How to Manage Comments on Your WordPress Blog
What would your WordPress blog be if it didn’t include discussions and allow comments from your readers? But because what appears on your blog reflects on you, WordPress offers you options to control who can post comments and how those comments are displayed on your blog.
Discussion is the fourth item in the Settings menu list; click it to open the Discussion Settings page. The sections on this tab let you set options for handling comments and publishing posts to your blog.
The following list covers the options available to you in the Discussion Settings page, which deals mainly with how comments and trackbacks are handled in your blog.
Default Article Settings: With the Default Article Settings options, you can tell WordPress how to handle post notifications. Here are your options:
Attempt to Notify Any Blogs Linked to from the Article: If you select this check box, your blog sends a notification (or ping) to any site you’ve linked to in your blog posts. This notification is also commonly referred to as a trackback. Deselect this check box if you don’t want these notifications sent.
Allow Link Notifications from Other Blogs (Pingbacks and Trackbacks): By default, this check box is selected, and your blog accepts notifications via pings or trackbacks from other blogs that have linked to yours. Any trackbacks or pings sent to your blog appear on your site in the Comments section of the blog post. If you deselect this check box, your blog doesn’t accept pingbacks or trackbacks from other blogs.
Allow People to Post Comments on New Articles: By default, this check box is selected, and people can leave comments on your blog posts. If you deselect this check box, no one can leave comments on your blog.
Other Comment Settings: The Other Comment Settings section tells WordPress how to handle comments:
Comment Author Must Fill Out Their Name and E-Mail: Enabled by default, this option requires all commenters on your blog to fill in the Name and E-Mail fields when leaving comments. This option can really help you combat comment spam.
Users Must Be Registered and Logged in to Comment: Not enabled by default, this option allows you to accept comments on your blog from only people who are registered and logged in as a user on your blog.
Automatically Close Comments on Articles Older Than X Days: Select the check box next to this option to tell WordPress you want comments on older articles to be automatically closed. Fill in the text box provided with the number of days you want to wait before WordPress closes comments on articles.
Enable Threaded (Nested) Comments X Levels Deep: From the drop-down list, you can select the level of threaded comments you want to have on your blog. The default is one; you can choose up to ten levels.
Break Comments into Pages with X Comments Per Page: Fill in the text box with the number of comments you want to appear on one page.
Comments Should Be Displayed with the Older/Newer Comments at the Top of Each Page: From the drop-down list, select Older or Newer. Selecting Older displays the comments on your blog in the order of oldest to newest.
E-Mail Me Whenever: The two options in the E-Mail Me Whenever section are enabled by default:
Anyone Posts a Comment: Enabling this option means that you receive an e-mail notification whenever anyone leaves a comment on your blog.
A Comment Is Held for Moderation: This option lets you receive an e-mail notification whenever a comment is awaiting your approval in the comment moderation queue.
Before a Comment Appears: The two options in the Before a Comment Appears section tell WordPress how you want WordPress to handle comments before they appear in your blog:
An Administrator Must Always Approve the Comment: Disabled by default, this option keeps every single comment left on your blog in the moderation queue until you, the administrator, log in and approve it.
Comment Author Must Have a Previously Approved Comment: Enabled by default, this option requires comments posted by all first-time commenters to be sent to the comment moderation queue for approval by the administrator of the blog.
Comment Moderation: In the Comment Moderation section, you can set options to specify what types of comments are held in the moderation queue to await your approval.
To prevent spammers from spamming your blog with a ton of links, enter a number in the Hold a Comment in the Queue If It Contains X or More Links text box.
The large text box in the Comment Moderation section lets you type keywords, URLs, e-mail addresses, and IP addresses.
Comment Blacklist: In this section, type a list of words, URLs, e-mail addresses, and/or IP addresses that you want to flat-out ban from your blog. Items placed here don’t even make it into your comment moderation queue; the WordPress system filters them as spam.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
archive
1. (noun) A list of previous blog posts, in chronological order. 2. (verb) To place files or blog posts in a safer place (on DVD or another server) for longer-term or backup storage.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
attribute
Used in an HTML tag to give an instruction to a Web browser. For example, in This link goes to <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the <a> tag gets an attribute (href) and a value ("http://www.google.com") to go along with the basic tag. In this case, the attribute indicates to the browser that what comes next is a hypertext reference — in this case, a Web page.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blacklist
An often-centralized list of e-mail addresses, URLs, and IP addresses used by spammers that are then forbidden in any blog post on your blog. With an up-to-date blacklist, a lot of spam is stopped before it becomes a comment.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
block
To stop all contact with a MySpace user. He can’t comment on your blog page or send you any message that you actually receive.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blog
A combination of the words Web and log. Bloggers (individuals, groups, or businesses) post a chronological log of information. Content is determined entirely by the author(s) of the blog; many are personal journals.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
blog post
An entry in a blog, possibly containing text, images, and other media.

