Comments disabled yet still appearing on some pages

  • Unknown's avatar
    hnm1964 · Member ·

    I’ve searched most of the postings about this issue, and none of the suggested solutions work. Someone mentioned “tinkering with the template page” but never described what was involved, and the topic was closed.

    So, once again, I’ve checked the individual pages involved and unchecked the comments box under the Screen Options dropdown. I’ve also gone in and deselected comments from the entire site, and yet there are still pages with the comments box appearing. I’m running twenty-twelve.

    Any help is appreciated.

  • Unknown's avatar
    musicdoc1 · Member ·

    Hi,

    The relevant support pages are:

    So, once again, I’ve checked the individual pages involved and unchecked the comments box under the Screen Options dropdown.

    This action will prevent further comments on an individual post or page, but has no effect upon the comments previously posted on that post or page.

    I’ve also gone in and deselected comments from the entire site, and yet there are still pages with the comments box

    I presume you mean that you’ve unchecked “Allow people to post comments on new articles” at Discussion Settings > Default Settings. This will prevent future comments on all posts and pages on the site, but has no effect on previously published comments.

  • Unknown's avatar
    musicdoc1 · Member ·

    So, once again, I’ve checked the individual pages involved and unchecked the comments box under the Screen Options dropdown.

    Upon reconsideration I wondered if I’d gotten this correct. So I decided to do some testing. In my tests, I had the following results, some of which were surprising or confusing, or both:

    1. Unchecking the Screen Options > Comments box on a post and then updating the post had no effect, because the check is returned to the box with every update. Previous comments and the “Leave a Reply” box remain enabled.

    2a. Unchecking the box at Post editor > Discussion module > Allow Comments, and then updating the post removes the “Leave a Reply” box, but leaves previously published comments displayed unchanged.

    2b. Unchecking Allow Comments at Posts > All Posts > selected post > Quick Edit had the same effect as in 2a.

    3. It also seemed that after unchecking the Post editor > Discussion module > Allow comments box and then updating, I was now able to uncheck the Screen Options > Comments box, but only sometimes. However, once the Screen Options > Comments box was unchecked, I found that I could no longer get a check to stay in the box anymore upon update. I had a lot of trouble both removing the check from the box and replacing it once it was removed.

    In conclusion:
    Unchecking none of the three relevant boxes:

    1. Post Editor > Screen Options > Comments
    2. Post Editor > Discussion module > Allow comments
    3. Posts > All Posts > selected post > Quick Edit > Allow comments

    removes previously published comments. I presume you would have to remove each comment individually by either changing the comment’s status from published to pending, or by deleting it.

    The Enable and Disable Comments for Published Posts and Pages support page illustrates the instructions with images from the new (Beep Beep Boop) editor. Maybe I’d get different results in that editor, but I haven’t yet tried.

  • Unknown's avatar
    musicdoc1 · Member ·

    Correction:
    Contrary to what I suggested above, I believe that checking or unchecking the Post Editor > Screen Options > Comments box isn’t supposed to have any direct effect upon comments displayed on the visible post. It only determines whether the comments are displayed in the post editor.

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