You manage comments by going to the Comments menu item inside your blog dashboard.

Here’s where you see a listing of all comments, 20 posts per page, that have been written on your blog.

Anatomy of a comment

Below’s an illustraton of the parts of a comment on the Comments page.

Viewing your comments

Video

Watch the video below to learn how to manage comments

On the Comments page you can search for comments:

1. By Comment type such as comments or pings (a ping is also called a pingback
2. By keyword such as author name, blog URL or a specific words.

You can also choose to view:

1. All comments
2. Only those that have been approved
3. Pending  comments- those comments which are in the moderation queue and need to be approved by an administrator before appearing on the blog
4. Those marked as spam
5. Those sent to trash – automatically deleted after 30 days

The comment action links

Hovering your mouse over a comment brings up six action links beneath the comment text. You can approve/unapprove, reply, edit, spam, or trash comments with those links.

Here’s a summary of what each action link does:

1. Approve/Unapprove -publishes the comment to your blog and changes the link to Unapprove.  Clicking Unapprove removes the comment from your blog and puts the comment back in the moderation queue.
2. Spam – removes the comment from your blog and places it in your spam folder. You can delete all spam using the Delete all spam when you are looking at your spam comments.
3. Trash - removes the comment from your blog and sends it to your trash folder where it is automatically deleted after 30 days.
4. Edit – opens the comment into full edit mode where you can edit content in any box. For example, remove a student’s surname, fix a blog URL or hyperlink, provide students help with spelling or grammatical areas.  Once finished editing click Update Comment.
5. Quick Edit – accomplishes the same as the Edit link except instead of taking you to a new Edit Comment page, it drops down a quick edit text box. Benefit is you can do a fast edit on the same page. If you double click on a comment it opens the comment into Quick Edit mode.
6. Reply – drops down a quick text box on the same page to allow you to reply back to a comment right from the Comment page. This means you can reply here rather than directly on your blog.

Editing a comment

Comments can be edited using the Edit or Quick Edit action link.  Once you’ve finished editing the comment you click on Update Comment.

The Recent Comment module

The Recent Comments Module is located on your dashboard and displays the 5 most recent comments for your blog.  It also provides links at the bottom of the module to your Comments page.

Hovering your mouse over the comments brings up five action links which makes it easy to Approve/Unapprove, Edit, Reply, Mark as Spam, or Delete Comments directly from your dashboard.

For example, clicking the Reply action link brings up a form that lets you reply to comments from your dashboard.

You can change your default comment settings at any time and have full control over:

1. Who can and can’t leave a comment.
2. Whether comments are or aren’t allowed for the entire blog, or on a per post or page basis
3. Whether comments are appear immediately or comments are moderated and need to be approved by an administrator before appearing on the blog.

You control most of your comment options on the Settings > Discussion page.

Changing your comment options in Discussion Settings is as simple as:

1.  Go to Settings > Discussion inside your dashboard.

2.   Select the comment settings you want to use.

3.  Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

The Most Comment Settings Used

There is a wide range of comment settings that you can use.

Options used depend on factors such as comfort level, type of blog and school, District or organization’s blogging guidelines.

For example, an educator might allow any one to comment on their personal blog and allow the comments to be published immediately.  Whereas on class and students blogs they might require all comments to be moderated and only published once approved by an administrator to prevent inappropriate comment(s) from being published.

Option 1:

Any visitors that have had a comment approved on the blog in the past will have their comment immediately posted and only comments from new visitors are placed in the moderation queue.

This is the default comment setting on all newly created blogs.

Option 2: 

Comments can be posted by anyone and appear immediately on the blog.

This option is commonly used on educators personal blogs.

Option 3

All comments are moderated and need to be approved by an administrator before appearing on the blog.

This option is commonly used on class and student blogs.

Other important comment settings

There are quite a few comment setting options so lets explain the most important setting one at a time.

Default article settings

The default article settings controls how to handle post notifications.

The first two options deal with link notification:

1. Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article: Enabled by default, your blog sends a notification to any site, or blog post, you’ve linked to in your posts
2. Allow link notifications from other blogs – Enabled by default, it means your blog will accept ping, pingbacks and trackbacks from other blogs whenever a blogger links to your blog or blog post

In most circumstances you wouldn’t change these two default settings because knowing when other people are talking about, or linking to, you from their posts are important.

