There are several URL removal tools that you can use to help control bad URLs and other unwanted comments in WordPress. That being said, today we are going to focus on a plugin that gives you the ability to protect your site from all sorts of bad comments, spam, and URLs. 

What Are Spam Links in Comments?

In WordPress, you can allow comments on your website whenever you want. That being said, in many setups, there is also a space for a commenter to leave a comment link or even a stand-alone link.

More often than not, a link in comments is spam, leading you to some third-party site that has nothing to do with the comment or the conversation. They can also be attempts at backlinks, but either way, 9 times out of 10, these types of links are spam-related and they need to be removed.

You may also come across cases where a good comment has been left, but you still don’t want a comment in a link showing. Instead of deleting comments altogether, there are certain tools you can use that allow you to display comments while also getting rid of links and other spam comments.

Let’s take a look at the plugin we are going to use today to disable a link in a comment in WordPress and see what all it has to offer.

Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools

Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools is not only a solution for comment spam and bad URLs, but it also gives you a number of other features. This allows you to prevent spam URLs while also cleaning up comments, deleting links, and much more.

The Comment Link Remove plugin is not only an all-in-one solution for removing spam, but it is also a huge timesaver. Going through hundreds of comments and trying to decide whether they are spam or not can be very time-consuming.

With Comment Link Remove, you will be able to remove author links and any other links from the user comments section on your website. Again, if you run a WordPress website or blog and have comments enabled, then there is a 100% chance that you will have to deal with spammy comments. 

Having a Captcha tool can help with spambots, but these are useless when it comes to protecting your site from a human who is willing to put the time in to create spam comments and bad links.

With Comment Link Remove, you are already a leg-up on discouraging comment spammers. The plugin is lightweight and will not slow your website down. It comes with a number of really great features including:

• The ability to remove website field from the comment form
• Remove hyperlink from comment author
• Disable turning URLs into hyperlinks in comments
• Remove HTML link tags in comments
• Disable comments globally
• Hide existing comments
• One-click pending comment deletion
• Delete all comments with one-click
• Delete all spam comments with one-click

All in all, you will be very hard-pressed to find a better solution for managing comments on your WordPress website.

Let’s get the plugin installed and running together.

Note: There is a pro version of this plugin. It gives you more features and even allows you to expand a newsletter and moderate comments even easier. If you feel this is something you need for your site, then go ahead and take a look at it. The rest of this tutorial is based on the free version of the plugin.

How to Clean Up Comments and Avoid Spam Links

Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin

Before you can use Comment Link Remove as an all-in-one Url removal tool, you first need to install and activate the plugin. You can do this quickly and easily by jumping over to the Plugins page in the WordPress admin dashboard. 

Simply use the available search field that is above the plugins list and search the plugin by name. Once you see it pop up, go ahead and install and activate it right from there.

Step 2: Access the Settings Page

Now that the plugin has been installed and activated, it is time to set the entire thing up by configuring all the available settings. To get to the right page, click on the QC CLR Settings tab, located on the left side menu area of the dashboard.

You can see that these and other options are now available because you have activated the plugin for use.

Step 3: Configure the Comment Link Remove Plugin Settings

At this point, you are on the main settings page for the plugin. Let’s go ahead and configure all the settings together. This won’t take long, and the configurations you make will automatically take hold in the comment section of your website when you save the changes.

On the top part of the page, you see that there are three options to easily delete comments. These are represented by three blue buttons you see on the top of the page. They will allow you to bulk delete all comments, all pending comments, and all spam comments.

Feel free to come back to this page and use those buttons at any time if you need to bulk delete certain remarks.

Scroll down just a little and fill in all the checkboxes that you want to utilize in the Comment Link Remove plugin setup. You can click on all of them, or just a few you feel you need.

That’s it! Everything you see below this area can only be accessed if you are running the pro version of the plugin. Since that is the case, you are all set and the configurations you just made will now take hold.

Reduce Spam Comments Using WordPress Defaults

There are actually some tools that WordPress provides by default that will allow you to reduce spam comments. If you click on the “Discussion” tab, located under the Settings” tab in the WordPress dashboard, this will take you to a page that will give you a little bit of control over comments and other comment-related settings. You can use the plugin above to go even further, but from this page, you will be able to control things like:

• Default Post Settings
• Other Comments Settings
• Email Settings
• Before a Comment Appears Settings
• Comment Moderation
• Disallowed Comment Keys

Feel free to check this out if you are interested to see how much control you have. You may prefer this instead of the plugin method above.

