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Disallow subscriptions to comments to the posts

  1. 5700words
    Member

    On my new “Misty Look” template I went to Settings > Discussions and opted NOT to allow subscriptions to Comments. To the posts, yes, but to the Comments, no.

    The thing is, the “Misty Look” automatically has two icons at the top right of the blog homepage: One for posts and the other for Comments. To experiment, I clicked onto the Comments icon, and to my dismay I saw that it works well for me and therefore might work well for ohers who might want to subscribe to people's comments.

    What can I do to allow subscriptions to the posts but not to the comments?

    lornakismet
    http://lornakismet.wordpress.com

    The blog I need help with is lornakismet.wordpress.com.

  2. thesacredpath
    Member

    The setting under settings > discussion is for allowing someone to subscribe to the comments of a particular post.

    The subscribe to comments link at the top right is to subscribe to all comments on the blog.

    You can switch to a different theme which does not have the comments subscription link showing, but anyone familiar with RSS at wordpress will know what the comment RSS link would be.

  3. 5700words
    Member

    Wait.....
    In Misty Look, Settings>Discussions, there is a box that one can check to NOT ALLOW for a feed on Comments. I checked that box. Since it was written into the Misty Look template, I figure that the template does allow for that deviation.

    So given that apparently Misty Look gives me the option to disallow the subscription of Comments, what should I do? Or could it be that although the RSS COMMENTS icon shows up, it will not work even if people click onto it? If so, that would possibly anger some readers who are expecting an RSS feed of the comments but do not get it.

    lornakismet
    http://lornareiko.wordpress.com

  4. 5700words
    Member

    Here is a screen shot of how I de-selected the ”Allow feed on Comments: option:

    http://lornareiko.wordpress.com/files/2009/10/discussion-settings-e280b9-5700-e28094-wordpress.jpg

    Lorna

  5. raincoaster
    Member

    Disallowing Subscribe to Comments will DEFINITELY lose you readers.

  6. 5700words
    Member

    Why would that be so???? Disallowing a comments subscription is not as bad as disallowing a post subscription (as I see it). I am speaking only from the way I see it, though, and I have no experience backing me up, so I welcome being taught something!!!

    lornakismet
    ____________________________________

  7. thesacredpath
    Member

    We're talking about two different things here.

    The link at the top of the blog for subscribing to comments is to subscribe to the comments of the ENTIRE blog - all posts and pages. That is NOT controlled by the "Subscribe to comments setting at settings > reading.

    The "Subscribe to comments setting at settings > reading controls whether the checkbox shows under the comment box on individual posts and pages so that the commenter can subscribe to the comments for that SINGLE page or post. See this support document http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/discussion-settings/ under "subscribe to comments" where it says:

    Subscribe to Comments will make a checkbox appear below the comment form on your blog. When visitors check the Notify me of followup comments via email checkbox when they submit a comment, they will receive an email notification every time someone else leaves a comment on that post. Subscribe to Comments is on by default. You can turn it off here:

  8. thesacredpath
    Member

    My references above should be to settings > discussion, not settings > reading.

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    The reason disallowing that option will cost you readers is that readers are actually far more interested in what THEY have said, and what people have replied to them, than they are in what YOU have said.

    Also, every time you reduce the number of ways people can look at your blog, you reduce the number of people who want to. Some people have favorite ways of following blogs and if you render it impossible for them, they will not email you and politely request that you change it; they will go read one of the two hundred million other blogs out there

    You are perfectly within your rights to do whatever you want in terms of deleting ways people can read your blog. But you wanted to know what impact that would have in terms of readership. So now you know.

  10. 5700words
    Member

    To Sacred Path..... That cleared it up for me. I did not see that the Settings>Discussions was for getting a feed only for that particular post. Wow.

    But let's say for the sake of clarity that I don't mind a person subscribing to the Comments of one particular post, but I do not want people to be getting feeds all of the Comments to all the posts. What would I do with my Misty Look template? Nothing? Something?

    ____________________________________

    To Raincoaster...... Thanks for making it clear, or clearer. I was thinking all the comments of all the posts rather than comments feed from one post.

    ____________________________________

    lornakismet.........

  11. thesacredpath
    Member

    You would have to have the CSS upgrade and CSS experience to hide it, but like I mentioned, all someone has to do is add comments/feed/ after your main blog URL and they would have your comments feed. There is no way to turn off the comments feed except to make your blog private - which will also cut off the post feed as well.

    As raincoaster said, the best way to keep people following your blog is to give them options for doing so, and the more options you can give them the more likely people are to follow what is going on on your blog.

  12. 5700words
    Member

    Aha! Your first paragraph answered my question! Thank you. So no matter what I do to make Comments feed inaccessible, the visitor can figure out how to get a comments feed all on his own.

    And the thing about making it pleasing for visitors to come back by providing for comment feeds........ that is a separate issue.

    I do not want to lose viewers, so I will not disallow the comments, but, as you said, Sacred Path: No matter what I do anyhow, the astute viewer will find a way. (Clearly I am not counted amongst those more astute viewers. ) :-)

    lornakismet

  13. thesacredpath
    Member

    You are welcome, and we are all learning all the time. It never stops. I just had to back up and reorganize an entire site because I THOUGHT I had a clear understanding of the CMS package we're using and I did not.

  14. 5700words
    Member

    Ogawd....... I don't even know what CMS means. :-)
    So much to learn, so little time. Tick tock tick tock.................

    lornakismet

  15. schoolfinder72
    Member

    Just speaking as a person who enjoys commenting and can't always remember where all my comments have been, it's nice to be able to check that "E-mail when new comments appear" or whatever the box says so that say the author doesn't get back to you for another week, or another reader comes along in two months and makes a follow-up comment, I get an e-mail telling me to check it out.

  16. shimworld
    Member

    @ lornakismet

    You have a completely opposite requirement to mine. I SO want the "Notify me of follow-up comments via email" check box to appear but it's not showing on the P2 Theme as confirmed by friends in several countries regardless of IE or FireFox browser used. It's really weird.

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/missing-check-box-p2-theme-comments-notification?replies=1#post-390315

    It's as @raincoaster said .. disabling this puts your blog at a disadvantage and I want to allow my readers to be able to follow-up their comments. without this it's difficult to participate in a discussion if we cannot remember which blog we ha d made comments.

  17. 5700words
    Member

    Well, what I learned from this is that I would be wise to allow for the maximum dispersal of whatever shows up on my blog, so that is what I did. :-)

    I am so grateful to everyone here who took the time to leave a comment. They are helpful to me.

    lornakismet

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