Commenter Tips

Here is a page of tips for people wanting to comment on our blogs.

Anyone can comment on any blog or page that is open to comments but we prefer that people register for the site first. See our User Tips page for how to do that.

You can comment either by filling in the form at the bottom of the blog post or clicking the “Reply” link to reply to an existing comment. Replies to replies to comments are nested up to a maximum of 10 comments deep (this limit is to stop the thread disappearing off the right hand edge of narrow displays like a mobile phone).

Our site uses a commenting plug-in called Simple Comment Editing to supplement the standard WordPress behaviour, which doesn’t allow comments to be changed once entered. It is configured to allow comments to be edited (or deleted) by the commenter for up to 12 hours after creating them, so you can fix any typos or mistakes in your comments.    However, we ask that this facility not be abused, particularly if there are replies criticizing or correcting what you have said.

The comment editor is a simple free text editor and provides no additional editing controls. However is is possible to make use of some standard HTML tags to modify text:

    • Use <b> to make the following text Bold, ending with </b>. Like this.
    • Use <i> to make the following text italicised, ending with </i>. Like this.
    • Use <s> to make text struck through, ending in </s>, Like this.
    • You can use these tags in any combination, e.g. Like this.
    • Note that the underline tag, <u> does not work (unless you have Admin or Editor privileges). This is, I think, to avoid confusion with hyperlinks.
    • Use the anchor tag <a> to include a hyperlink, e.g. <a href=”timesforthetimes.co.uk”> Times for The Times</a> or <a href=”timesforthetimes.co.uk” target= _blank> Times for The Times</a> to open in a new browser tab. Like this Times for The Times. Note that adding multiple links to your comments will cause them to be referred to an administrator for moderation. This is to prevent spam comments which typically have multiple links.

You can add emojis to your text, e.g. 😊, by cutting and pasting from elsewhere. On MS Windows you can open a palette to do so using the Windows key + ;.

By default, if you are a registered user, any replies to your comments will trigger a notification email to you. If you wish NOT to receive such emails you can opt out using our Comments Notifications form here.