The first thing to do is turn off the commenting feature. In Settings>Discussion uncheck the allow comments on new posts. Check the automatically close comments box and set the days to 0 to disable comments on existing posts.
If you do not need to let legitimate visitors make comments, you’re done. If you still want to allow comments, you will need a good anti-spam plugin. There are several available that use various techniques to filter out spam. The Askimet plugin that is part of your base installation is one option. Even with a good plugin, you will still get comment spam, but hopefully it will be kept to a manageable level.
Duh!!! Where do I find “settings and discussion”??? I’ve looked at the website and can’t locate it. Even the searching bar does not bring it up.
Thanks for your help!
When you log into your site you should see the “Dashboard”. Plugins or themes can change this, but that is the default behavior. On the menu on the left at the bottom is a “Settings” pick. If you hover over that, the flyout menu has the “Discussion” pick.
If you don’t get sent to the dashboard after logging in, enter a URL similar to this in your browser’s address bar:
www.yourdomain.com/path-to-wp/wp-admin/options-discussion.php
This will open the proper page with the checkboxes I referred to.
