Visitor is blocked from commenting on my blog – why?

janeadamsart · Member · Oct 31, 2015 at 9:55 am
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A friend who has participated in my blog, and commented several times, now finds himself ‘refused entry’ by WordPress – which is ridiculous.

There may be others who also can’t get through the screen? although some readers do succeed in commenting on my blog without trouble, even if they are new ones.

What can I do – or what can you do, to make my blog more visitor friendly? Thank you for your attention.

The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
gregwp · Member · Oct 31, 2015 at 11:41 pm
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Hi,

Can you tell me a little more about the ‘refused entry’ bit? Are their comments just not being accepted, going to the spam folder, etc? Do you have an exact error message from the user, if there is one?
janeadamsart · Member · Nov 1, 2015 at 12:28 am
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Hello, thanks for your reply. I have asked my friend to email to me what happens when he tries to comment. It doesn’t go to spam folder or anything like that – as far as I know, wordpress prevents him from commenting at all, and I think other readers have had difficulty also. I will post here as soon as I hear from my friend.
janeadamsart · Member · Nov 1, 2015 at 11:21 am
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This is what my friend Kevan Myers says:
“They refuse all variations of the password which I religiously recorded when I first signed up. Gawd knows why a password should be necessary to send a simple message!”

This is awful, isn’t it? Why is a password necessary at all – particularly if wordpress automatically blocks it anyway. I wonder how many genuine commenters are getting stuck, and just giving up? – Could he have mistakenly been sent into the spam folder? Occasionally a genuine message falls in there.

Please PLEASE reconnect Kevan as persona very much grata.

He is an old friend of my blog – here is the link: https://janeadamsart.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/love-letters-with-a-dancing-yeti/comment-page-1/#comment-7864

Thank you.
chrisrudzki · Member · Nov 3, 2015 at 9:00 pm
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If the password isn’t working, I recommend you ask him to try resetting it:
https://en.wordpress.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword

It may be that he’s trying to sign in with the wrong WordPress.com account, or an account tied to a specific WordPress site.

We only prompt users for their WordPress.com credentials, if they’re commenting with an email address that’s tied to an existing WordPress.com account. That’s to help prevent impersonation, where possible.
janeadamsart · Member · Nov 5, 2015 at 6:22 pm
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@gregwp and @chrisrudzki – thank you both for your attempts to help. I copied all your advice to Kevan. Today he writes:

Here is a copy of the e I just sent to WordPress, hoping they can read:

Your site seems to me idiotic. Every time I try to reset my password or get a new one your site demands that I enter the old one that does not work. God knows how much business you have lost with such idiocy. Kevan Myers (email: […]

On 5 November 2015 at 17:36, Kevan Myers […] wrote:
Dear Jane , They are totally ridiculous. I use the ce code you gave me and tap in my email. Underneath I tap on “lost your password” and it promptly sends me to a new page where it asks for my email AND THE Password I’ve just told them I’ve lost. So when I try the old one again they reject it. Beats me. Kev

This catch22 setup is absurdly frustrating. Can you please contact him and sort it out as soon as possible – and keep me informed! Thank you.
chrisrudzki · Member · Nov 5, 2015 at 6:37 pm
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I recommend you have him contact us directly at help (at) wordpress.com, so that we can sort this out. Thanks!
janeadamsart · Member · Nov 7, 2015 at 11:41 am
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I paste here my friend’s latest effort to follow your instructions as above – and the obstructions! I feel very sad about this. He and I have collaborated in my blog. Why can’t you help?

He now says, “I’ve tried again and again. There appears to be no route to help on which I could express my problem. Only lists of topics with suggested solutions, including the one that does not work again and again. You tap the key which says “lost password” and the prompt which follows it demands you enter the password they’ve rejected. I am sure this site has brought you much joy. Good luck with it. I’m not wasting any more time trying to send comments through it, so assume silent approval.”

Please resolve this.
chrisrudzki · Member · Nov 9, 2015 at 4:54 pm
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Since this is a sensitive issue, we need to sort this out with the user themselves.
janeadamsart · Member · Nov 9, 2015 at 5:01 pm
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Thank you. How can I put you in touch with him?
chrisrudzki · Member · Nov 9, 2015 at 5:17 pm
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You can have him contact us directly at help (at) wordpress.com

Thanks!
janeadamsart · Member · Nov 9, 2015 at 5:56 pm
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Can he email you there and get an answer from someone?

I gathered from his letter (above) that he had tried to do this, as I suggested – and as you suggested (see thread), but then he was routed into the password system again, which doesn’t work for him. Thanks.
chrisrudzki · Member · Nov 9, 2015 at 8:13 pm
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Yep! We’ll sort it out when he reaches out.

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