Changing Comment Settings

By default, WordPress requires comment authors to provide an email address. So your only option would be to look for a plugin that removes the mandatory email address requirement.

I would suggest not trying to disable this. You want to know who is commenting on your website to help reduce comment spam. Try not to look at it as asking for too much information, but more of a security measure for your website. By disabling it, you are opening yourself to a world of hurt with comment spam. People understand that it’s required and really don’t have a problem entering it.

I can understand the security issues, and I think having a name, email, and IP address logged is great.

My problem is with the Url box. It confuses people that don’t have a website and I’d like to remove it but don’t know how.

At the moment I’ve got the “Comment author must fill out name and e-mail” box ticked, but it also adds an “Url” box. How do I keep the remainder but take the url part away?

If you want to change your theme files, open the comments.php file and look for something like this:

<p><input type=”text” name=”url” id=”url” value=”<?php echo $comment_author_url; ?>” size=”22″ tabindex=”3″ />
<label for=”url”><small><?php _e(“Website”, ‘studiopress’); ?></small></label></p>

Notice where the <p> starts and the </p> ends.

You can uncomment it out by doing the following:

<!– <p><input type=”text” name=”url” id=”url” value=”<?php echo $comment_author_url; ?>” size=”22″ tabindex=”3″ />
<label for=”url”><small><?php _e(“Website”, ‘studiopress’); ?></small></label></p> –>

This will make it so that box does not show on your form, but keeps the code there in case you ever want to use that feature.

I hope that helps.

Great. Worked a treat. Thanks.

I commented out the URL box on the comment form in comments.php as described, however, most of the comments submitted still have a URL, as least when they show up in the moderation panel. How can this be happening? How can I get rid of the URL altogether?