So the discussion setting in WordPress can seem overwhelming.  But there really is not a whole lot to worry about on it.  These are the settings:

  • Default Article Settings
  • Other Comment Settings
  • Email Me Whenever
  • Before a Comment Appears
  • Comment Moderation
  • Comment Blacklist
  • Avatars 

This is how I have my site set up.  And this is how I actually recommend setting up the your back-end.  Now, the one that is really a judgment call is the “Before a Comment Appears” one.  I let people comment and I don’t have to approve the comments.  That will stay that way until such time that people spam my comments or leave rude and disrespectful comments.  The rest of them are pretty self explanatory. 

Default Article Settings

Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article. – This is when you put links in from other blogs and website.  This setting allows them to know that you back-linked to their article.  And shows that you have shared their information.  That is a good way to show other blogs that you are supporting them.  

A great way to follow up  with that is to personally email them and let them know that you have linked to a specific blog post of theirs.  Other bloggers appreciated that.  

And when you email them you can include the link to their blog and sometimes they will actually share it on their social media posts and maybe even in their newsletter which will get you more views.

This is a great article that talks about pingbacks or trackbacks.  It is an article from WordPress.org and goes into detail about them.  Much better than I ever could.  And I find it great to know which blogs are sharing my information.

The last one in that section is allowing comments on articles.  I keep that clicked for the reason I want people to comment on my posts.  They can ask questions and also leave their opinions or any helpful tips they have found that work for them.  I think that keeps it fresh and also even the season pro doesn’t know everything.  

Other Comment Settings in the Discussion Settings

It is a good idea to have the author of a comment put in email and name when submitting a comment.  It cuts down on spam comments and also you can go and reply on their blog if they have one.  You can also follow up on comments on your blog privately.  I found this is a good way to get people to know that you truly do care about them that you take the time to respond to their questions and comments.  I have even gotten customers from doing this.  Because of the help I’ve given them privately.  Always post in the comments under questions that you have followed up to their questions via email so that it shows that you do respond.

I don’t ever require that people be registered to my site to add a comment.  I wouldn’t get the comments I do on my various other sites if I did this.  People like sharing their experiences.  But don’t want to fill out a form just to comment.  

Now, the next option to close comments on articles older than is totally up to you.  And after showing the clip of the Discussion Settings I am unclicking that for this site because this is not time sensitive so there is no reason to close comments on these articles.

And now onto cookie checkbox.  There is no need to use this one.  From the last time I checked it doesn’t work the way it is suppose to — what I mean by that it doesn’t save the users information for the next time they comment so they just have to keep entering it anyways.  And you don’t need another pop up or check box on your site that does nothing productive or your site. 

The other two are really up to your discretion.  I find it looks cleaner if people comment on a comment and it is nested so that is my preference.  But if you want all comments to show then you can un-check.  And as for making multiple pages for comments I prefer to have it all on one page.  

WordPress has a great community to ask questions of other WordPress users they also have monthly meetings in a lot areas.  You can check them out when you log in.