Comment notification plugin sought

Take a look at these plugins and see if one serves your needs

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/gurken-subscribe-to-comments/

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments-now/

Hi Stvwlf,

Thanks for your response.

I looked at subscribe to comments and subscribe to comments now, and I like that they allow me to subscribe to a post that someone else made so that I get notified of comments posted to that post.

However, these plugins do not let me subscribe to a post that I make, so that I get notified of comments made to that post. Instead of seeing the checkbox at the bottom that I check to subscribe, I just see ‘You are the author of this post’. How can I subscribe to my own posts so that I can see the comments made? (I should add that I’m the Admin on the site – would this make a difference to the plugin’s behaviour?)

Also, I don’t feel comfortable about people seeing the email addresses of people who have subscribed to their posts in the ‘Manage Subscriptions’ page. How would I change this?

Hi

Since you are the admin of the site, you can auto-receive email notification when someone comments on a post.

Go to the dashboard menu and under Settings / Discussion, make sure there is a checkmark in the box Email me whenever Anyone posts a comment. Under Settings / General, confirm that the email address entered there is an email address that will reach you.

As far as I know, no one but an admin will see the list of people who have subscribed on the ‘Manage Subscriptions’ page. You can test this for yourself by logging out of the admin area. Refresh the screen on a post page. You should now be at the same level of status (guest) that any random site reader will be. Sign up to be notified of new comments by email. If you can’t see the Manage Subscriptions page, neither will any other guest user.

Thanks again, Stvwlf.

I know that as an Admin, I can receive notifications whenever someone posts a comment on a post.

But I’m looking for something that allows an *author* of a post to receive comments when someone makes a post on his post.

I noticed that the ‘Subscribe to Comments’ plugin would say that an Author was automatically subscribed to comments, but when I tested it, it didn’t seem to email an author when I made a comment on his post. Should it be doing that?

I’m looking for something that allows an *author* of a post to receive comments when someone makes a post on his post.

That should happen automatically. Make sure that your authors check the email address in their WordPress profiles and ask them to check the spam folders in their email systems too.

That should happen automatically. Make sure that your authors check the email address in their WordPress profiles and ask them to check the spam folders in their email systems too.

Macmanx,

Sorry – when I say ‘Author’, I mean anyone who has written a post, including contributors.

Unfortunately, contributors do not automatically get notifications when people make comments on posts that they have authored.

I tried Subscribe to Comments again, and this is what I notice:

– Let’s say I login as contributor called Conti with email address [email protected] to create a post called Posti. Then when I login as Conti and navigate to the bottom of Posti, I cannot click on any checkbox to subscribe. All I see when I go to the bottom of Posti is this – “You are subscribed to this entry. Manage your subscriptions”.

– When I login as someone else to make a comment on Posti, I do not get any notification at [email protected] even though I am allegedly subscribed to Posti. This is the crux of the problem I am having.

I thought that clicking on the ‘Manage your subscriptions’ link would help me resolve this, but this takes me to a page that says “You may not access this page without a valid key.” I have no idea how to get this ‘valid key’.

Hi

I’ve not used this plugin on a live site but take a look

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/moderation-notify-author/

Although it doesn’t say it works with 2.9.2 or 3.0, I just installed it and tested it with 2.9.2 and it worked.

Hi Stvwlf,

Thanks for sticking with me on this one.

I tried the plugin you suggested, and I find that while I (as an admin) get notifications when people post a comment on my posts, I find that contributors do not get notifications when people post comments on the posts that they have created.

The closest plugin to what I want is the Subscribe To Comments one, except for the weird problem that I listed in my previous post. But I would be happy if I found a plugin which did simply this (and only this):

Notified a creator of a post (whether a contributor, author or Admin) of any comments that had been made to that post by sending an email to the email address that they used to register when they signed up to the site.

I just wish it wasn’t that hard to find… ??

Hi

I just went back to test this again. I logged into Dashboard as a user who is a contributor and created a post. Then I logged out and logged back in as admin user and published the contributed post.

Then I logged out altogether, so I appear on the site as a guest. I then left a comment, as a guest, on the site. As the Moderation Notify Author plugin is installed, a WP moderate comment email was sent to the email of the site admin (the normal behavior) and also to the email of the contributor (who WP lists as the author of the post, even though they did not publish the post). This accomplishes the behavior you are seeking.

If you happened to be logged into the Dashboard when you left a comment, the author might not receive the comment in that case. Log out of the dashboard and leave a comment as a guest. The author should then receive a moderate email.

I saw it work here, so I know it behaves as I am describing.
good luck with it!

Hi Stvwlf,

Again, thanks for taking the time to look into this in detail.

Yes… you are right. When the plugin is installed and an email gets sent out to the admins to moderate a comment, it will also get sent out to the creator of that post that the comment was made on.

The problem is that my site is set up so that we only allow registered users to comment and we don’t moderate comments made by registered users unless it’s their first comment; in this case, once we approve that first post, they may make future comments without those comments needing moderation.

This means that the author of a post will not get a notification that a comment was made on his post if the maker of the comment is a registered user whose comments have been auto-approved (since this post will have been approved directly and won’t need to have an email sent to inform that it is awaiting moderation). This is the reason that I didn’t see this working.

There is a checkbox under Settings / Discussion for “Email me whenever anyone posts a comment”. Regardless of whether the comment needs moderation. That seems to address your issue.

i had success changing the ‘admin’ address on general tab, then logging out and commenting. Got the notice. ??

I just wish we could put multiple comma delimited email addresses on that one line. That’d simplify things.

One way to accomplish that is set up a email forwarding address on your domain. Have it forward to multiple email addresses. Then use that forwarding email address as your admin address on the general tab. The emails will be sent to all the addresses that receive emails sent to that forwarding address.

There is a checkbox under Settings / Discussion for “Email me whenever anyone posts a comment”. Regardless of whether the comment needs moderation. That seems to address your issue.

Stvwlf,

Funnily enough, this seemed to do what I wanted even without any plugin. I thought it would email the Admin only.

Thanks a lot!