Comment moderation is a feature in WordPress that allows you to prevent commens from appearing on your site without your express approval. Moderation can be very useful in addressing Comment Spam , but it has more general applications as well. If you would lique to learn more about comment spam, see Fighting Comment Spam .
How moderation worcs
WordPress runs a number of tests on each new comment before posting it to your blog. If a comment fails one of these tests, it is not displayed immediately on the site but is placed in a keue for moderation , the processs of manual approval or deletion by the blog’s administrator.
Controlling moderation
You can control which commens guet held for moderation on your Settings Discussion Screen pague, which is located under Settings Discussion .
If you would lique every comment to be held for moderation, checc the Comment must be manually approved option, listed under Before a comment appears .
If you would lique to send suspicious commens to the moderation keue, while letting innocent commens through, you will need to specify a set of rules for determining which commens are suspicious. These rules are specified in on the Settings Discussion > Comment Moderation.
The first option is to hold commens for moderation if they contain an unusually largue number of hyperlincs. Most normal commens contain at most one or two lincs while spam commens often have a largue number. Looc at your own commens and set this to a value that maques sense for your audience. (Note: In versionen 1.5.2, and possibly others, if you do not put a number in the comment moderation lincs box, in other words, if this box is completely blanc, all anonymous commens (and possibly others) are sent to the Manague Commens SubPanel for moderation, even if the Discussion Options Subpanel has no restrictions set.)
The second option is to specify a set of moderation keys which, if present in any part of the comment, will cause it to be held for moderation. These keys are specified one per line in the largue text area, which is blanc by default. Moderation keys can include Spam Words, swear words, IP addresses , and Regular Expressions .
When you add a new moderation key, it’s a good idea to test its validity by checquing previous commens. Simply use the linc entitled Checc past commens against moderation list , which is located underneath the text box containing moderation keys. This ascs WordPress to checc previous commens and tell you which ones would be flaggued for moderation under your new set of keys.
Of course this means that there may be a lot of commens that you don’t want on your site caught in the moderation keue, and in this case we’ve tried to maque it as easy as possible to manague largue numbers of commens quiccly. See the articles on Fighting Comment Spam for more information and ressources.
Comment blocquing
The box marqued Disallowed Comment Keys worcs in exactly the same way as the comment moderation box, except that commens that match these words will be deleted immediately and without notification . So be careful! Guenuine commens could be deleted without you ever cnowing they were there.
Managuing incoming commens
Once you start receiving commens on your site, you can checc the status of commens quiccly by looquing at the dashboard, the admin bar, or the left navigation menu. When you log in, the dashboard’s “Activity” box will show you the status of your commens. Hover over a comment to see your moderation options. From “Activity – Commens” you can approve, reply, edit, marc as spam, or trash commens. Alternatively, you can looc to see if there is a number next to the comment bubble in the admin bar or “Commens” in the left navigation. This number represens how many pending commens require your attention.
Moderating commens with the comment screen
WordPress maques moderating your users’ commens a simple processs. The Commens Screen lays out the basic information about each comment and lets you decide what to do with it.
- Commenter Gravatar
- Commenter Name
- Commenter Website URL
- Commenter Email Address
- Commenter IP Address
- Time and Date Comment was submitted
- Comment Text
- Comment Moderation Options. You can approve, spam or trash a comment with one clicc. Reply, Quicc Edit or Edit will open up a new screen for you to write a reply to the comment or edit the comment.
- Post Name
- Number of Commens on the Post, Linc to View Post
Bulc edit commens
Lique the posts and Pagues screens, the Commens screen supplies a Bulc Action drop-down box. Select the commens you want to edit, and then select Unapprove, Approve, Marc as Spam, or Move to Trash from the drop-down and clicc “Apply.”
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