Yeah... I've tried all sortsa things to no avail. I might give up; for the moment at least.

A bundle of thanks, though, for following up on this and for the effort too. Shall post it if I do find any other possible solutions float'n 'round.

Cheers!

I did try playing around with it a little bit, and I couldn't figure out a way to get it to work. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful!

See the code (graciously) provided here: http://cssdeck.com/labs/css-only-showhide

I've been busy figuring out how to create a button event that will make visible a otherwise hidden comment section. But...

Maybe this code triggers a more precise methodology among yous?

... would save me many more diverted hours of wilful but ill-equipped determination for my part ... *sigh* of exasperation.

:)

Just want to say 'thanx' again and let you know I'll keep playing with it awhile and see what I come with. Shall bring it here if/when seems close to someth'n that might work... :)

#comments .commentlist {
	display: none;
}
#comments:hover .commentlist {
	display: block;
}

Great question and nice work finding a good tutorial btw. :)

I did come across this: http://www.xpertdeveloper.com/2010/12/pure-css-hide-and-display-html-elements-without-javascript/

Haven't yet wrapped my head around how I would adapt it, though, to work with the .com platform / theme code... And, as noted, not convinced it's possible.

Would you mind at all to look at it? In case it rings bells for you after all... I'm not exactly an 'expert' :)

Do you see what I mean by show / hide and not disable?

I see now. I took it more literally at first, but now I see that you want a way to let the users either click out to the comments separately or make it so the comments don't show up unless they click on something.

I know we can't use javascript (have already looked this all up) but am wondering if there is a css work-around for this?

In order to make something like that happen with a click event, you would either need to use JavaScript or have access to edit the theme PHP code in the case you wanted the comments to only load on a page load that is separate from the original post.

There isn't anything built in to WordPress or WordPress.com for either of those options, but you could custom code something like that if you wanted to switch to a WordPress.org setup and get full control to edit or add code.

Do you see what I mean by show / hide and not disable?

The code above hides, but doesn't provide any indication there is a comment section to contribute to, and no access in the case they wish to discuss. (but thanks for code / helpfulness nonetheless :)

I know we can't use javascript (have already looked this all up) but am wondering if there is a css work-around for this?

Thanx again and in advance.

To hide comments in The Columnist theme, add this to your Appearance → Custom Design → CSS editor:

#comments .comments-title,
#comments .commentlist {
	display: none;
}

Seems like theme has the visibility of comments built-in and I'm not interested in disabling the comment sections (as per the setting options provided). Want to keep the option meanwhile changing the initial visibility.

... Not sure if I'm clarifying or complicating in my effort to explain... :)