Comments and reviews

Readers can comment on chapters and on novels, and can rate and review novels.

The switches are in Content and Features and in Customizer, Global. Moderation is WordPress’s own Comments screen, plus the two dictionaries and the trust settings described below.

Two different conversations

Chapter comments are reactions. They arrive in bursts after a release, they are about what just happened, and they are most of your comment volume.

Novel comments are about the work as a whole, arrive steadily, and are what a prospective reader actually reads.

Chapter comments are a panel rather than a block at the foot of the page. A reader opens them from the toolbar, reads and posts, and closes them again without losing their place in the chapter.

Readers can like a comment and can report one. A reported comment lands in reader reports.

Ratings and reviews

A rating is a number; a review is a rating with something written. Both attach to the novel. How the result is displayed, stars or otherwise, is a Customizer setting in Global.

A novel can carry a starting rating and vote count, which is for a library imported from somewhere that already had them. See adding a novel.

Surviving a release day

The settings that matter are on Theme Options ▸ Content and Features ▸ Comments:

• Moderation Dictionary holds a comment for review; Spam Dictionary bins it outright.
• Auto-approve trusted readers stops holding somebody after a set number of approved comments. This is the one that makes moderation scale.
• Trust Patreon supporters extends the same to qualifying members.

On a new site, leave comments open and moderate as they come. Once you have a release schedule, expect the bursts and decide in advance whether a first comment from a brand-new account waits for you.