Comments attached to wrong page or post

  • accessiblenorth · Member ·

    Readers sometimes attach their comments to the wrong post by mistake. (See comment attached to “About” page on http://torchlakeviews.wordpress.com/ – should have been attached to “Promise of Spring” post instead.) Is there a way to edit the comment to put it in the logical place? Thanks – Gerry

  • cjwriter · Member ·

    You can’t change which post a comment is attached to, but if you go to Dashboard > Comments you can get the email address and username. Then you can make a new comment on the right post and just copy the details in. It might not have an avatar but in all other ways it will look like they posted it. Hope that helps.

  • accessiblenorth · Member ·

    Thanks for the tip, cjwriter. I just got around to looking at it. I tried the technique, and it does work, but the fact that it works gives me pause. Even thought the recreated comment is traceable to the re-creator (in this case, me) it’s also clear that people could create malicious mischief in this fashion. Anyone have any wisdom on the subject?

  • cjwriter · Member ·

    That’s something that’s concerned me too. But to be honest anyone can impersonate someone else these days; if you know someone uses a set username, by logging out and calling yourself the same name it’s hard for someone to tell you apart.

    One thing I do is to use a unique email, usually a gmail address and often I’ll add a + sequence to it; that means few people have my original address but all my mail still goes there. It gives me some anonymity. If someone has a unique avatar or gravatar, that can create a difference as well – people recognise the avatar and know it’s you when you post.
    http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/why-must-my-e-mail-address-be-unique/

    Moderating comments can help as well, at least for your own blog; if you set it up so the first comment has to be approved, then you can check out any suspicious ones first. Other than that, though, it’s really just one of those things that we can’t do much about… it’s just a part of life online. Overall I think we still have a lot more to gain than we risk. :)

  • accessiblenorth · Member ·

    All true. I moderate posts on my blogs, but I see now that there is still room for mischief. Online as in life, eh?

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