Final Thoughts

Managing comments on your WordPress website does not have to be time-consuming and difficult. With the right plugin, bad URLs, spam comments, and bad links can all be taken care of in a matter of a few minutes.

I hope this article is able to show you how easy it is to manage comments in WordPress using the Comment Link Remove plugin.

Have you had success managing spam and URLs in WordPress using a different method? Is there another plugin that is your favorite?

The post How to Clean Up Comments in WordPress with Comment Link Remove appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Of course, the definition of what is “inappropriate” varies depending on the site and the audience. Most parents would find things that were perfectly acceptable in adult conversation to be inappropriate for their children, for example.

Automating comment moderation is difficult. It requires human interaction and decision making.

Letting Your Users and Visitors Report Inappropriate Comments in WordPress

Keeping spam out of your WordPress comments is easy, and for the most part, automated. But to determine what is or isn’t appropriate requires a knowledge of the tone and purpose of your website. Aside from you, who else would be familiar with that tone and purpose?

Your users or visitors!

You may not have the time or resources to monitor every comment made on your site, so it makes sense to let your users flag comments that they feel are inappropriate.

Similar to the way moderators keep the peace in forums and discussion groups, your users and visitors can alert you to inappropriate comments in WordPress. You benefit from their involvement, and they feel they have input into the way the site is managed.

It’s a win-win.

Installing a Comment Flagging WordPress Plugin

I’m a little surprised that there aren’t more plugins purpose-built to allow user comment reporting. There are a few available though, and the one we’re going to use is the Zeno Report Comments plugin.

Log in to your WordPress admin panel.

In the left column navigation mouse over the “Plugins” link and click the “Add New” link.

In the “Search plugins…” box, enter “Zeno Report Comments.”

Once you have located the plugin, click the “Install Now” button.

When the plugin has been installed, click the “Activate” button.

Configuring the Zeno Report Comments Plugin

The Zeno Report Comments plugin doesn’t add a link to your admin panel navigation. You activate it by mousing over the “Settings” link in the left column navigation and clicking the “Discussion” link.

Scroll down to the “Allow comment flagging” section and check the “Allow your visitors to flag a comment as inappropriate” box.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save Changes” button.

Now if you scroll down to the “Allow comment flagging” section you’ll see a few new options.

• Flagging threshold – this setting controls how many user reports are needed before a comment is set to “Pending” status (removing it from public view). You have to change the default setting of “0” to a number between 1 and 100.
• Administrator notifications – controls whether you and other site administrators receive an email when a comment has been sent to moderation. This is when it reaches the number of flags you specified in the “Flagging threshold.”
• Administrator notifications – controls whether you and other administrators receive an email any time a user or visitor flags a comment. If you have an active site with a lot of comments and expect a lot of visitors to flag comments, you probably want to uncheck this option to avoid being inundated with email.

If you make any changes to the settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save Changes” button.

How It Works

The plugin adds a “Report comment” link next to the “Reply” link under each comment.

As you can see, the link is not exactly pretty by default. But a few lines placed into the “Additional CSS” for your theme can fix that.

For this tutorial, I just copied the font properties for the “Reply” link and added some margin space to separate the links.

.zeno-comments-report-link {
    margin-left: 21px;
    font-size: 0.71111em;
    font-weight: 500;
    font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;
}

When a user reports a comment, the “Report comment” link is replaced with the text, “Thank you for your feedback. We will look into it.”

When the report count for a comment reaches the flagging threshold, it is set to “Pending” status. This removes it from public view. At that point, like any comment that is pending, an administrator can approve, edit or delete it.

Other options for user flagging of comments

As I mentioned at the outset, there aren’t a lot of plugins specifically made to allow visitors to flag comments. The plugin we used, Zeno Report Comments, was built on forks from the other two comment flagging plugins I could find.

So it’s not exactly a booming plugin business, but I think it’s an extremely useful tool. So I hope you can put it to work on your WordPress site.

Have you experienced trolling or negativity in your comments? How did you handle it? Do you know of any other good comment flagging plugins?

The post How to Enable WordPress for Users to Report Inappropriate Comments appeared first on GreenGeeks.

And sometimes, the page they link to is of questionable or inappropriate material.

However, if you disable comment URLs in WordPress, you prevent them from affecting the section. This will decrease the overall amount of spam comments your website will receive in general.

