Comments
Comments can be a high point for any website owner. They allow your customers to ask questions or to just simply engage with you and the other customers.
The Comments system is attached to the bottom of each blog post/article allowing your customers/visitors to carry out that engagement.
Normally, when we create the comments system for a website, we add certain protection elements (Unseen on the front end) to help prevent ‘Spam’ comments. Bots seem to traverse the web and if they find an unprotected comments form, they really do spam it with rubbish. Our system has so far been extremely good at fending these bots off.
So, if someone adds a comment, they will need to add their name, email address and website (If they have one) and of course the actual comment. The system will auto approve it unless you wish to manually approve each comment. but there are ways to go back to manually un-approve a a comment or even send it to the bin.
Lets have a look through the options now.
Log in to the back end/dashboard of your website, and navigate to ‘Comments’ on the side menu.
You will see a list of all the comments laid out.
Now if you hover over the comment box within the list, a number of options will display for you to use.
Lets look at these each in turn now.
Unapprove – Use this if the comment goes against your community standards or values, or is just an undesirable comment. Or for any other reason you can think of that a comment must be removed from display. Unapproving a comment will remove it from the front end display to your visitors, but it will still remain on your back end list, for any further use down the line, for example, it could be used as proof for any follow up action you may wish to take against an individual.
Reply – This opens a text box directly in the comments list for you to add a quick reply to a specific comment, this can also be done on the front end in the comments section of the post/article.
Quick Edit – The quick edit option opens up a number of text boxes for you to amend if required. You can edit the comment itself, or the user details. Name, Email Address or website.
Spam – If a ‘Spam’ comment slips through the security system, tap the spam option and that comment will be sent to the spam folder. It will also be removed from display on the front end. Also, if this happens, let us know and we will have a look at the comment originator and try to prevent any further spam comments making their way through.
Bin – Sometimes a comment just doesn’t age well, or is in the completely wrong place or about a different subject. If you or the user that submitted the comment wishes for it to be removed completely, then the bin option is a valuable tool. It will quite simply move that comment to the bin and remove it from front end view.
That is pretty much all there is for the ‘Comments’ section of the website. If in our research and design phase you wish to have manual approvals for each comment, then an additional option of ‘Approve’ will be seen in the options, tap that and the comment will become visible on the front end. You will also be notified by email that a comment is awaiting approval.