tunes to enhance Comments communication without too much risk of spam.

Today’s web users expect instant communications, the more interactive, the better. With the default setup, a comment submitted by a first time commenter cannot be displayed immediately. For instance, when JackT (who is a fake user I put for testing) entered a comment to one of my posting, a message shows “JackT on Your comment is awaiting moderation. August 8th, 2007 6:11 pm”. At the same time an email was sent me to notice me new comment. I have go to the Comments tab in the admin panel to approve this comment. How long does it take for me to do this? Maybe half day, a day, or couple of days.

Before I get time to moderate comments, Jack’s comments cannot be seen on the blog. That’s not good, since Jack and other visitors want instant interactions from my site. To make it happen, I unchecked “Comment author must have a previously approved comment” under the “Before a comment appears” Section. Then whoever put a comment will be seen immediately.

Another change I made was to increase the number from 2 to 3 so that “Hold a comment in the queue if it contains 3 or more links”. It is true that spam links are often put in the comments, but people may just want to recommend couple of good resources.

As for comment spam, a plugin could be a good fighter. I’ll have another tip for this topic.

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