Today, I will demonstrate how to disable comment URLs in WordPress using the Comment Link Remove and Comment Tools plugin.

What is the Purpose of Spam Comments

It is not easy ranking highly on search engines, thus, everyone is looking for a shortcut. The purpose of the spam comment is to create a backlink. The theory is that it will boost SEO for that particular piece of content. Generally, new bloggers attempt this to get a quick start.

However, in most cases, there is little to no benefit from doing this. Even with this knowledge, link spam comments still exist.

Why Removing the URL Field Helps

A lot of spam comments come from spam bots. When they cannot leave a comment with a URL, they move onto the next website, or so we hope. Thus, by not allowing URLs in the comments section, you are blocking the bot.

However, it is worth noting that you will now be preventing real visitors from including URLs as well. For the majority of visitors that leave comments, this shouldn’t be too impactful. But, it’s something to consider.

On top of this, it is highly recommended to also use an anti-spam plugin like Akismet.

Installing The Plugin

Comment Link Remove and Comment Tools is a great addition to any website. It allows you to customize your comment section with a few clicks of the mouse. On top of this, you can also manage your comment section and delete spam with ease.

Note: The majority of this plugin’s features are only available in the premium version. However, the free version will be enough to get the job done for removing URLs.

Start by clicking on Plugins and selecting the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.

Search for Command Link Remove and Comment Tools in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.

Scroll down until you find the Command Link Remove and Comment Tools plugin. Click on the “Install Now” button and activate it for use.

On the left-hand admin panel, click on QC CLR Settings and select the QC CLR Settings option. This will pull up the plugin’s settings page.

Disabling Comment URLs

Only the first section of this settings page is usable in the free version. If you see additional features you are interested in, consider upgrading it. But for the purpose of this tutorial, it is unnecessary.

At the top, you will find 3 buttons: Delete All Comments, Delete Pending Comments and Delete Spam Comments. These buttons do exactly what they say and are irreversible without a backup.

Underneath, you will find the General Settings section.

The first option is “Remove WEBSITE Field from Comment Form” and the second option is “Remove hyper-link from comment AUTHOR Bio.”

Check both boxes.

This will prevent commenters from adding a URL to their website and for already existing hyperlinks to be transformed into normal text. This completely eliminates the chance that they will get a backlink.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the “Save Changes” button.

Congratulations, you have successfully disabled comment URLs in WordPress.

Manual Approach

For those that do not want to install another plugin in WordPress, there is a manual way to do this.

However, it is strongly recommended that you create a backup before doing so. This will ensure that if a mistake is made, you can revert your website to before it was made.

Simply go into your theme’s function.php file and add the following code:

add_filter('comment_form_default_fields', 'unset_url_field');
function unset_url_field($fields){
if(isset($fields['url']))
unset($fields['url']);
return $fields;
}

Don’t forget to save the changes!

If you are noticing problems, delete the code you added and make sure it is an exact match.

Protect Your Comment Section

The comment section’s intention is to provide an opportunity for readers to share their thoughts on your content and the topic being discussed. It is a great way to receive feedback and interact with the community.

However, social media has changed how useful the comment section is. In 2019, the majority of interactions you have with your community will happen on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.

With that said, the comment section is still important because new visitors can see your interactions with other visitors. Thus, by choosing to disable comment URLs, you are ensuring that it is spam free.

How many spam comments did you receive before and after following this tutorial? Do you interact regularly with your comment section?

The post How to Disable Comment URLs in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

This may happen for a number of reasons. For example, what if you get tired of editing all the comments and you want to give users a chance to edit their own?.

Enabling this function would allow users time to come back, correct spelling and grammar, update a comment or do whatever they needed to do. This would also give you more freedom to just monitor comments and not worry about the other things involved with the conversation.

Let’s take a quick look at how you can easily enable comment edits from users in WordPress.

Enable Comment Edits in WordPress

To enable users on your WordPress site to edit their own comments, we are going to use a great little plugin called Simple Comment Editing. This plugin is a quick install and has a lot of different functionality.

Basically, the Simple Comments Editing plugin gives WordPress users the ability to add, delete or edit their comments over a period of time that is set by you in the admin section of your WordPress website.

You can download and install the regular option from the WordPress plugin repository. Then select the amount of time you want users to be able to edit comments. The default is five minutes, but you can create your own time setting.

Install and Activate Simple Comment Editing

To enable WordPress comment edits you need to install and activate the Simple Comment Editing plugin.

