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A ui switch that REALLY turns comments off

1. webbrewers
   Member

   Spammers don't use the visible comments box anyway, so "hiding" it isn't an effective way of killing spam. I'd like to see an option in settings that disables the commenting functionality completely so spammers can't tap into it - and I can stop adding // to the templates.
   Slam dat spam!

   Posted: 4 years ago #

2. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
   Lead Plugin Wrangler

   This plugin looks like it should do it: https://github.com/bueltge/Remove-Comments-Absolutely

   Also editing the theme templates doesn't help the fact that spammers are hitting the comments files directly.

   I use this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Combating_Comment_Spam/Denying_Access#Deny_Access_to_No_Referrer_Requests

   Works great :)

   Posted: 4 years ago #

3. robdoherty
   Member

   I'm honestly shocked this hasn't been implemented already. There are a few options in Settings but there is no catch-all button to turn comments off completely.

   +1

   Posted: 4 years ago #

4. webbrewers
   Member

   Ipstenu is right of course - preventing output of the comments template doesn't stop hard core spammers and bots. And there are more effective ways of doing it but I'm not sure the average user is going to want to add things to their .htaccess file.
   I'm suggesting a ui option to turn comments off would have a deterrent effect on spammers: WordPress would be less attractive to them as a target if they knew users could simply disable the commenting function completely. Perhaps then they'd focus on a more vulnerable venue.

   Posted: 4 years ago #

5. Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
   Lead Plugin Wrangler

   There is an option to turn comments off already, though. Now it doesn't do what you think it should do (it turns off comments on new posts only). Past that... We can't use an htaccess globally because not everyone is on apache. So there isn't a 'global' solution beyond turning them off. The file has to be public available in order to permit anon comments and ping backs, so you'd have to add an extra wrapper around it when comments are off to say 'And if they're off, auto reject.'

   However... That would conflict with membership only setups that DO turn off comments and then use the code for other things :/ So we can't break existing preconceptions. You'd have to use another plugin to override it and turf all comments.

   That said, if you've turned off comments, then you can safely delete/spam anything that shows up, right?

   Posted: 4 years ago #

6. webbrewers
   Member

   True, but I think an option to disable the commenting functionality would effectively make spam/comments less of an issue. I'm sure it could be done in a way that wouldn't affect people that use the code for other things.

   Posted: 4 years ago #

7. Nicolas Chevallier
   Member

   The problem also exists on other platforms too!

   But it is true that block spam seems to be an obvious option to add. I think the developers prefer to add tools to limit spam rather than completely disable comments, a central part of WordPress.

   Posted: 4 years ago #

8. Handkehrer
   Member

   I have no problems with spammer anymore. I just use some Plug-ins against spam. One of it is the normal Akismet =)

   Posted: 3 years ago #

9. Stephan Vierkant
   Member

   12345

   WordPress is a CMS nowadays, not just blogging software. I think comments should be a 'opt-in' feature.

   I've seen too many websites where the comments feature had to be turned off in the first place, because the webmaster isn't monitoring the placed comments.

   Posted: 3 years ago #

10. Julie Henriksen
    Inactive

    I use Disable Comments https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-comments/ and am not troubled with spam comments.

    Still it would be nice to remove comments completly as all my post show "0 comments" even though there are Facebook comments.

    Posted: 3 years ago #

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