Managing Comments

How do I manage comments?

Answer

TypePad gives you powerful controls for managing reader comments posted to your weblog. You can establish who posts comments and make sure all commenters are authenticated for security purposes. You can also control when and how comments are published by Setting Your Weblog Comment and TrackBack Preferences. To enable the comments feature, see Enabling Comments on Your Posts.
To manage comments, click the Comments link from the Home or Weblogs tab to go to the List Comments page.
List Comments Screen
The List Comments screen displays all comments that have been posted by readers to your weblog. Comments are arranged in a list that details:
Status - the status of the comment indicated by an icon. A comment is unpublished when the icon is displayed. The icon indicates the comment has been published.
Comment - title of reader's comment which is taken from the first few words of the comment.
Author - name of reader who made comment. If the author has been authenticated, an icon appears next to the name.
On Post - post for which reader made a comment.
Date - date of comment.
The number of comments displayed on the page can be 5, 20, or 50. The default setting is 20 which can be changed by clicking the Change link at the end of the page and clicking 5 or 50.

Organizing Comments by Filters
To organize your comments:
Click the Change link to the right of Filter to open the drop-down menu.

Choose a filter option from the drop-down list box. You can filter by Email, Author, or IP Address.
Type a filter value in the text box next to the filter option drop-down list box. For example, if you want to see all comments posted by genericuser@isp.com, type genericuser@isp.com.

Click Filter. Your comments list will re-appear according to your filter options. To clear your results, click Reset or click Change to select a new Filter.
Performing Management Tasks
You can perform management tasks directly from the List Comments screen by clicking individual items from the comments list. A task shortcut drop-down menu appears with customized options depending on the list item.
Below are task details for each comment list header:
Comment
The comment details appear, including an excerpt of the comment and its status (published or unpublished). You can change the publishing status by clicking Unpublish or Publish (only one option appears depending upon its corresponding status). You can delete the comment by clicking Delete. To edit the comment, click Edit Comment to go to the Edit Comment page. After making changes to the comment, click Save Changes.

Author
To see all comments by this author, click the View all comments link. If the author is authenticated, you can view his or her profile, by clicking View Profile. If the author is not authenticated, you have the option to ban all comments originating from the author's IP address.
If new comments are automatically published, you can change this option by clicking Set to: Hold for Approval (for authors who require authentication, an icon appears when you select this option, meaning the author is blocked from commenting without your approval). If new comments are already set to hold for approval, you must change this option by going to Weblogs > Configure > Feedback.
You can also ban comments by IP Address directly by clicking the 'Click here to ban all comments from...' link. More information is available in the Banning a Commenter article.
On Post
To see all comments on this post, click the View all comments link. Click Close Comments to discontinue the option for future reader comments (previous comment postings are kept and published unless you unpublish or delete them). To edit this post directly, click Edit Post and you will go to the Edit Post screen.
Approving Comments
To select comments for approval, click the checkbox(es) next to each comment list item and click Approve. To approve all comments in bulk, click the checkbox to the left of the Comment list header and all checkboxes will automatically be selected. Then click Approve. When comments are approved, they are automatically published.
Deleting Comments
To select comments for deletion, click the checkbox(es) next to each comment list item and click Delete. To delete all comments in bulk, click the checkbox to the left of the Comment list header and all checkboxes will automatically be selected. Then click Delete.
Unpublishing Versus Deleting
When you unpublish a comment or TrackBack, the item will still exist on your listed comments or TrackBacks, but will not appear on your published weblog. You can still publish it again in the future.
When you delete a comment or TrackBack, it is permanently removed from your weblog as well as weblog management pages.
Reporting Spam
The "Report Spam" button will remove the comment from your blog and place it in the Spam folder. Click the checkboxes next to each junk comment and then click Report Spam to remove the comment and report it as spam.
More information on managing spam comments is available in the Comment and TrackBack Spam Folders article.