Once the plugin has been installed and activated click on Settings > Simple Comment Editing. This is located on the left admin bar in the backend of your WordPress website.

This will take you directly to the setting’s page, which is just a simple timer setup. Select the amount of time you would like to give a user to edit their comment, and then click the “Save Options” button to ensure your settings have taken hold.

Now, you can see that when someone leaves a comment there is a little timer next to their message. The timer is based on the time you put in to allow WordPress comment edits. A user simply clicks on the “Click to Edit” link to edit the comment within the time remaining.

Simple Comment Editing Add-On

There is also an add-on to the plugin called Simple Comment Editing Options. This add-on allows for a little more editing and other selections for the tool’s settings. These include things like:

• Timer Editing
• Hide the Timer
• Select Button Styles
• Email Notifications
• Comment Logging
• Edit Messages & Text
• Minimum Comment Length
• Disable Comment Deletion
• Stop the Timer
• Unlimited Editing
• Restore Edited Comment
• Support & Updates.

You just click on the download link on their website, fill out some relevant information, and you will be given access to the download link. Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you will have access to the options above.

Set them how you want and let the comments continue to roll in.

I hope the article showed you how easy it is to allow your WordPress users to edit their own comments. Enabling WordPress comment edits is a great way to take some of the weight of moderation off of you as the admin. This allows you to focus on other things.

Have you ever used the Simple Comments Editing plugin before? Do you prefer to continue to look through all comments and edit them yourself?

The post How To Enable Comment Edits From Users in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Unfortunately, WordPress does not have an easy way to style WordPress comments without the help of a plugin, but like most things in WordPress, if there is a need, there is a plugin. Today, I will demonstrate how to add numbers to the WordPress comments section using Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering plugin.

Styling Comments Is Important

The comments section is crucial to making your website feel lively. At the end of each blog, your readers should feel like discussing the content, but the default WordPress comments section leaves a lot to be desired. The good news is that it is fully customizable and you can make the most stylish comments section out there.

There are multiple ways to style the comments section and adding numbers is just one way. Other ways include coloring, font selection, Gravatars, and much more. The only limit is your imagination and possibly your coding abilities.

Installing Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering Plugin

Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering plugin makes adding numbers to your comments section extremely simple, but it should be noted that it has not been updated in some time. However, it still works perfectly with WordPress version 5.1.1. You will still need to make small changes to your comments.php file and add some simple CSS, but it is very easy to do, even for beginners.

Let’s start by clicking on Plugins and selecting the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.

Search for Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.

Scroll down until you find the Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering plugin and click on the “Install Now” button and activate the plugin for use.

On the left-hand admin panel click on Settings and select the Threaded Comment Numbering option. This will pull up the main settings page.

Numbering WordPress Comments

The first thing we need to do is change one setting in the plugin. By default, the plugin will try to load its own spreadsheet. You want to select the “No – I will provide my own number styling” option. By choosing to load the plugin’s stylesheet, you will notice a performance drop on your website. Since speed is an SEO factor, it is recommended to add your own, which will be shown below.

Next, we need to make a small edit to the comments.php file in your theme. Altering code is very easy inside of WordPress, but it is always recommended to make a backup of your website before continuing. This will ensure that if a mistake is made, you can restore your website to the point before it was made. Click on Appearance and select the Theme Editor option.

On the right-hand side, click on Comments under the Theme Files section. Locate the wp_list_comments() function.

You need to replace it with the following function:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][/ht_message]

Click on the “Update File” button.

Finally, we need to add some styling to the number. Click on Appearance and select the Customize option.

Click on the Additional CSS option. Here you can add custom CSS to alter the way your website looks. Copy and paste the following CSS into the appropriate area: [ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ].commentlist li .commentnumber {
float:right;
color:#26CC60;
font-size:5em;
margin:0;
padding:0 .7em .7em 0;
clear:right;
}

.commentlist li li .commentnumber {
font-size:2em;
}

.commentlist li li li .commentnumber {
font-size:1em;
}[/ht_message]

This is a very basic style that you can freely alter by changing the values. However, it needs to be noted that since we are directly editing a theme’s code, not all themes are coded the same. There is a chance that the above steps will not work because the theme was coded differently.

In this case, you need to find out which callback function your theme is using, which is unique to each theme. Once this is located, you need to replace it with the plugin’s callback. Congratulations, you have successfully learned how to number your comments section.

