People are spam liking my comments against my will
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In my Dashboard -> Settings -> Sharing – the box for “Comment Likes are” is unchecked for “On for all comments”
However in my notifications I see people are spam liking all my comments.
It’s not a big problem but I would prefer they actually reply, rather than just spamming away to their heart’s content.
How can I switch off all likes on comments completely ?
Cheers
Don Charisma
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there. Switching off comment likes only prevents the like button from appearing on your own site, but people can still like your comments in the Reader and via the notifications drop-down in the admin bar. There is no way to switch it off in those locations.
If you believe comment likes are coming from a spam account, you can add that account to the comment blacklist and those likes should no longer be shown: https://en.support.wordpress.com/comment-likes/#%C2%A0how-to-manage-comment-likes
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Thanks @kokkieh for cluing me in, I followed the link you suggested and it appears the setting exists in both dashboards (both Blue Death and Classic). But isn’t respected everywhere in WordPress. So it’s a bug.
As regards the “inauthentic comment liker blacklist” I probably won’t maintain one. The reason for this is that it would take too much time to contact each person who makes a like or comment like and ask them if their like was authentic or not. I’d have to do this because otherwise I might be unfairly punishing someone who authentically liked something, which I find highly unethical and unreasonable.
Can I suggest that the setting for comment likes is either respected or removed from WordPress, for those who aren’t’ interested in comment likes ? How do we get a bugfix underway for this ?
Also, rather than blacklisting people – a screen for approving likes and comment likes the same as we have for comments ? That way the blog owner can moderate their likes and comment likes the same as they can for comments, with strict, two likes having been approved or approve everything without asking. If I didn’t like a like for any reason they I can unapprove it or delete it to “unlike” it.
An additional option would be for WordPress to send out an email to every like or comment like, asking the user to click on a link to verify the like was “authentic”, and they aren’t spamming …
Cheers
Don Charisma
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Can I suggest that the setting for comment likes is either respected or removed from WordPress, for those who aren’t’ interested in comment likes ? How do we get a bugfix underway for this ?
I don’t think this is actually a bug. Consider that you can also like a post from the Reader, even if the post author has turned off likes for the post. What it comes down to is people can still like posts/comments, but they won’t display on your site unless you enable it.
I’ll tag this for staff in any case so they can see your feedback in this regard.
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@kokkieh – thanks for coming back to me so quickly.
Seems a bit confused and inconsistent to me, left hand not talking to the right hand, but if that’s how WordPress.com want to run things, who am I to criticize …
Also I don’t see the point of switching off comment likes, if it’s not actually switched off … but I said that already … one man’s bug is another man’s feature … I guess …
Cheers
Don Charisma
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Hey @doncharisma,
@KokkieH is correct. Yes – people can still like your comments via the Reader and also through the admin bar. They can also like the comments via notifications if the content was on their post or a response to their comment. So, you’re correct that we don’t see this as a bug. The setting users control is for whether it displays on your own site, not whether it’s hidden everywhere.
Hopefully that clarifies things.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks!
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The setting users control is for whether it displays on your own site, not whether it’s hidden everywhere.
And that is what I do *NOT* appreciate about being hosted here. It’s as if we are providing free content for the WordPress.COM Reader which has become the WordPress.COM magazine. this kind of stuff has made me go sour and wordpress.COM and though I did purchase another domain and did intend to self host a site, instead I removed my domain mapping and no-ads upgrades from my domains and decided to pack it in when it comes to blogging. I will only blog now when I feel I have sometjing meaninmful to say and the next time I do I will cut a huge slice of flesh off of the bloggers who have the audacity to spam like and spam follow blogs and recommend doing the same to others. In a single decade the blogopshere has been degraded and is now nothing more than a cheesy sleasy marketplace full of bloggers hawking wares, and that succeeded in turning me right off reading blogs and following them too. Whew! Thanks for allowing me to dump that load. Now I’ll go and find some uplifting gospel music to sing.
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My apologies for the grammar errors and typos above. My eyesight is not good today as I spent the last 5 days reading music scores that were in tiny point 10 size fonts – no kidding!
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@timethief – thanks for sharing that, reading between the lines I had already understood that, or most of it … actually seeing it in black and white I do agree with some/most of it, which I was surprised about.
Don’t worry about the typos, we can’t edit our comments here and MOST people know that …
I can see pretty well the WP.com rationale with the reader and the Blue Death editor – they’re attempting to compete with other social networks like FB, Twitter etc. And also trying to make it easier for smaller screen devices like smartphones etc to blog. The reader whilst not perfect is useful in some ways too …
I can also see their rationale in relaxing policies which affect business people in the WP.com community, as they want to encourage business people into the community. Basically it brings money here, which they/we need to run the show and is of benefit to other businesses here, and indirectly of benefit to non-business here.
Amazon AWS that presumably WP.com rent the hardware from used here doesn’t run on fresh air, so without the money, we don’t have somewhere to blog – for instance. And that doesn’t even mention any of the other costs involved in paying 300 staff etc etc ad infinitum. I’m sure Matt has his hands full running a WP.com which is in the top 100 websites in the world.
Also every blogger who isn’t set to “private” wants to promote their blog, presumably other people coming to visit was the whole point of setting up their site in the first place. People blog to share their work, their lives, their art, their writing, their knowledge, their skills, their trades, their businesses or just themselves – visitors are the whole point. Otherwise write a private journal, or keep your art secret in a locked room, or do a hobby which is not-for-profit … etc ..
FB and Twitter have promoted the obsession with “likes” and “followers”, and it’s obvious that people would view things the same here. Simply – a blogger/website isn’t seen as “successful” if they don’t have gazillions of likes/followers/page views, that’s just the collective unconscious these days, good or bad, it’s not really up to you or me, it’s just the way it is. So understandable that people would be “enthusiastic” about liking and following other bloggers/sites, and hope the same for their own sites.
FB and Twitter are FULL of/RIFE with inauthentic likes and follows, so I really don’t think we can expect it to be different here. And also, personally, I’m not sure that I know most of the people who like and follow me well enough, to know for sure whether their likes or follows are inauthentic. Certainly not without asking them personally, and that would take too long, so I just accept that a percentage are, and don’t worry about it further than that. It’s the nature of doing things in public, some people are inauthentic, we all know this !
There have been plenty of changes I’ve seen here I didn’t like in the past 3 years, some major things in the last 6 months or so. Comment likes I don’t like, because it discourages people from answering comments or interacting. So for me comment likes are spammy, they take away from a conversation that might have happened, and make people lazy. I do also see “the other perspective” of, it saves time, too, so not totally anti comment likes.
WITHIN ALL THAT, WordPress.com is STILL superior to any other social network that I’ve seen. So I’ll personally continue to stay here whilst the grass is fairly green, whilst the staff remain charming and the trolls are generally ignored. Change happens, that’s life, sometimes it’s for the best, other times we have to work around it for the best.
I didn’t know you’re a singer, something I don’t have the voice for myself … listening to music is one of my passions, connects me back with the moment, especially important at busy times. And I’m with you on the eye sight, mine’s not what it used to be either, struggle to read my desktop’s screen sometimes ! … So, perhaps we’re not so different after all ;)
staff-doublebassd – thanks very much for staff attention, you guys are making a sterling effort … and yes I got that, I’m coming across more and more like this on WordPress, inconsistencies mainly. If you’re not going to fix it, then I’ve had it explained to me, and expressed my disliking of it. So nothing more to say to you really.
Cheers
Don Charisma
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