Most bloggers follow these link and pingbacks to read what others are saying about them.

The third option, Allow people to post comments on new articles, controls whether readers can or can’t leave comments on post or pages on your blog. Normally bloggers keep this setting enabled.

Any changes to your default article settings only apply to any posts or pages you publish in the future.

To change the comment settings for a post or page you already published you need to open it for editing and uncheck Allow Comments and Allow Trackbacks and Pingbacks.

Here’s how you can bulk disable comments on posts and pages you already published.

Other comment settings

The three main other comment settings you need to understand are:

1. Comment author must fill out name and e-mail: Enabled by default, this option requires the commenter to fill out their name and e-mail in order to leave a comment. Most situations you really don’t want this disabled because it’s not a good idea to allow anonymous comments.  Please note if you deselect this option the name and email field will still appear on the comment form but your visitor is able to submit a comment without filling in these details.
2. Users must be registered and logged in to comment: When selected only logged in Edublogs users can leave a comment. Normally you wouldn’t select this option because it restricts who can comment your posts and doesn’t prevent those from outside your community posting comments.
3. Enabled threaded comments:  This allows visitors to reply to other comments inline/nested which encourages better discussion and responses.

Email me whenever settings

The email me whenever option controls whether you receive emails any time anyone leaves a comment on your blog and any time a comment is held for moderation.

The email for:

1. Anyone posts a comment: is sent to email address of the person who wrote the post (i.e.  the post author)
2. A comment is held for moderation: is sent to blog’s admin email address (Setting > General)

Normally you would keep both these settings enabled so you’re notified of all comments.

Comment Moderation

The comment moderation options are used to control spam comments.

Normally spam comments include a large number of hyperlinks. The default setting is 2; you can adjust this to your needs.

For example, educators who require their students to include hyperlinks in comments may choose to make this higher.

Another option for controlling spam comments is to add specific words, name , URL, email address or IP into the comment moderation box. If it matches something anywhere in the comment’s content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP, the comment will be held in the moderation queue.

You use this comment moderation option where you have repeat spam comment offenders.

Alternatively, you can use the comment blacklist.  This works the same as comment moderation except the comment is marked as spam instead of held for moderation.

Avatars

The avatar settings control how avatars are displayed on your blog.

The avatar display option lets you control whether avatars are or aren’t displayed next to comments.

The default avatar controls the look of the avatar for users that don’t have their own custom avatar.

Comments allow your readers to add feedback to your posts and pages.  Comments extend the conversation beyond your blog post allowing your readers to interact with you and each other.

It’s amazing how even just a few comments can make student realise they are writing for a global audience — for many is incredibly motivating.

Comments are an important part of both the readers and blogger’s learning process.

By default, comments are enabled on all newly created blogs, and a comment form will appear at the bottom of posts and pages where readers can respond to what you’ve written.

Approved comments are displayed under the individual post or page.   You just click on the post title to read the comments.

By default,  the first comment by a new commenter is moderated and their subsequent comments are immediately published on all newly created blogs.

Threaded comments allow readers to reply to other comments inline/nested which encourages better discussion and responses.

Writing a comment on a post

To leave a comment on a post just:

1.  Click on the post title or the “comment” link at the top or at the bottom of the post.

• The comment link may say something like “3 comments”, “Comments (0)” or even “No Comments”.

2. Scroll down the page to the comment form or click on Reply (to reply to a specific comment).

3.  Enter your name and email address – your email address is hidden and only the blogger sees it

• If you are logged into your Edublogs account you won’t need to add these details.

4.  Enter your blog or website details (optional).

• Leaving your blog or website details is important because bloggers and other readers often click on this link if they like what you’ve written and want to check out your blog!

5.  Write your comment.

6.  Enter the anti-spam word.

7.  Select the ‘Notify me of followup comments via e-mail‘ if you want to be notified by email to comments by other readers.

8.  Now click ‘Submit Comment’

Commenting tips

Most readers are reluctant commenters, not because of lack of time, but because they feel uncomfortable leaving comments.

Read through the comments on these posts:

1. Comments Count!
2. Parents Comments Count!
3. Teaching students how to write quality comments

The comments on these posts provide:

1. Reasons why readers mightn’t leave comments on blog posts
2. Explanations of what makes a good comment
3. Tips for encouraging readers to comment

Both posts are also a good example of how both the blogger and readers can interact with each other when encouraged properly.