Remove all possibility to comment

dingbat
(@dingbat)

17 years, 1 month ago

I am trying to remove all the comments feature completely. All of my posts have “allow comments” disabled. I have also set “Users must be registered and logged in to comment” and I have also deleted one of the comments php files but none of this helps. Comments (spam comments) are being posted. They don’t appear as I have all comments set for approval but I have to delete them every time and I’m hit with the emails all day.

Where are these comments coming from? How can someone post comments with all of these options disabled? Could they be using an link that they had when comments were enabled? Is this happening through the trackback?

I don’t want the comments feature at all – I want to completely delete it from my WordPress. Does anyone know of a way to do this?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

jetshack
(@jetshack)

17 years, 1 month ago

first suggestion would be not to disable comments but to use something like akismet…

if that’s not what you want, pull out the calls to comments out of your template files

cnymike
(@cnymike)

17 years, 1 month ago

It’s been suggested that by removing wp-comments-post.php that spambots that access that file directly will be stopped dead in their tracks. Of course, so will everyone else.

I presume that spambots access this file directly because it’s well known that that is in fact the default installation name of that file… but wouldn’t changing the name of the file and the calls to that file effectively stop the spambots while allowing all legitimate users to post comments? I’m sure the spambots might catch on after some period of time, but it wouldn’t be that big of a deal to periodically change the name to deter the spambots.

Is this correct thinking or just a waste of time?

cnymike
(@cnymike)

17 years, 1 month ago

Follow up…

I have actually removed the wp-comments-post.php file from my blog directory and yet I am -still- seeing spam end up in my moderation queue from akismet. How is this possible? I thought by removing wp-comments-post.php it would be impossible for any comments to be made. What is the explanation for this? Is there no way to cut this crap off once and for all?

msadventures
(@msadventures)

17 years, 1 month ago

The Spam Karma and Bad Behavior plugins are excellent. I have only used those two programs, have never used Akismet, and have had next to no issues with spam. Get those installed and activated until you get things figured out.

vkaryl
(@vkaryl)

17 years, 1 month ago

It’s not comments, it’s trackback spam. Taking all the comment calls and files out won’t help one bit. Only thing that helps is using the spam plugins.

cnymike
(@cnymike)

17 years, 1 month ago

Well, I took out the wp-trackback.php file and that seems to have put an end to it.

By the way, Akismet was catching all the spam but I’m getting upwards of 400-700 per day and I’ve just had it. I’m sick and tired of seeing it every single day.

I also had Bad Behavior installed and it was only stopping a small fraction of what Akismet was stopping.

Any other plugins you can recommend?

How exactly does trackback spam work anyway?

msadventures
(@msadventures)

17 years, 1 month ago

Use more than just one spam blocker, and make sure you’re using the latest versions. Like I said, Spam Karma is excellent.

whooami
(@whooami)

17 years, 1 month ago

>How exactly does trackback spam work anyway?

a spammer sends a trackback to a post. its pretty straight forward.

without a wp-trackback.php on the other side to answer, they will get a 404.