Discussion

Discussion is the fourth item in the Settings menu list; click it to open the
Discussion Settings page (see Figure 3-4). The sections on this tab let you
set options for handling comments and publishing posts to your blog.

The following sections cover the options available to you in the Discussion Settings page, which deals mainly with how comments and trackbacks are handled in your blog.

With the Default Article Settings options, you can tell WordPress how to handle post notifications. Here are your options:

✦ Attempt to Notify Any Blogs Linked to from the Article: If you select
this check box, your blog sends a notification (or ping) to any site you’ve linked to in your blog posts. This notification is also commonly referred to as a trackback (we discuss trackbacks in Book III, Chapter 5). Deselect this check box if you don’t want these notifications sent.

✦ Allow Link Notifications from Other Blogs (Pingbacks and Trackbacks):

By default, this check box is selected, and your blog accepts notifica-
tions via pings or trackbacks from other blogs that have linked to yours.
Any trackbacks or pings sent to your blog appear on your site in the
Comments section of the blog post. If you deselect this check box, your
blog doesn’t accept pingbacks or trackbacks from other blogs.
✦ Allow People to Post Comments on New Articles: By default, this check
box is selected, and people can leave comments on your blog posts. If
you deselect this check box, no one can leave comments on your blog.
(You can override these settings for individual articles)