Sites@Duke: How do I turn comments on or off?

How do I turn off comments? 

Allowing readers of your site to comment on specific posts or pages is a hallmark of blogging technologies such as WordPress. With that said, there might be times you don’t want to allow readers to comment on a blog post or page. We strongly recommend that when you create a new site, you immediately disabled comments site-wide. You will be able to turn them on on a per-page or post basis if needed. 

 

To turn off commenting by default site-wide

Please note that This will only turn off commenting for new posts or pages, so this should be done immediately upon creating a new site.

1. From your site’s Dashboard, click Settings and Discussion

2. Uncheck all of the options under Default Post Settings

3. Scroll down and click Save Changes

4. You will have a default post and page on your new site. We recommend that you delete these once you've started creating content, but if you choose to use them, you will need to disable comments on them. 

 

To turn on/off commenting for an individual post or page

  1. From within the Dashboard, navigate to Posts/PagesAll Posts/Pages
  2. Hover over the name of the page or post for which you wish to turn on commenting. Click Edit.
  3. Scroll down past the content boxes and look for the Discussion options. Check/Uncheck ‘Allow comments‘. Save.

(NOTE: if you don’t see these options, they might be hidden. Look for the ‘Screen Options’ button toward the top of your WordPress screen. Click on it, and you’ll see a set of options drop-down. Make sure ‘Discussion’ is selected).

 

To turn on/off comments for multiple posts or pages

  1. From within the Dashboard, navigate to Posts > All Posts or Pages > All Pages. (If you want to turn on/off comments for your pages, go to Pages > All Pages, and vice versa for posts).
  2. Click the checkbox next to Title to select all of your posts or pages. Or click the checkboxes next to each post or page you wish to edit.
  3. From the Bulk Actions dropdown menu, select Edit, then click Apply.
  4. On the Bulk Edit page that appears, under Comments select Allow / Do Not Allow. Click Update

Questions? Contact the OIT Service Desk, https://oit.duke.edu/help/

 

Article number: KB0025520

Valid to: October 24, 2024