Allow comments on a news story or blog post

Comments let staff respond to a news story, a news update or a blog post underneath it. Whether comments are open is decided per item in the Classic Editor, with site-wide defaults, login and moderation rules under Settings, Discussion. The theme adds a few things of its own: instructions above the form, a must-login message with buttons, staff profile links on each comment, and comment counts on cards.

Open or close comments on one item

  1. Edit the news story, news update or blog post.
  2. Find the Discussion box under the editor. If it is missing, open Screen Options at the top right of the screen and tick Discussion.
  3. Tick or untick Allow comments, then Update.

You can do the same from the list of stories: hover over a title and select Quick Edit, then tick or untick Allow Comments. To change many at once, tick them, choose Edit from the Bulk actions menu and set Comments to Allow or Do not allow.

Closing comments keeps the comments already made. Under them the story shows “Comments are closed.” and no form.

Which content starts with comments open

When someone adds a new item, the theme sets its Discussion box for them:

  • News stories, news updates and blog posts start open, provided Settings, Discussion, Allow people to submit comments on new posts is ticked. Untick that setting and they start closed.
  • Tasks, events, projects, training courses, vacancies and team pages always start closed. You can still open comments on any one of them from its Discussion box, and comments then appear at the foot of that page.
  • Pages follow the Settings, Discussion setting.

Changing the setting does not alter items that already exist; use Quick Edit or Bulk edit for those.

Require login, moderation and other site-wide rules

Go to Settings, then Discussion. An administrator does this. There is no theme setting for requiring login: this screen decides.

  • Users must be registered and logged in to comment: tick it so only staff who are logged in can comment. On most intranets everyone is logged in anyway, and this stops anonymous comments if a story is ever reached without logging in.
  • Comment must be manually approved: every comment waits in the Comments menu until an editor or administrator approves it. Comment author must have a previously approved comment is the lighter option: a person’s first comment waits, later ones go straight through.
  • Email me whenever: sends the story’s author an email for each new comment, and the site administrator for each comment held for moderation.
  • Automatically close comments on posts older than a number of days: useful for stopping late comments on old stories.
  • Other comment settings, such as nested replies and how many levels deep, also apply.

The theme switches off the WordPress check that blocks a person from posting two comments within a few seconds, so quick follow-up replies are allowed.

Comments waiting for approval, and all past comments, are managed under Comments in the left-hand menu. Editors and administrators can approve, reply, edit and bin comments there. See Roles and capabilities.

Instructions and messages staff see on the form

Four settings on Options, General shape the comment form. See General intranet options.

  • Comment instructions (logged in): text at the top of the form for people who are logged in, such as your house rules.
  • Comment instructions (logged out): the same for people who are not logged in, on intranets that allow that.
  • Must login message: shown instead of the form when login is required and the person is not logged in. Leave it empty for the standard WordPress wording.
  • Show registration link and Show login link: add Register and Login buttons under that message. The Login button brings the person back to the story afterwards. Show login link is on by default.

How comments look on the intranet

  • The form is headed Add a comment with a Post comment button. Logged-in staff do not need to type a name or email.
  • Each comment shows the person’s photo and name. Where the staff directory is on, the name links to their profile.
  • A comment from the story’s author carries a By the author badge.
  • Reply links use the person’s first name: “Reply to Sam”.
  • The heading counts the comments, and long threads are split into pages using the Settings, Discussion paging options.
  • Cards in the News, Blog posts, Need to know and News updates widgets show a small comment count next to the date when a story has comments.

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