Current version: 2.5

One feature which is conspicuously absent from WordPress is the ability to switch comments on or off for all posts. Under the Options > Discussion page, you can switch the default setting for comments on or off, but that only applies to posts you make from that point forward.

You can disable comments on individual posts, but if you’ve got more than twenty posts, this takes ages! This plugin allows you to quickly and easily switch comments (and trackbacks/pingbacks) on or off with a single click.

Extended Comment Options 2.5 has been tested on WordPress versions 2.7. Support for versions below this cannot be guaranteed. Upgrading to the latest version of WordPress is always recommended.

FAQ: Hidden Comments

Does your plugin hide comments already on my posts?

No. If you find comments being hidden after they have been closed, it is likely that your theme (i.e. the design of your blog) is hiding comments as a result of comments being opened/closed on posts. You can contact the author of the theme to see if they’ll correct this problem.

Instructions

The plugin adds a page under “Comments” called “Batch Status”. All the settings are available from this page.

Select whether you want to open or close comments — and whether
you want this to apply to comments, pings, or both.

In the “Which posts?” section, you can choose which groups of posts you want to affect.

You can choose

  1. All posts
  2. Posts made before or after a certain date.
  3. All but the last X posts, or days, weeks, months or years.
  4. Posts with more than X comments.

These options can also be applied automatically — so you can set it once and forget about it.

Excluding posts

You can select posts that this plugin shouldn’t touch.

Results

If everything has gone well, the plugin will display a brief summary of what you asked it to do. You can use this to check that it’s done what you wanted it to do.

Installation

Extended Comment Options is installed like any other WordPress plugin. Download the .zip file from the WordPress plugins page, and extract it. Place the file named “commentcontrol.php” in your wp-content/plugins directory, and activate it in the usual way from the “Plugins” page in your admin area.

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/extended-comment-options/

Upgrading

Upgrading is really easy. Just overwrite the commentcontrol.php file with the new version. You may need to re-activate the plugin from your admin area.

Recent versions of WordPress allow you to upgrade automatically from within your admin area.

Support and Future versions

Feature requests are always more than welcome.

I’m happy to provide support for this plugin. You can leave a comment on this page or email me at beingmrkenny@gmail.com.

Version History

Current Version: 2.5

Tuesday 21st April, 2009

  • Simpler admin: removed advanced/simple separation, made excluding posts easier.
  • Fixed bugs with auto mode.
  • Updated for 2.7.

Version 2.0

Monday 10th January, 2008

  • Added a new option: “When number of comments reaches a certain number”
  • Major new feature: automatically close comments. So you can set comments to close on posts older than 30 days, and it’ll update automatically each day.
  • Polished a few of the messages, made them easier to understand. Also reworded the admin interface to make it easier to understand.
  • Behind the scenes: security is tighter. Also dates are calculated differently: One month ago from the 10th Jan is the 10th Dec. One year ago from 10th Jan 2008 is 10th Jan 2007, instead of being counted as everything beyond the current year.

Version 1.2

Friday 21st September, 2007

  • The page now shows up under the “Comments” menu in WordPress, as opposed to the “Options” menu.
  • The plugin now reports which posts were not affected (if selected) a lot more efficiently.
  • The “Simple settings” options were previously changing the excluded posts setting. This is now no longer the case.
  • Now supports more recent versions of WordPress (v 2.2) — specifically, it only affects published posts, no longer pages.

Version 1.1

Tuesday 25th July, 2006

  • Tightened security
  • “Last X posts” — fixed bug arising when X was greater than total number of posts!
  • Compatible with WordPress v1.5.2.

Version 1.0

Saturday 22nd July, 2006

  • Extended Comment Options first released!