Comment Moderation in WordPress
Do You want to moderate Comment in WordPress? Let’s first understand what comment is?
Comments allow the visitors to give feedback or ask questions regarding your Post or Page. By this, the visitor can have a discussion with the Post Author.
Comments are one of the most important aspects by which you can engage visitors on your website.
What are Comments in WordPress?
Comments allow visitors to write anything about your WordPress post. At the end of each post, you have a section in which a user can write something about your WordPress post. This section is called the Comment section.
Understanding WordPress Comments Admin Panel
As a WordPress developer, you need to know about WordPress Comments. Let dig deep into the Comments topic.
In the Comment section of the WordPress Admin Panel,
On the right-hand side, you will see
1. All: All means, all the comments and pingbacks you get on your website
2. Mine: Mine means, all the comments or replies you have given on your website, i.e., your comments on your website.
3. Pending: Pending means, the visitors commented on your Website, and yet you haven’t approved it. It is pending approval.
4. Approved: This section has the comments on your website that you have approved.
5. Spam: Spam is the unwanted comments, this section contains the comments those are marked as spam by you. In WordPress, Akismet Plugin filters all the spam comments and saves your website from malicious comments/links.
In the Spam section, you can Delete permanently the comment from your website, you can see the History of the Comment and You can also move back it to the comments by clicking on No Spam as shown in the screenshot.
6. Bin: As we have dustbin for waste materials in our houses. Likewise, the deleted comments by the admin will be in Bin in the WordPress website.
In the Bin Section, You have the following options
You can mark the deleted Comment as Spam here, you can Delete Permanently the comment or you can restore it back to comments.
7. Search Comments: As we have a search option on our WordPress website, so that users can search the website, likewise, in the comment section we have search comments option on the top right-hand side, by which administrators can search the comments.
Comment Moderation in WordPress
When you hover on any comment you will see the following options
How to Approve a Comment in WordPress?
Approve/Un approve: As shown in the figure, the first option is to Approve if the comment is pending and you haven’t approved it till now.
Then Approve option will be highlighted. If you click on the Approve, the comment will be approved and it can be displayed on your website.
How to Unapprove a Comment in WordPress?
After approving the comment, when you hover on the section below comment, you will see the unapprove option highlighted. If you want to change the status of the comment to pending, then click on Unapprove.
How to Reply a Comment from WordPress Admin panel?
Reply: If You want to reply to a particular comment through the admin panel, then click on the Reply button. Then You will get the text area with the heading reply to comment. Here you can reply to a particular comment, same like you write a WordPress post. After writing, click on the reply button to post it.
Can I Edit a Comment in WordPress Admin Panel?
Yes, you can edit the comment in the WordPress admin panel. We have two methods for Editing Comments
1. Quick Edit: The next option is Quick Edit, In WordPress, You can Edit comments in two ways: Like You Edit Posts and Pages in WordPress.
In Quick Edit, you (the administrator) can Edit the comment text of the commentor. You can also write the name of the author with his/her email address and URL to a website if the author has a website.
2. Edit: The other Option for editing comments is Edit, Edit is advanced version of Quick Edit.
In the Edit option, besides editing the comment text & author details, you can see the History of Comment. Here, you can also see the status of the comment whether it is approved or pending. And, you can approve it or make it spam from the edit option.
You can also delete the comment, by clicking the move to bin option as shown in the figure.
How to check history of Comment in WordPress?
History of comment means when it got approved or any editing was done to it.
If you have the Akismet Anti-Spam plugin, then you will see in the history of the comment, Akismet cleared this comment. That means Akismet checked whether the comment is spam or not. If it is not spam, then Akismet will clear the comment. Else, it will automatically reject the spam.
Then, it will show when the administrator approved that comment.
How to Spam a comment in WordPress?
If you think the comment is spam, then you can click on Spam. The Comment will be moved to the spam folder.
If you realize that the comment is spammed mistakenly, then you can go to the spam folder and click on Not Spam. Here you can also delete the comment permanently from the website.
How to Delete a Comment in WordPress?
If you want to delete a comment in WordPress, just click on the option Bin beside the Spam option. When you click on Bin, then the comment will be moved to the Bin folder and can be deleted completely from the bin folder.
Bulk Options in WordPress Comments:
Like Post & Pages, we have Bulk Options for comments moderation also. In the Bulk Options, as shown in the figure. You have 4 options: namely
1. Un Approve,
2. Approve,
3. Mark as Spam,
4. Move to Bin
You can select the comments, and click on select one of the options above, and then click on Apply.
By this, you can Approve comments in bulk, Mark comments as spam in bulk, move comments to the bin in bulk, and un-approve comments in bulk.
Filter Options in WordPress Comments
The other option at the top of the comments is All Comment Types.
In this drop-down, you will see two options namely:
Comments and Pings.
Comments are the feedbacks by your visitors as discussed above.
Pings are the free backlinks you get from other websites. That means the other website links your website in their post or pages. It is called Ping in your comment section.
Now, you can filter out Comments or Pings here. Just Select Ping and click on Filter you can see all the backlinks to your website.
Understanding Comment in Detail:
Now, let’s dig deep to understand the comment.
As shown in Figure we have 9 things to see in the comment.
#1 is the Comment Author name
#2 is the number of comments approved
#3 is the URL to the websites of the comment author
# 4 is the Commentor IP Address
# 5 is the Comment text
#6 is the post name, on which the commentor commented.
#7 View Post is the post link
#8 is the number of comments on the Post
#9 is the Date & Time of the comment.
The other settings of the Comments, we will discuss in our other post. Meanwhile, you can go to your WordPress Discussion settings and check the Comments Settings there.
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