Make Your Comments Section Awesome

The majority of your interactions with your visitors will happen in two places, social media, and the comments section. Both are important to the success of your website and redesigning your comments section is the first step. Not only should you consider how the comments section looks, but you should also think about how visitors leave a comment.

Altering the comment form itself is a great way to customize the comments section. You can add a variety of features that have become a staple of the comments section. For example, a like or heart feature can help your visitors interact with each other and that is all done by editing the comment form itself.

How easy do you find Greg’s Threaded Comment Numbering plugin to use? What have you changed in the CSS?

The post How to Number Your WordPress Comments Section appeared first on GreenGeeks.

This makes it the perfect place to display something you want your entire audience to see. Unfortunately, there is not a way to do this in WordPress by default. Instead, you will need to install a plugin to add the necessary functionality. Today, I will demonstrate how to show top commenters in WordPress sidebars using the Top Commentators Widget plugin.

Why Display Your Top Commenters

Comments and those who leave them are extremely important to your website. The comments section is one of the best ways to build a community, but not everyone likes to leave comments. Thus, by celebrating the ones that do, you are incentivizing others to also participate in the comments section.

A more practical reason is to build credibility for your website. For example, let’s say you run a blog about law. If your top commenter is a professional lawyer, it looks good to new visitors. This is similar to sharing positive reviews for your restaurant on your website, it makes you look better.

Installing The Top Commentators Widget Plugin

The Top Commentators Widget plugin adds a new widget that you can add anywhere that widgets are allowed. This includes your sidebar and footer areas. The settings of the plugin are all added to the widget itself, making it very easy to use.

Let’s start by clicking on Plugins and selecting the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.

Search for Top Commentators Widget in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.

Scroll down until you find the Top Commentators Widget plugin and click on the “Install Now” button and activate the plugin for use.

Using The Top Commentators Widget Plugin

On the left-hand admin panel, click on Appearance and select the Widgets option.

Scroll down the list of available widgets and locate the Top Commentators Widget. Click on the “Add” button. This will open the widget’s settings.

Here you can edit the settings of the widget and determine what it will display and where it will display it. The first option is the name that will be displayed. By default it is “Top Commentators”, but you can change it to anything you want. This is followed by a description box that you can fill in.

Afterward, you will find the minimum amount of comments needed for the widget to display them. This is highly dependent on the average number of comments each person leaves. You need to pick a number that will display the right people. Underneath this option, you will find a box that allows you to exclude certain groups. By default, the admin is excluded, but you should expand this to include authors and editors. You do not want staff members to be displayed, you want visitors.

Next, you need to decide how often the widget will refresh who the top commentator is. By default, it is every month, but I recommend to change it to daily. This will ensure more of your visitors have the opportunity to be displayed. Some of the other settings include how many commenters will be displayed, nofollow attributes, what image to display next to the top commentator, Gravatar options, and much more.

Once you are done changing the settings, select the sidebar and position it will appear on. Click on the “Save Widget” button.

Congratulations, you have successfully displayed your top commenters in your WordPress sidebar with the Top Commentators Widget plugin.

Honor Your Commenters

The comments section is crucial to making your website look like an active website. Websites that do not have a lively comments section risk looking less popular. For example, if you visit two movie review sites and one has a very active comments section of commenters who agree or disagree with the review, versus another that does not have any comments, the first one will clearly look better to you.

By showing off your most active commenters, you are promoting that your website has regular visitors and that they matter to you.

How many commenters have you chosen to show? Do you find the Top Commentators Widget easy to use?

The post How To Make Top Commenters Appear In Your WordPress Sidebar appeared first on GreenGeeks.

It also gives your visitors a chance to see what others think (as well as your responses). After all, comments can’t help but increase the level of discussion with an audience. And that improves the likelihood of return visits and the sharing of your brand with others.

I’ll show you how to create a page for recent comments in WordPress, or add them to an existing page. Using a comments display plugin, you can spotlight the messages from your visitors in a variety of ways.

What Can You Do with a Page for Recent Comments in WordPress?

One useful application for a comments page in WordPress is to use it as a shared element in social media. You could post a link to the page with a “Here’s what our guests think,” message.

You can also add a link to the page to a menu in the top navigation bar of the site. That gives visitors quick and easy access and may even inspire further exploration of your website.

Perhaps you have an important landing page and want to promote engagement. Using a WordPress comments shortcode lets you place the recent messages directly into that landing page. Again, boosting interaction with your target audience.

