Restrict commenting in Wordpress

April 23, 2008 | 2 Comments

Recently, I received a request from a reader about limiting commenting on her multi-author WordPress blog. Specifically, she wanted to enable commenting for her authors, but prevent the general public from leaving comments. Here’s how we accomplished that.

The idea is to give registered users permission to leave a comment, but limit who is able to become a registered user. The first step is to create user accounts for your authors manually.

  1. Login to your WordPress control panel.
  2. Click “Users”
  3. Create an account for each author
  4. In the drop-down menu labeled “Role”, select “Author”.

Once you’ve done this for each author, it’s time for step two.

  1. In your control panel, click “Settings.”
  2. Under “General Settings” you’ll see “Membership.” DE-select “Anyone can register” and select “Users must be registered and logged in to comment.”

Don’t forget to save your changes at the bottom of the screen! Now, the authors you created earlier can comment on any post, and everyone else can read comments only.

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Posted by Dave | Filed Under Blog, blogging