FAQ - Comments

Comments enable other people to respond to your entries or to other comments associated with an entry.


ENABLING AND DISABLING COMMENTS

To enable or disable commenting in your journal, go to http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml and find the option labeled "Enable message boards". Selecting this option will enable comments; de-selecting it will disable them. (Note that when you change settings on this page, you need to save the changes by clicking the button labeled "Save Changes" toward the bottom of the page.) Here you can also set commenting options for your journal:

* Who can reply to your entries
* Whose IP addresses, if any, you want to log
* Which comments you want screened by default

It is also possible to disable commenting, disable comment notification e-mails, or change the screening options of an individual entry. (Disabling commenting, either for the entire journal or for a specific entry, will also hide any existing comments.) The full mode of the web interface allows you to change these settings as desired; it is also possible to edit entries to change one of the comment options. Many clients available for download include the ability to set security levels for journal entries. For more information on your preferred client, consult its documentation or its menu options.

It is not possible to selectively enable comments or notification e-mails if they have been globally disabled for that journal.


FINDING AND READING COMMENTS

Your journal and Friends page will indicate the number of comments on any given entry. However, this number does not include screened comments.

Journals can customize what the comment link says, but the default link is # comments with the # being replaced by the number of unscreened comments. This is also a link to the page where you can read the comments.

You can also choose to receive an e-mail notification anytime someone replies to one of your entries or comments. To do this, check the box next to "Get message board replies". You can also select whether you would like to receive plain text e-mails or HTML-enhanced ones. Paid, Permanent, and Early Adopter accounts can also receive notifications for comments that they write, by selecting the "Get comments you post e-mailed to you" option. This option is disabled for Free accounts; however, e-mail notifications for received comments is available to all account types.

If you have selected the option to receive comment e-mail notifications, but are still not receiving them, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=115 for information on why this problem may occur and how to resolve it.

The full version of your userinfo page shows the number of comments you have received and posted. The first number, Posted: X, represents the number of comments you have made in any journal with that username. The second number, Received: Y, represents the number of comments that have been made in your journal. Any comments that you post in your own journal add to both your Posted and Received counts.

You can also view your most recent comments at http://www.livejournal.com/tools/recent_comments.bml. Free accounts are able to see the last 10 comments they have posted in any journal or community and the last 10 comments they have received in their own journal. Paid, Permanent, and Early Adopter accounts can see the last 50 of each.


COMMENT THREADING

Comments are organized into threads; it is possible to reply directly to another comment, rather than just replying to the entry itself. A comment is considered a child of the parent comment (or entry) it is a direct reply to it.

The "thread" link associated with a particular comment will display a single comment thread: that particular comment, plus any descendents (children, or children of children). The "parent" link functions similarly, starting one level up: the parent of that particular comment, plus any descendents of the parent comment. This allows you to view, or link to, a single thread of comments. (Top-level comments, which are direct replies to the entry, do not have the "parent" link, as the entry itself is the parent.)

When there are at least 50 comments on a page, the comment threads will collapse, so lower-level child comments display as a link rather than the full comment. This behaviour is automatic, and thread collapse cannot be either prevented or triggered sooner.


FURTHER READING

Can I edit/delete/screen/freeze a comment I posted or that was posted in my journal?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=15

How do I control who can post comments in my journal?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23

What is Comment IP Logging? What do you mean, "this user is logging my IP address"?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=66

What is comment screening? How do I set my screening options?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=134

What is a downloadable client? Where can I get one?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=158

Update your journal on the web
http://www.livejournal.com/update.bml

Your journal
http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/

Your Friends page
http://www.livejournal.com/users/exampleusername/friends/

The full version of your userinfo page
http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=exampleusername&mode=full

Comment screening is a method of preventing abuse, which allows account holders to control the circumstances under which comments that are left in their journals are visible to their readers.

Screened comments appear only to the user who posted the entry, the person who posted the comment, and, if the entry was made in a community, the maintainer of that community. If you are not logged in (http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml) you will not to be able to see screened comments.
  
To set up your account's screening options, visit the Personal Info edit page (http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml), where there is an option labeled: "Which replies do you want screened by default?". In this drop down box, you can select the type of accounts you wish to screen. If instead you want to ban someone from commenting in your journal entirely, please read http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=20.

Once you have established these settings, comments made by users who fall into the category you have selected will be screened by default. When you view your Recent Entries page while logged in, the link indicating how many comments a journal entry has will only list the number of unscreened comments. If an entry has only screened comments, the link to read comments will appear with the entry, but it will indicate that there are 0 (zero) comments. This will not be visible to other people who view your Recent Entries page.