These are only a few methods of using a recent comment page to improve the engagement potential of your content. And that potential increases dramatically if you actively respond to visitors.

1. Using Better Recent Comments

In this tutorial, I’ll use the Better Recent Comments plugin. The plugin provides a widget and shortcode to display the messages from visitors. Not only display them, but also change the format, avatar sizes, and control the length of the comment excerpts.

The only real downside to this plugin is the lack of setting control in the WordPress admin dashboard. So if you want to modify how recent comments appear on the page, you’ll need to add those elements in the shortcode manually. But that’s not uncommon for plugins that use shortcodes.

You can find all of the shortcode options in section 4.

Install and activate “Better Recent Comments.”

Go to “Pages” and click, “Add New.” You can also use a page you already have saved in WordPress.

Paste this shortcode into the page:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][better_recent_comments][/ht_message]

If you’re using the Gutenberg Editor, you can also add a shortcode block to keep it separated from the other page content.

Once you publish or update the page, the most recent comments will appear.

2. Showing the Full Comment

By default, Better Recent Comments limits excerpts to 20 words. But what if you want to show the entire comment?

Add excerpts=false to the shortcode. So, your code would look like this to remove word limits:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][better_recent_comments excerpts=false][/ht_message]

Remember, a list of the shortcode display customizations is available on the plugin’s WordPress.org page.

3. Adding the Page as a Menu Item

Now that you have a recent comments page, you have a link to share. But what if you want visitors to have easy access? Adding the page as a menu item can help your guests find the page easily.

The menu item is more effective if you display recent comments on a page of their own. If you add the shortcode to a page that’s already in use, you will link to that page. That may or may not be appropriate for a visitor who’s only looking for comments. It depends on how your site is set up and what you want to draw attention to.

To add a recent comments page as a menu item, go to “Appearance” and click, “Menus.”

Select the menu of which you wish to add the page. Depending on whether you’ve created custom menus in the past, your navigation bar may already be selected.

Check the box for the page under Most Recent and click, “Add to Menu.”

Use the drag and drop feature to place the page where you want it to appear on the menu.

Click the “Save Menu” button.

Now, the recent comments page will be an option in your menu.

4. Better Recent Comments Shortcode Options

Here are the options that are currently available via the plugin’s shortcode:

• format – the format of the recent comments. The format option uses placeholders for the comment data when the comments are displayed.
  • The format placeholders are: {avatar}, {author}, {post}, {comment} and {date}.
  • {avatar} is the comment author’s Gravatar image.
  • {author} is the comment author’s name.
  • {post} is the title of the post and includes a link to the author’s comment below the post.
  • {comment} is the actual comment text.
  • {date} is the comment date. It uses the PHP date format.
  • The default if you don’t specify placeholders is: {author} on {post}: “{comment}” {date}
• number – the number of comments to display. The default is to show five comments.
• date_format – the date and time format to use. It uses the PHP date format. The default is ‘M j, H:i’.
• avatar_size – the pixel size of the commenter’s avatar. It’s only used if you included {avatar} in the comment format. The default size is 50 pixels (square).
• post_status – the post status you want to retrieve comments for. The default is “published.” But it can be set to any valid status or comma-separated list of statuses.
• excerpts – set this to “true” to show a comment excerpt (maximum of 20 words), or “false” to display the full comment. The default is “true.”

Here are some options examples.

Display ten comments:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][better_recent_comments number=10][/ht_message]

Show the full comment rather than an excerpt:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][better_recent_comments excerpts=false][/ht_message]

Formatting the comments:
[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ][better_recent_comments format= {post}: “{comment}” {date}, by {author}.][/ht_message]

Other things You Can Do with the WordPress Comments Plugin

One of the advantages of Better Recent Comments is you can add the comment display to any page or post. You aren’t limited to a single location, page, or menu. The shortcode gives you the option to place recent comments virtually anywhere on the website.

You can add them to posts, pages, and most custom post types.

The tool also comes with its own widget. That makes it possible to add recent comments to a sidebar or any other widget area. The widget itself is a bit easier to manage than the shortcode mainly because it includes options such as showing or not showing avatars, post links, and other elements.

However, the widget doesn’t give you a few of the other options, such as removing the excerpt limit. Keep that in mind when you’re exploring your options.

Add Interaction with a Solid WordPress Comments Plugin

Better Recent Comments is only one of many plugins to offer visitor engagement through discussion. You could easily spend hours looking for the perfect comment plugin to fit your needs simply because there are so many excellent comment tools for WordPress.

