Comments

What comments are

Readers can comment on the web version of your posts. Only signed-in subscribers can comment or like comments, and a comment can be up to 5,000 characters. Readers can reply to each other and delete their own comments.

Comments are off until you turn them on. Open the builder (Website, Edit website), click Settings, then Comments, and turn on Enable comments. You can also turn comments off for a single post in that post's web settings. A post shows comments only when both are on.

To open the comments page, go to Website and click Manage comments. It has three tabs: Inbox, Insights and Settings.

Inbox

The inbox has three columns: the queues, the list of comments, and the comment you're looking at.

Queues

The number beside each queue counts every comment in it.

Use Search comments, readers or posts to find something, and sort by Newest first, Oldest first or Most liked.

Reviewing a comment

Click a comment to see it in full, with the rest of its thread and the reader's history with you: how many Comments they've written, and how many are Approved and Pending. A reply is marked Reply.

From there you can:

• Approve: show it on your site.
• Hide: take it off your site. You can approve it again later.
• Ban author: see below.
• Delete permanently: removes the comment for everyone. This can't be undone. Use Hide unless you need it gone for good.

Acting on several at once

Tick the comments you want, or tick the box at the top to select everything in the queue, then click Approve or Hide. Only comments you can see in the current queue are included.

The list shows the 500 most recent comments. The counts beside each queue still cover all of them.

Banning a reader

Ban author opens Ban reader. A banned reader keeps their subscription, but can't post or edit comments on your site any more. Their existing comments stay as they are, so hide them separately if they should come down.

You can add an optional reason. Only your team sees it.

Insights

Pick a period with the toggle to see:

• Awaiting review: comments held back until someone decides.
• Published: comments currently visible to readers.
• Approval rate: of the comments that have been reviewed, the share left visible.
• Average time to decide: from a comment arriving to its status changing. It only counts comments that have been acted on.
• Comment volume: what arrived each day, with how much was approved and how much is still pending.
• Top commenters: the readers carrying the conversation.
• Most discussed posts: where the conversation is happening.
• Queue breakdown: how this period's comments were dealt with.
• Recent decisions: the last few comments to have their status changed.

Settings

Reader experience

This shows whether comments are on, their order, the edit window and reader notifications. These are changed in the builder's settings, so click Edit in site settings to change them. If comments are off, nothing new reaches your queue.

Moderation rules

These decide what publishes straight away and what waits for you. Click Save to apply them.

• Hold new comments for review: nothing appears on your site until you approve it.
• Let returning readers skip the queue: readers who have had a comment published before go straight on to the site. This only applies while new comments are held for review.
• Links allowed per comment: a comment with more links than this is held for review. Set 0 to hold any comment with a link. The highest you can set is 50. The default is 2.
• Blocked words: a comment containing any of these words or phrases is held for review instead of publishing. Type one and click Add. Blocked words save with the moderation rules.

A comment that breaks a rule is held, never rejected, so you can still approve it. Blocked words and link limits apply to everyone, including returning readers.

Blocked words match whole words only, and ignore capital letters. Blocking "spam" holds "Spam!" but not "spammer". A link means a web address starting with http://, https:// or www..

Banned readers

Banned readers lists everyone you've banned, with the reason if one was given. Click Unban to let a reader comment again.

Troubleshooting

Readers can't see a comment box: check Enable comments is on in the builder's settings, and that comments aren't turned off for that post.

A comment didn't appear on my site: look in Pending. It may have been held by Hold new comments for review, a blocked word or the link limit.

A banned reader's old comments are still showing: banning only stops new comments. Hide the old ones from the inbox.

A reader says they can't comment: they need to be signed in as a subscriber. If they've been banned, they'll see that they're no longer able to comment.