How to Configure WordPress Discussion Settings

WordPress Discussion Settings give you fine-grained control over how comments and notifications work on your site. Whether you want a lively comments section or a tightly moderated space, these settings have you covered.

Accessing Discussion Settings

Go to Settings > Discussion in your WordPress dashboard.

Default Post Settings

At the top you'll find three checkboxes that apply to new posts by default:

• Attempt to notify blogs linked to from the post - sends pingbacks when you link to other WordPress sites
• Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks) - lets other sites notify yours when they link to you
• Allow people to post comments on new articles - enables or disables comments site-wide

Comment Moderation and Control

Scroll down to find options that help you manage who can comment and how:

• Require commenters to fill in name and email
• Require users to be registered and logged in before commenting
• Automatically close comments on posts older than a set number of days
• Hold comments in a moderation queue until approved

Spam Filtering

Under Comment Moderation and Disallowed Comment Keys, you can add specific words or phrases that will automatically flag or block comments. This is a useful first line of defence against spam.

Recommended Settings for Most Sites

• Enable comment moderation
• Require name and email
• Install Akismet for automated spam filtering
• Disable pingbacks and trackbacks if you don't need them

If you need help dialling in your comment settings, contact our support team at dotCanada.