Managing an active comment system can be challenging. But the benefits outweigh the time you’ll spend. People expect to be able to interact with the authors and readers of the content they consume.

Giving them that opportunity accentuates your content and engages your visitors. It may even help you turn one-time guests into long-term fans.

What are your favorite plugins for visitor engagement? How active are you in the comment section of your website?

The post How to Make a Page for Recent Comments in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

By default, WordPress does not show the parent comment in the moderation screen. All you’ll see is to whom the message is in response.

Without knowing the context of the parent, you might have a harder time understanding how to handle a comment.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you an easy way to show parent comments in the WordPress moderation screen. This will help you by showing how the comment thread began in the first place and whether you want to approve a response.

Using Show Parent Comments

Today, I’m using the Show Parent Comments plugin. It’s a bit of an older tool, but I verified it to work with WordPress 5.0.3. It’s a simple add-on which requires no adjustment or setting control.

Install and activate, “Show Parent Comment.”

Once activated, this plugin adds a new feature to the comment section itself. There is nothing to change and no settings regarding its ability.

Click the “Comments” option from the left admin toolbar.

In the moderation screen, you can view parent comments above replies. This way, you can determine if the response is relevant to the topic.

These “parents” are are a lighter grey than the rest of the test making it easier for you to identify.

But what if the comment is much larger than the viewable space? For longer comments, this plugin adds a function that will expand the comment so you can see the message in its entirety.

Click the “Show more” option on the message. This feature will only show if the message is larger than the default viewable space in WordPress Comments.

You will see the expanded version of the message in its entirety.

Does this work with other comment plugins?

This plugin works with a variety of comment plugins for WordPress. For instance, I found it to work perfectly alongside wpDiscuz.

Of course, this might depend on the comment system itself. Anything that uses an external method to manage comments or otherwise does not use the WordPress commenting system might not be affected.

Does this plugin do anything for spam?

Unfortunately, Show Parent Comments does not offer protection against spam. However, WordPress is full of great tools to help make your site spam free.

And many of them don’t cost a single dime to help reduce the clutter of messages.

Manage Your Comment Section

The ability to view parent comments in the moderation screen of WordPress only helps to streamline your workflow. It gives you insight into the original post as well as whether a response is relevant.

Keep your comment section clean and ensure your visitors are having a spam-free experience. It could impact the reputation of the site and how new visitors view your content.

What kind of comment plugins do you like to use? How often does spam clutter your comment section or other areas of your site?

The post How to View Parent Comments in the Moderation Screen of WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

After all, not everything needs to have a comment box.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you a couple of ways you can remove the comment box in WordPress regarding attachments and various post types.

Now, you can easily set WordPress to deny comments in the “General” settings area. However, this prevents users from commenting on anything. Perhaps you just want WordPress to disable comments on images.

Why Enable Comments in the First Place?

The comment section is great for connecting with your audience. It boosts your reputation among readers and makes the website appear more interactive.

In essence, it improves retention rates, return visits and has potential to turn casual visitors into sales and leads.

In fact, you can install a variety of tools to engage readers through the comment section.

Now, I know a few of you might be worried about spam filling the comment section. Luckily, WordPress has a myriad of ways to prevent spam from getting out of hand.

Using Disable Comments

Today, I’ll show you a bit of what the “Disable Comments” plugin can do for you. It’s an easy plugin that gives you the option to turn off comments in WordPress according to section.

It’s perhaps one of the most popular disable comments plugin for WordPress. With over one million active installs and an excellent review score, it appears many treasure this tool.

However, depending on how you have media attachments set up on your website, it might not be exactly what you’re looking for. If this is the case, I’ll also include a code snippet later on that you might find useful instead.

Install and activate the “Disable Comments” plugin. You’ll see a couple of plugins with a similar name. Use the one by, “Samir Shah.”

Go to settings and click, “Disable Comments.”

You’ll have two options available from this disable comments plugin in WordPress. You can turn off all comments by clicking “Everywhere,” or you can choose which post types by clicking the box.

Click the “Save Changes” button.

Adding a Code Snippet

Although this plugin works exceptionally well, perhaps you want to add a snippet of code instead.

For this, you’ll need to insert coding into the site’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin you have installed. For this tutorial, I’m simply going to add it to the functions.php file.

NOTE: It’s probably a good idea to use a child theme when making adjustments like this. You don’t want to add the code to disable comments on media attachments in WordPress only to have an update erase it.

