FAQ Question #15

Although journal entries can be edited or deleted, comments on journal entries can't be edited; they can be deleted, frozen, or screened.

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Deleting Comments

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

• You posted the comment yourself. (You need to be logged in as the author of the comment.)
• The comment is posted in your journal. (You need to be logged in as the owner of the journal.)
• The comment is posted in a community journal which you maintain. (You need to be logged in as a maintainer of the community.)
• 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.)

Delete a comment by clicking the button with the red "X" on it and confirming your intention to delete the comment. Once deleted, a comment cannot be undeleted. You will have the option to delete the entire thread, if you are the author of the entry (or the community maintainer). If you select and confirm that you want to delete the entire thread, you will not only delete the comment in question, but all replies to that comment, replies to these replies, and so on. You may see a page confirming that the deletion was successful, or the entry page may just refresh without the comment.

You cannot delete anonymous comments that you post in other journals or communities. Only the author of the entry (or the community maintainer) is able to delete anonymous comments.

Freezing & Unfreezing Comments

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

• The comment is posted in your journal. (You need to be logged in as the owner of the journal.)
• The comment is posted in a community journal which you maintain. (You need to be logged in as a maintainer of the community.)
• 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.)

Freeze a thread by clicking on the ice cube icon on the comment that started the thread, and confirming your intention to freeze the comment. If the freezing is successful, you may be taken to a page that reports the success or the entry page may refresh with frozen comments. 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). Unfreeze a thread and allow people to reply to the comments again by clicking on the ice cube icon with a red line through it and confirming 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.

Screening & Unscreening Comments

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

• The comment is posted in your journal. (You need to be logged in as the owner of the journal.)
• The comment is posted in a community journal which you maintain. (You need to be logged in as a maintainer of the community.)
• 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.)

Screen a comment by clicking the eye icon with the red line through it and confirming your intention to screen the comment. If the screening is successful, you may be taken to a page that reports the success or the entry page may refresh with screened comments. Unscreen a screened comment by clicking the eye icon (which doesn't have a red line through it), and confirming your intention to unscreen the comment. Unlike deleting or freezing comments, it is not possible to screen or unscreen an entire thread at once. You may also be interested in setting screening options for your entire journal or community.

The "Mass Action" Option

If you want to delete, screen, or unscreen multiple comments, use the Mass Action option at the bottom of the comment page. Select those comments by checking the boxes to 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 with the Mass Action option.

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 using the Mass Action option to delete comments. Still, you should always be careful when using this option to delete comments, since there is no way to retrieve deleted comments.