You may want readers to be able to comment on your posts and/or pages, to promote greater interactivity. Here are three steps to get started:
- The basics of comments on your site are configured via Settings > Discussion; read this help page for detailed guidance. There are lots of settings! Make sure to give them the time they deserve. (One hint: “Allow people to post comments on new articles” will automatically enable comments on new posts.) Also, go on your dashboard to Genesis > Theme Settings, and under Comments and Trackbacks make sure comments are enabled on posts and/or pages.
- To check to see if a post is open for comments, edit it and under the Discussion metabox make sure “Allow comments” is checked. You may disable comments on any individual post/page this way as well. If a Discussion metabox does not readily appear, select Screen Options at the top of the page and check the Discussion box.
- You will notice that enabling comments only adds them to new posts, not old ones. To retroactively add comments to older posts you will have to edit it and select “Allow Comments.”
- Finally, make sure to routinely check Comments on your dashboard, as some valid comments may initially be marked as potential spam and you’ll need to approve them.
Here are some plugins and Jetpack modules you may wish to enable in order to provide for greater functionality and a better user experience during commenting; the most important ones are marked with a *.
- Admin Commenters Comments Count: For an easy way to know who is posting how many comments (e.g., if comments are a required part of a course), this plugin adds related info and links to native WordPress admin pages such as Comments.
- *Akismet: Akismet is a plugin that monitors for comment spam; it’s automatically enabled on your site, and when you activate Jetpack you’ll see it under the Jetpack dashboard menu. There are a few Akismet settings you may wish to edit.
- Author & Post Statistics Widget Pro: Though mostly for displaying popular authors/posts on a group site, authors/posts can be listed by number of comments.
- Conditional CAPTCHA: If you desire extra security, activate this comment spam plugin, which works in conjunction with Akismet and requires a CAPTCHA (that quick test of whether the user is a human being) of certain comments before posting.
- Decent Comments: A plugin with widget or shortcode options to list all recent comments.
- *Jetpack Comments: This module allows commenters (who are not typically logged into your site) to readily login via popular social media such as Facebook.
- *Jetpack Subscriptions: This module allows commenters to subscribe to (i.e., receive email notifications for) followup comments.
- Simple Top Commenters: A widget that lists top commenters on your site.
If you’re interested in supporting comments in a line-by-line or paragraph-by-paragraph manner, here are some options (note that they generally do not work with Jetpack Comments as recommended above; these are different solutions):
- Inline Comments. Inline Comments allows more detailed comments, generally in a paragraph by paragraph manner, then displays comments on the side next to related text. Basic documentation is here, and here are some pointers:
- Under Settings > Inline Comments > Basics tab, go to Selectors, and enter “.single .entry-content p, .single .entry-content img, .single .entry-content h2” (without quotes).
- Then for “Slide Site” Selector, enter “.site-container” (again without quotes).
- Go to the Styling tab, and for Position click Left; this puts comments in a better visual position to the left of paragraphs.
- CommentPress. If you’d like to do a full-on site devoted to comments (by word, sentence, etc.), CommentPress is the way to go; see here for full documentation and a sample site. CommentPress has its own theme which is installed when the plugin is activated. If you are interested in CommentPress, please contact the DS administrators for installation assistance.
- Google Docs Comments. Another really good option is to use the commenting features built into Google Docs and Sheets, then simply embed your Google document onto your site (only the document is displayed, not comments). For help on embedding Google documents on your site, see the Embed section of the links/feeds/embeds help page.
Comments are an important part of interacting with your readers on your DS site; make sure to give them the time they deserve! And remember that no one may know about your posts unless you broadcast them in some way.