Edit the functions.php file of your website. You can do this a number of ways such as an FTP program like FileZilla, cPanel’s File Manager or other methods that let you access the site’s root directory.

Add this code to the file:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]function filter_media_comment_status( $open, $post_id ) {
$post = get_post( $post_id );
if( $post->post_type == ‘attachment’ ) {
return false;
}
return $open;
}
add_filter( ‘comments_open’, ‘filter_media_comment_status’, 10 , 2 );
[/ht_message]

In this example, I am using cPanel‘s File Manager.

You can find the file by going to the “/wp-content/themes/” section of your site. Open the folder of the theme your using and edit the functions.php file.

Once you save the file, WordPress will disable comments on media attachments throughout the website.

Not Everything Needs a Comment Section

You don’t need a comment section on every portion of the website. Sometimes content is capable of standing on its own whether it’s a video or image.

It doesn’t take much effort to disable comments on images and other attachments in WordPress. It all really depends on how you have files saved and what you’re displaying to visitors.

How often do visitors leave comments on your site? Do you think being interactive in the comment section increases the return-visitor rate of your content?

The post How to Disable Comments for Media Attachments in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

This is when sending WordPress comment approval notifications comes into play. Not only does it help bring the person back to the site, but it also demonstrates how their opinions or questions are valuable to you.

And that can lead to an improved reputation on the Internet. It’s one of the major reasons why many webmasters enable the comment section.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create WordPress comment approval notifications complete with a customizable message.

Using the Comment Approved Plugin

Today, I’ll go over the “Comment Approved” plugin. It’s a simple tool that automatically sends notifications to users. It doesn’t have a lot of elaborate settings, and you can get started right away.

Install and activate the “Comment Approved” plugin.

Go to Settings and click, “Comment Approved.”

In this screen, you can control how the messages are handled by WordPress.

For instance, you can:

• Enable
  The plugin is enabled by default. However, you can uncheck the box to disable messages. This is useful if you have to troubleshoot the plugin for any reason.
• Default State
  This option lets you turn on or off the default state regarding whether commentators want to be notified. This is completely optional.
• Subject
  The subject line is what appears in a commentator’s inbox when a comment is approved. You can structure this any way you like, and the plugin comes with a couple of shortcodes you can include to make it stand out.
• Message
  Customize the message for commentators in this section. You can include the person’s name used when commenting, the link to the webpage and the title.
• E-mail Type
  In this drop-down, you can choose to use plain text or HTML rich messages. This means you can add a bit of HTML flair to your message if you know your way around coding. Otherwise, the plain text may be just as effective.

When you’re done making adjustments, click the “Save” button at the bottom.

That’s all there is to it. The plugin will then run in the background and trigger when a new commentator leaves a message on your website.

Previously Approved Comments

In the Discussion area of WordPress, there is an option for, “Comment author must have a previously approved comment.” If this option is selected, a commentator will only receive a WordPress comment approval message once.

This will be for the first time he or she commented on a post. After that, the system will automatically approve future comments and won’t send messages for each. This way, his or her email inbox won’t get flooded with approval notifications.

Other Plugins for Comment Approval Notifications

The above plugin is perhaps one of the easiest to set up and use. It takes very little effort and gives you a bit of control for customization. But what if it doesn’t exactly fit your needs?

Here are a couple other comment approval WordPress plugins you might want to try.

Better Notifications for WordPress

Better Notifications for WordPress is an all-in-one messaging system. It comes with a slew of options and tools for a variety of purposes. For example, this one includes messages for comment replies.

One feature that attracts many is how this plugin is also compatible with WordPress multisite operation.

Comment Mail

Comment Mail comes with a wide assortment of features for messages. Auto-subscribe, confirm and custom email headers are only a few of what this plugin can offer. It’s probably one of the more elaborate and feature-rich tools for comment approval messages.

The only real downside is how the system may appear confusing simply because it has so much to offer. It may take a bit to learn, but it may be worthwhile given what it can do for your site.

Keep in the Minds of Visitors

As simple as it might seem, setting WordPress to send comment approval notifications can have an impact on return traffic. It lets commentators know their thoughts are important and makes them feel like they’re part of the conversation.

Find ways to keep your audience engaged and increase visitor retention and popularity.

What kind of comment tools do you have enabled on your site? How often does comment spam slip past your defenses?

The post How to Send a WordPress Comment Approval Notification appeared first on GreenGeeks.