Closing Comments on A Page
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Alright, while we wait and whistle for the powers that be at WordPress to do SOMETHING about the problem of Akismet discarding legitimate comments, I’d like to close my blog to new comments for the time being and just post an email address for readers to send in comments that way.
However, I would like to keep all existing comments in place. I know that all of the comments stay put when unchecking “Allow Comments” for a POST, but apparently, when this option is unchecked on a PAGE, it automatically removes all of the comments from that page (another charming WordPress quirk).
Does anyone know how to close a PAGE to new comments without the existing comments disappearing? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Manage -> Pages
Locate the page in question and click “Edit”.
Once the editor opens you will see a row of blue buttons outside the editor box on the far right hand side of the page.
The first one at the very top is “Discussion” click the + sign and open it then remove the dot from “Allow Comments” and click the “Save” button.I would suggest that you try this in a test blog first to be sure that the comments do not disappear. I’ll try it on my test blog using the same theme you have and report back.
{waving to sulz}
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if i’m not wrong, only certain themes remove the comments in a page, while others do allow the made comments to display in the page after closing comments. try changing your theme perhaps?
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YIKES! WARNING! Don’t do it on a blog with the Contempt theme.
My previous comment disappeared when I tested it.
Don’t do it on K2 Lite either or on Kubrick.I’m throwing in the towel as I don’t have time to test all the themes and multi-task at work too. Best wishes for a happy ending.
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Thank you, timethief, but I’m afraid that sulz is correct.
The process that you describe for closing comments on a PAGE is the same as that for closing them in a POST. But in the Contempt 1.0 theme, which is what I use, closing comments to A POST leaves existing comments in place, while closing them to a PAGE removes all of the comments. This is what I meant by yet “another charming WordPress quirk”.
It’s possible that a different theme might offer solution, but it would also be a horrific nightmare for me, inasmuch as when I first set up my site, I had already spent long hours customizing the CSS for the Contempt theme that I’m using, and I hardly want to go through that ordeal again.
If I could find some way to tweak the CSS code so that I could just remove the Comment entry form without deleting the comments themselves, that would be fine, but I’ve already spent several hours tinkering with it to no avail.
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golddiggers: we have css experts around the forums, let’s see if they can help you with it. may take a while before they get back to you of course…
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Just for the record, and for anyone else trying to find a similar patch, this is as close as I’ve been able to come:
Under: #commentform input: Change the width to 0px
Under: #commentform textarea: Change the width to 0%.
Those two steps will eliminate both the comment submission form and “Submit Comments” button without removing all of the previously submitted comments. However, the words “Leave A Reply” remain at the bottom of the page; the patch simply removes any place below those words to do so.
It only took me 3 hours to figure that one out. If WordPress would once and for all address this issue, I, and others, wouldn’t have to keep wasting our time applying band-aids to a gaping wound that cries out for closure.
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golddigger, although you can add following rules to your existing CSS
#page h3#respond, form#commentform { display:none; }please mind, that it will merely hide (only for Pages) “Leave A Reply” heading and the comment input form (along with submission button, of course) from CSS aware browsers only.
however, anyone, who may visit your site with something like text-only browser (mobile phone), or just having CSS switched on in their regular browsers, still will be able to see all that stuff and even yet submit a comment!
sorry, CSS won’t do what you want — in this particular case it’s this theme logic flow bug with Pages, not style.
since, due to WP design, .com users can’t be allowed to edit themes template (not style), your only hope and last resort for the PTB to fix it.
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@options
Thanks for the confirmation that css editing does not provide a solution. https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=16857&page&replies=13#post-125780 -
UPDATE:
Default theme (Kubrick) should default to no pingbacks or comments on pagesOpened 8 months ago
Last modified 5 months ago
Priority: low
Assigned to: anonymous -
Just to clarify, on certain themes when comments are disabled on pages, the comments are no longer visible. The comments are, however, still in the Dashboard; they are not deleted from the blog. So, you can switch themes (or re-enable comments) if you want, and the comments will again be visible.
The comments are not GONE :-)
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I use the Digg 3 theme and I had no idea that the comments disappear so I simply closed the comments on a particular post as I had almost 300 comments and wanted to end it. But all comments disappeared! Anyway I was cool I simply went to edit post again and said allow comments and bingo…they all came back very obediently.
the problem is that I still cannot use the close comments option and I want to as one of my other posts has over a 1000 comments! I can’t move from Digg 3 either as it’s the only bright theme which gives me 2 sidebars + Home button + custom header. Guess I will have to wait until wordpress comes out with another theme like Digg which allows one to close comments to posts. I haven’t tested removing comments from pages but anyway it’s the posts which are important. -
nitawriter: i’m pretty sure it works the same way for posts and pages. i’ve used themes which don’t show comments for pages and after switching themes the comments return. so there’s no worry about losing them, just them disappearing. =)
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