Two previous commenters going into moderation, but not on the mod list.
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I have two different commenters who continue to be placed into moderation, even though both have previously approved comments. I’ve checked both my blacklist (spam) and moderation list and neither one’s email address or IP show up in the lists.
To troubleshoot the issue I opened up an incognito window in Chrome and tried some test comments with their screen names and email addresses. To fully rule out something in my moderation list or even my blacklist, I cut and pasted both lists to text files and then temporarily saved the discussion settings with both lists empty. Then I created test comments from my incognito window for each.
For both of them, even with a completely empty mod list and blacklist, I wasn’t able to get comments to go through without moderation. I even tried approving the first test comment to see if that would train WordPress to let the next one through, but it still wouldn’t work. To double check my process, I tried creating test comments with a bogus email address from the same incognito page, and after I approved the first comment subsequent comments appeared immediately as expected.
With some trial and error, I’ve narrowed it down to just the two commenter’s email addresses. I can post comments using their screen name with a made up address, and after I approve the first comment the subsequent ones go through. But if I use their email address it always goes to moderation. I won’t post their email addresses on this forum, but neither address strikes me as problematic. I know that at least one of these commenters had no problem posting under the same email address many years ago.
Any thoughts on what I might be missing? If these were going into the spam bin I’d understand that Akismet was using information beyond what I’ve given it. But these are going into moderation, not the spam bin.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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I’ve narrowed it down to just the two commenter’s email addresses
Please post them here knowing that the software will redact them and only Staff will be able to see what they are.
Then type modlook into the sidebar tags on this thread for a Staff follow-up. How do I get a Moderator/Staff reply for my question? https://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-help-in-the-forums/#how-do-i-get-a-moderatorstaff-reply-for-my-question Also subscribe to this thread so you are notified when they respond and be patient while waiting. To subscribe look in the sidebar of this thread, find the subscribe to topics link and click it.
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Thanks Timethief. It looks like Modlook is already tagged.
The two email addresses are:
(email visible only to moderators and staff)
and
(email visible only to moderators and staff) -
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Thank you @dalrock, and thanks @timethief for getting the email addresses for us.
@dalrock I’ve seen similar issues over in another thread and have troubleshooted it extensively. In some cases it seems to have stopped automatically.
A few questions:
– Can you have them comment here and confirm if it’s okay if I use their accounts to test comments here?
https://veldatestingmore.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/test-your-comments-here/– Do we know whether this only happens on your blog?
– Do we know whether they are logged in when they’re commenting, or whether they are using their name / username combo?
Let me know; we’ll go from there.
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Hi Supernovia. Sorry about the delayed reply.
I’ll ask them if they can comment here and give you approval to troubleshoot.
– Do we know whether this only happens on your blog?
I don’t know. Neither has mentioned it happening anywhere else, but I don’t know how I would test that short of asking. I’ll include that question when I ask if you can troubleshoot.
Do we know whether they are logged in when they’re commenting, or whether they are using their name / username combo?
They don’t appear to have wordpress logins associated with their email addresses, because if they did it would have prompted me to log in when I tried commenting using their email address.
One last thing. Since I first created this query I’ve had the same problem happen with two other commenters. I’ve blogged for seven years without running into this, and now I’ve come across four cases of it in just a few weeks.
One of the new cases is (email visible only to moderators and staff)
I’ll have to look up the fourth one.
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Hello, I’m one of the commenters that’s been having problems on Dalrock’s blog. I came to this page at his request by a private email to authorize you to investigate using my email.
I have noticed this problem on at least one other blog, so I think I may have been “shadowbanned” across wordpress. If you can undo that, I’d be appreciative.
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@greenlander1000 thank you. I’ll focus my testing at a test site for now. In the meantime, I do have a few more questions:
-Do you typically log in to comment?
– If you’re logged in, are you commenting from the site or the reader?
– Are you able to comment by email?
– Do you have the same issues on different connections? -
For what it’s worth, I posted one comment, moderated it, then posted another comment here:
https://veldatestingmore.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/test-your-comments-here/The second comment came through without moderation. If you wouldn’t mind trying to comment there yourself using your regular connection, giving me a chance to approve it, then commenting again, that would also help us troubleshoot.
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> Do you typically log in to comment?
No. I didn’t even remember setting up a wordpress account with this email, although I obviously did at some point a long time ago. I hadn’t logged into this account in many years before we started this debug process.> If you’re logged in, are you commenting from the site or the reader?
I always use Chrome. I’m not even sure what you are referring to by “the reader.”> Are you able to comment by email?
I’m not even aware of this feature and have never tried it.> Do you have the same issues on different connections?
Yes. All browers and IP addresses.As of today, the problem has moved around a little bit. WordPress is treating me different than a couple of days ago. Now, WordPress *forces* me to log in to comment. If I try to post without logging in, WordPress just takes me to the login screen. After I post a comment after logging in, it doesn’t get moderated.
Before, when my comments were being moderated, I was always posting with just my email and screen name *without* being logged in.
Did you change something on my account to force me to log in?
Perhaps the resolution for this issue is “just log in when you comment,” which I guess is fine. I don’t know if that solves the problem for the other users Dalrock referred to.
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Wait, actually, I have to take that back. On Dalrock’s blog, my comments are still going into moderation even when logged in. So there is still an issue. You can see the comments here:
https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/the-one-obstacle-she-cant-remove/#comment-246435
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Something is different between comments on
https://veldatestingmore.wordpress.com/2017/08/08/test-your-comments-here/
and
https://dalrock.wordpress.com/2017/09/20/the-one-obstacle-she-cant-remove/On the former I don’t get moderated, on the latter I do.
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That’s helpful, thank you! And WordPress should have been making you log in all along if you had a username.
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@dalrock any chance you could remember when this started on your site? Were @greenlander1000’s comments ever marked as spam or otherwise moderated before you had to start approving them manually?
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@dalrock any chance you could remember when this started on your site? Were @greenlander1000’s comments ever marked as spam or otherwise moderated before you had to start approving them manually?
The problem first started with the other email address I referenced along with Greenlander’s. I think it first happened about two months ago. Since it was only happening to one commenter I didn’t pursue it beyond a string search through the moderation rules to make sure I didn’t have anything in there triggering it.
Greenlander was a long time commenter of the site but hadn’t commented since May of this year when he returned Sept 7th. In the past his comments always went through, with the same screen name and email address. But when he posted this month it always went to moderation. That is when I decided to raise this thread.
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Thanks @dalrock. I found the first comment that had to be moderated. Given that it was written quite some time after the last comment, and presumably from a different location, that’s probably why it was moderated. I’m not sure about the ones after that.
We did find in another thread that some folks only had issues when commenting from certain locations. Could that be the case here, too?
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I did an experiment last week of using a VPN from a bunch of different locations in Europe and the USA to leave comments on Dalrock’s blog, and they all went into moderation.
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@greenlander1000 Did you try commenting twice from the same location and allowing an approval in between?
Also, do you always use a VPN when commenting or was that only for the experiment?
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