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blogger
The author of a blog.

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blogging policy
Outlines what you’re allowed to post in your blog.

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blogging software
Technology that enables you to blog. Can be either hosted or nonhosted.

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blogroll
A collection of links used or recommended by a blogger.

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cookie
A short piece of computer code, stored on your computer, that enables Web sites to remember certain settings and information the next time you visit that site.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Dashboard
A kind of control panel in Blogger that shows you the blogs you’ve set up, giving you access posting, using help resources, or even creating another blog.

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definition list
A type of HTML list that gives a term and then its definition and has built-in spacing to lay out those elements properly.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
disk space
Amount of room available on your hard drive.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
domain
A domain is the address, or main URL, that people type in the browser to get to your Web site. The domain name you choose can’t be used by anyone else.

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domain registrar
A service that enables you to register a domain name.

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entry
An single posting in a blog containing text, images, or other media, or any combination of those things.

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Facebook
A social-networking service that enables you to keep in contact with families and friends via the Web.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Flickr
A Web site that allows you to share, organize, edit, and otherwise manage your photos.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Friend List
Your virtual online address book in MySpace. You can become someone’s friend by either sending a fellow MySpacer a Friend Request or by being on the receiving end of a Friend Request from another MySpace user.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hosted services
Manages the data, software, and Web hosting of a blog; the blogger just manages the content.

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HTML
The computer coding used by Web designers to create Web pages.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hyperlink
A navigation tool that allows a user to go from one Web location to another by clicking. Hyperinks (or just links) are typically underlined.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
hypertext reference
In HTML, the address that a hyperlink connects to when clicked. For example, in This link goes to <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a>, the hypertext reference (href) is http://www.google.com. Hyperlink references can also jump to new positions on the same page, open a new e-mail message, or begin a file download.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
link
Short for hyperlink, a navigation tool that allows a user to go from one Web location to another by clicking. Links are typically underlined.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Mom test
A self-test that flags inappropriate blog posts. If you’d let your mom read the post, then it’s probably passed the Mom test. Specifically, don’t blog about topics you think will hurt others; don’t blog about others without their permission, even about topics you consider inconsequential; and don’t identify friends and lovers by name without their permission.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
MySpace
A social-networking service that enables you to keep in contact with families and friends via the Web.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
MySpace profile
Your MySpace identity. It can contain as much or as little information about you as you’d like.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
news aggregation
The ability to aggregate news by using RSS feeds. Having a news aggregator included with your blog package allows your site to pull in information from another blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
nonhosted service
Blog software that you set up on your own Web server. It allows you to take on all responsibilities related to maintaining your blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
ordered list
Contains items that must be listed in a particular order, such as a list of ranks or preferences. It may also indicate a list of steps for the reader to follow.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
pinging
An automated notification system for search engines and newsreaders, letting those services know that your blog has been updated. A ping occurs when one computer asks another whether it’s there; the second computer confirms its presence.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
post
1. (noun) An entry in a blog containing text, images, other media, or any combination of these. 2. (verb) The act of creating and/or uploading a blog entry.

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private profile
A MySpace profile that’s limited on who can view it, such as only people on your Friend List.

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public domain
The status of publications, processes, and product designs that are free from copyrights and/or patents and are available for anyone's use.

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social network
A service, such as Facebook or MySpace, that enables to keep in touch with people you know — and meet people you don’t know.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
spam
Unsolicited electronic messages sent in bulk that may be commercial, nonsensical, or malicious. In addition to e-mail spam, blog comments and blog forums can be targeted by spammers.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
tag
A relevant keyword associated or assigned to a piece of information, such as an image, a blog entry, or a video clip. Tags are usually chosen informally by the content creator or by the online community; they help give content to nontext media and organize information for ease of searching.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Trackback
A technology that tracks references to a blog posting that occurs on other blogs. They allow bloggers to link to blog posts on related topics.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
transparent
1. Being honest and truthful on your blog. Also means that you admit mistakes and engage in dialogue with readers who leave comments. Considered proper blogging etiquette. 2. Integration of applications, programs, and media from different sources in such a way that the end user is unaware that the content is not self-contained.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
unordered list
unordered list is a series of bulleted items and is used for lists that don’t require numbering.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
video blog
A blog consisting of video files, or the practice of placing a video file in a blog post.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
video-sharing service
A service, such as YouTube, that enables you to share video with others.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Web host
The Web server where you software, graphics, and other files live online.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
Web server
Technology that looks at what Web page is requested and then feeds the browser the appropriate file. It does most of the hard work of serving Web pages to visitors coming to your Web site.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
whitelist
A list of preselected users who are allowed to comment on your blog.

Blogging & Social Networking Glossary
YouTube
A video-sharing service.