When you click on the link to view your journal entry, you will see the entry with all of its comments. If you are using the S1 style system, the title bar of an unscreened comment will have a blue background, while the title bar of a screened comment will have a grey background. If you are using the S2 style system, consult your "Customize" or "Edit Customizations" page (see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=170 for details) to see the colors for the title bars of screened and unscreened comments.

The comment screening options you select are not retroactive, which means you may need to manually screen or unscreen comments that were added before you made the changes to your account settings. Information on screening, unscreening, and deleting comments can be found at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=15.

Although journal entries can be edited or deleted, comments on journal entries can ONLY be deleted or screened, not edited.


DELETING COMMENTS

You can delete a comment if one of the following is true:

1) You posted the comment yourself. (You need to be logged in as the author of the comment.)
2) The comment is posted in your journal. (You need to be logged in as the owner of the journal.)
3) The comment is posted in a community journal which you maintain. (You need to be logged in as a maintainer of the community.)
4) The comment is posted to an entry you made in a community journal. (You need to be logged in as the author of the entry.)

To delete a comment, click the button with the red "X" on it. This will take you to a follow-up page, where you must confirm that you wish to delete the comment. You then have the option to delete the entire thread. If you select this option and then confirm, you will not only delete the comment in question, but all replies to that comment, replies to these replies, and so on. The next page you see should report that the deletion was successful.

You cannot delete anonymous comments that you post in other journals or communities. Only the author of the post (or the community maintainer) is able to delete anonymous comments. Once deleted, a comment can not be undeleted.


SCREENING COMMENTS

You can screen a comment if one of the following is true:

1) The comment is posted in your journal. (You need to be logged in as the owner of the journal.)
2) The comment is posted in a community journal which you maintain. (You need to be logged in as a maintainer of the community.)
3) The comment is posted to an entry you made in a community journal. (You need to be logged in as the author of the entry.)

To screen a comment, click the eye icon with the red line through it, and confirm your intention to screen the comment. If the screening is successful, you will be taken to a page that reports the success. To unscreen a screened comment, click the eye icon (which doesn't have a red line through it), and confirm your intention to unscreen the comment. Unlike deleting comments, it is not possible to screen or unscreen an entire thread at once.


FREEZING COMMENTS

Freezing a comment makes it impossible for anyone to reply to it anymore. You can freeze a comment if one of the following is true:

1) The comment is posted in your journal. (You need to be logged in as the owner of the journal.)
2) The comment is posted in a community journal which you maintain. (You need to be logged in as a maintainer of the community.)
3) The comment is posted to an entry you made in a community journal. (You need to be logged in as the author of the entry.)

To freeze a thread, click on the ice cube icon on the comment that started the thread, and confirm your intention to freeze the comment. If the freezing is successful, you will be taken to a page that reports the success. This will freeze the comment and all comments in its thread (that is, all replies to that comment, all replies to those replies, and so on). To unfreeze a thread and allow people to reply to the comments again, click on the ice cube icon with a red line through it, and confirm your intention to unfreeze. This will unfreeze the entire thread started by the comment in question, and not just the comment itself.

If you want to freeze the majority of a thread, but leave part of it unfrozen (that is, able to be replied to) you will first need to freeze the entire thread, and then unfreeze the part of the thread you want people to be able to reply to.


THE "MASS ACTION" OPTION

If you wish to delete, screen, or unscreen more than one comment at a time, you can use the "Mass Action" option at the bottom of the comment page. Select the comments you wish to perform the action upon by checking the boxes at the right of the eye icon, and then use the drop down box at the bottom of the page to select the action you wish to perform. Confirm your choice by clicking the "Perform Action" button. It is not possible to freeze or unfreeze comments in this way.

When you use the "Mass Action" option to screen comments, you will not see a confirmation box as you would if you chose to perform the actions on comments individually. However, you will see a confirmation box when choosing to mass-delete comments. Still, you should be cautious in using this option, as there is no way to retrieve comments once they have been deleted.


FURTHER READING

How do I edit or delete a journal entry I wrote?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=2

The Log In page
http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml.

What is comment screening? How do I set my screening options?
http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=134

If you're having problems with a certain user, but you'd still like to allow comments by other people who aren't on your Friends List, you can ban the specific user from posting comments in your journal. To be effective, you should also prevent anonymous commenting, as described in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=23.


BANNING A USER

* After you delete a comment from any LiveJournal user (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=15), a checkbox shows up that lets you ban them. If the checkbox is selected, that user will be unable to leave further comments in your journal.

