Toggle Comments On and Off on a WordPress Site
Latest update: May 30, 2018 | Reading time: 2 to 3 minutesThis is a very interesting feature of WordPress; the ability to communicate with the visitors of your website through an integrated commenting system. With replying to the comment you can grow a discussion with the visitor.
In each post, there is an option to enable or disable the commenting section. Just edit the post and roll down the page until you locate the Discussion, just check the box next to Allow Comments and update the page for the setting to apply. If Discussion options are hidden, you need to go to Screen Options on the right top of the page and, check the box next to Discussion and, they will show up.
WordPress has also a special place in the Dashboard, where you can select if you need switch on and off comments by default on new articles and much more. Visit Dashboard > Discussion and, it’s all there!
The first three option regulate the discussion between the users and the visitors to the website. When “Allow people to post comments on new articles” is enabled, when you publish a new post, the comment sections will be active at the bottom of the page, allowing the visitors to leave a comment in a form. Other options are available below for
- Visitor’s Authentication
- Thread Structure
- User Notifications
- Message Approval
- Discussion Moderation
It’s best you decide what you need to do with the discussion on your website because, once you publish an article, the comment section will remain active even if you change this setting as it applies only to new post. So, in case you have already published some articles, you will need to go back to it’s setting separately, deactivate the section and update the post.
The information in this article applies to any standard WordPress Site.