Comments on: The Comment Inbox

By: The WordPress Podcast » Episode 39: WordPress 2.5 released - Live from WordCamp Dallas

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:28:54 +0000

[...] Jaquith discusses the genesis of his Comment Inbox plugin. Lorelle chimes in with Comment Ninja, a Firefox Greasemonkey [...]

By: fizik

fizik — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:44:48 +0000

Thanks.Great idea and plug-in

By: sunburntkamel

sunburntkamel — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:49:15 +0000

+1 at ryan -
Not just for troll comments, but for off topic comments. Suspected spammers, too: I don’t want to delete/spam them if i’m not sure.

By: Ryan Cullen

Ryan Cullen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:24:25 +0000

Mark, I like the idea of a column containing comment_read. This would allow me to keep all the trolls comments as evidence, but without anyone else seeing them.

By: Ochim

Ochim — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:20:50 +0000

a great and smart idea,
i try to install really i curious

regard

By: aw

aw — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:59:20 +0000

Great idea and great plug-in

By: Chip Bennett

Chip Bennett — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:19:59 +0000

Mark, that sounds good (I think, if I’m understanding correctly) - provided that the UI (unread comments tab) allows for (optionally) replying to comments, I think it captures everything.

By: Callum

Callum — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:28:27 +0000

Mark, I think you’re onto a winner. Sounds like an easy change that will add huge functionality. It’s so simple it seems obvious. Comments from yourself could automatically be marked read of course!

By: Mark Jaquith

Mark Jaquith — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:20:17 +0000

I’ve been thinking about the criticisms and think I have a way that this could be integrated into WordPress core while addressing those criticisms:

A new column on the comment table: comment_read with values of 1 or 0. There would be a new “Unread comments” tab. Performing any action on the comment (spam, bacn, approve) would also mark the comment as read. This could work in conjunction with wither pre-moderation or post-moderation. The moderation queue would only show unapproved and unread comments. This would give people a way to store bacn comments (just unapprove it) without cluttering up their moderation queue. Thoughts?

By: Jermayn Parker

Jermayn Parker — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:02:07 +0000

Yes it sounds good and WP could well do with a feature like this.

By: Gurdit

Gurdit — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:24:32 +0000

Brilliant idea mate!
I’m going to install this

By: Callum

Callum — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:26:21 +0000

Hahaha, how ironic that your post should be followed by a spam comment Chip!

I agree. Personally, I hold a lot of comments for moderation before they’re shown on the site, so Mark’s plugin won’t work for me. My suggestions related more to the idea of implementing comment handling changes into core. I think it would be great if you could disable email notifications and manage all comments from one dashboard (or even RSS, to allow many blogs to be managed from one place).

By: Chip Bennett

Chip Bennett — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:33:01 +0000

Thanks, Callum.

To clarify my previous comment, I think the idea to have a central place to handle all comment-related activities (admin or author) is a great idea, but it seems that Mark’s suggestion requires a loss of admin functionality.

I can’t speak for most (or anyone other than myself), but I know that I could not give up comment moderation simply to be able to ensure that I have “handled” all comments.

I would rather keep my comment moderation working the way it does currently while resorting to using email notification of new comments as a means to ensure I “handle” all comments, than give up comment moderation in order to have an admin interface for “handling” comments.

Personally, I would think that most users would fall into the same category. (I base this assumption on my own experience. I have a very small blog, but even mine attracts spammers, squatters, and the like. I can’t imagine that anyone with greater readership would have *less* of such issues that necessitate comment moderation.)

By: Callum

Callum — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:35:44 +0000

Chip, that sounds like an excellent suggestion. While I agree with your separation of activities, I would suggest that a large number of users will perform both the administration and author functions simultaneously. I think the ideal scenario lies in combining your suggestions with Mark’s.

By: Chip Bennett

Chip Bennett — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:15:03 +0000

My problem with this idea is that it combines two activities in a way that benefits neither.

Comment moderation is an administrative function; comment replying is an author function. I don’t understand the need to hack the former in order to perform the latter.

Comment moderation activities include approving, unapproving, marking as spam, and deleting. Comment replying activities include replying and not replying.

Why not add another sub-page to the Comment menu, into which all new (approved) comments are placed? With each comment are two options: reply and archive. Selecting reply will open a comment box for replying, and a submit button for publishing the comment. Either submitting a comment or selecting “do not reply” will clear the comment from the page.

Thus, the comment administration (moderation) functions (and functionality) remain unchanged, while the author has a means to review all comments in order to determine whether or not to reply.