* If you want to ban a specific LiveJournal user without having to delete one of their comments, you can ban them using the Admin Console (http://www.livejournal.com/admin/console/). First, make sure you are already logged in, then go to the console and enter this command:

ban_set <user>

Do not enter the < or > symbols; these are only for reference purposes. Replace <user> with the username of the person you want to ban.


UNBANNING A USER

* Go to http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml (where you can also control lots of other options). Look for the "Unban Users" section near the bottom of the page. Check off the username of the user you want to unban and click "Save Changes".

* You can also use the Admin Console (http://www.livejournal.com/admin/console/) to unban a user. First, make sure you are already logged in, then go to the console and enter this command:

ban_unset <user>

Do not enter the < or > symbols; these are only for reference purposes. Replace <user> with the username of the person you want to unban.


VIEWING A LIST OF USERS YOU HAVE BANNED

* Go to http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml, and scroll to the bottom of the page. You will see a list of the users that you have banned.

* You can also use the Admin Console (http://www.livejournal.com/admin/console/) to view a list of the users that you have banned. First, make sure you are already logged in, then go to the console and enter this command:

ban_list

Go to http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml and find the option labeled "Who can reply to your entries?". Here you can choose to allow anyone to comment, only registered users (which disables anonymous commenting), or only your Friends.

You might also consider adjusting your comment screening settings; for more information on your comment screening options, please see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=134.

If you would like to block comments from a particular person, but still receive comments from others, see http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=20.

When deleting a comment (http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=15) you will be given an option to also mark it as spam (unsolicited bulk messages). To do so you first need to select the "delete comment" button. This will then bring you to an intermediate screen where you confirm your action. You can mark the comment as spam by selecting the appropriate check box on this screen before confirming via the "delete comment" button.

It is not possible to mark a comment as spam without deleting it, or when deleting it using the "mass action" option.

When you mark a comment as spam, this information is sent to LiveJournal administrators who are then able to take the appropriate action. Please note that all such information is carefully reviewed by a human being before any action is taken, so an erroneous or accidental marking of comments as spam will not automatically result in incorrect action being taken. Even so, please only use this option if you believe the comment in question to be spam.

If you believe you are being harassed in comments, you should not mark them as spam. Instead, you can find guidelines on what steps you can take at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=108.

Spam in community entries, rather than in comments, should be dealt with by following the instructions in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=209.

As an anti-abuse/harassment feature, LiveJournal account holders can choose to log the IP addresses of users who comment in their journals. Logging can be enabled for "Anonymous posters only" or "Always", or it can be left disabled by choosing "No". You can select the option you want at http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml under LiveJournal Options.

An IP address is the numerical equivalent of a domain name: the unique address of a computer connected to the internet. Most providers assign IP numbers on a random basis from their set of addresses upon connection; most likely, if you have a static IP address (which is always the same), you already know and have probably paid a premium for that service. Domain name servers convert a domain name, such as livejournal.com, to an IP address, such as 66.150.15.150.

The IP address is not harmful, and does not point directly to the poster's home or telephone number. It will, however, allow the recipient of a comment to identify the poster's Internet service provider (ISP). By comparing logs and timestamps, the ISP may be able to determine from where the comment was posted. Please note that even if you have an anonymous commenter's IP address, it is not possible to directly determine the username of the person who posted it (assuming that they have a LiveJournal account).

There are official "Whois" sites which allow you to query the IP address. To find one of these, perform a query for "whois database search" in your favorite search engine.

The only people who can see the logged IP numbers are the owners of the journals in which the comments appear (or the owners of entries in Community Journals to which comments have been made). The owner must be logged in (http://www.livejournal.com/login.bml) to see the IP numbers, which appear in the header of the comment in question.

IP addresses are recorded only while logging is enabled. You cannot retroactively view IP addresses of users who left comments while logging was turned off.

If you are having trouble with anonymous commenters, you might also find the information at http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=109 helpful with regard to other options for dealing with this problem.

The timestamps on LiveJournal comment pages display in a timezone that is based on settings on the server on which the individual journal is located. This will vary with the individual server, and is not necessarily consistent between different journals. Also, the time displayed on a comment will vary depending on the style system the journal is using, S1 or S2. While this is not always the case, most journals using S1 timestamp with Pacific Time, and most journals using S2 use GMT. The times on comments are automatically assigned when they are posted; there is no way to set or edit the time on a comment.

When viewing comments anywhere on LiveJournal, you will need to take into account this time difference in order to work out the local time at which the comment was posted.