Make it clear that comments are optional

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  timothyar · Member · Aug 3, 2011 at 5:07 pm

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  The comments box at the bottom of my blog used to say “required” for Name and Email. I’ve disabled that to make it more inviting for my readers, but I’d like it to clearly say “optional” next to the name and email – otherwise readers will see it says “email” and assume that it’s obligatory. How can I make sure it’s clear that these 2 fields are optional? Thank you!

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  timothyar · Member · Aug 3, 2011 at 5:17 pm

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  Oops, I’ve got the title wrong. It should have been “Make it clear that Name and Email in comments are optional!

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  airodyssey · Member · Aug 3, 2011 at 11:35 pm

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  Hi. In order to assist you, we need the URL of your blog, starting with http:// please. Thanks.

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  timothyar · Member · Aug 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm

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  Hi, thanks for replying.

  My blog is set as private so it probably won’t work for you, but if you look at this one : http://digitizedgraffiti.com/2010/05/06/top-ten-comedic-tv-shows-of-all-time/ (a random blog from the wordpress homepage), you can see at the bottom that you can comment as a guest, and the Name and Email fields don’t say “required”. It’s the same with my blog.

  However, I would really like to explicitly state “optional” in those fields for my own blog, rather than merely omitting the word “required”. Is this possible in any way?

  Thank you!

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  timethief · Member · Aug 5, 2011 at 9:00 pm

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  The choices you can make when setting up your default Discussion Page are found here > Settings > Discussion
  instructions > http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/#other-comment-settings
  note:

  Comment author must fill out name and e-mail – When this setting is on, anyone leaving a comment will be forced to leave a name and a valid email address. If the setting is off, visitors can leave anonymous comments.
  Users must be registered and logged in to comment – If this box is checked, only logged in WordPress.com users will be allowed to leave comments. If it is not checked, any visitor can leave a comment.

  If you wish to let everyone know that they can posts anonymously then you can place a text widget at the top of your sidebar stating “anonymous comments accepted – no email address required.
  http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/

  Do be aware that over 80% of all comments received on this WordPress.com domain every day are spam. That’s why I always recommend comment Moderation. http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/#comment-moderation