Support Documentation

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Sites at Penn State and WordPress, from basic WordPress features to theme and plugin set-up instructions.

Comments

Learn to facilitate conversations and discussions by collecting and managing feedback from your site visitors using comments.

Note: Some options and details discussed in the links below may appear differently (or may not be present at all) in your site’s Dashboard, but the concepts remain the same.

The following, with the exception of Avatars, are external links:

Plugins

Disable Comments Plugin

Allows administrators to globally disable comments on their site. Comments can be disabled according to Post type. To learn more about the Disable Comments plugin, please visit the plugin page).

Studiopress/Genesis Themes

If you’re using a Studiopress/Genesis Theme, you will see that Genesis allows you to globally enable or disable Comments and Trackbacks on Posts and Pages in the Dashboard > Genesis > Theme Settings. If Comments or Trackbacks are disabled here, they cannot be enabled on an individual Post or Page basis.

Genesis Theme Settings Comments

Deleting or Editing Comments on Another Blog

Can I edit [or delete] comments I left on someone else’s blog?
No. It is not possible to edit or delete any comments you have left on other blogs. Blog owners are in full control of the comments on their blogs, so you can try contacting the blog owner and ask them to edit or delete a comment for you. If the blog owner has not posted any contact information, you can try leaving a short comment asking how to contact them directly.

Source: WordPress.com Support

User Reports

If you are an instructor running a course blog where your students are posting, you might consider using User Reports, which gives you a Dashboard view that lists activity on your site by user or even grading. There are two ways to see an activity report on any given user(s):

  • Go to Dashboard > Users > Reports and set the filters
  • Locate the user in Dashboard > Users and click the Reports link under their name

You can also download reports in PDF & CSV file formats.

For more information, please visit the Reports documentation.

Note: The Contributions plugin is no longer supported by CampusPress. User Reports provides similar data and functionality.