WordPress recently changed its comment settings, requiring anyone who has ever had a WordPress or Gravatar account associated with their e-mail to log in to leave a comment.
You can log in to WordPress here. If you’ve forgotten your password, you can recover it here. If you get an error message immediately after logging in, you may actually be logged in. Apparently, there’s an error in the coding that causes the site to redirect people to another error message, instead of the page they were trying to log in to. Just go back, and you’ll see you’re logged in.
If you don’t want to log in to WordPress, you can use a different e-mail address or log in using Twitter or Facebook. I know that’s probably not ideal for those who want to subscribe to comments, but it’s something.
Several WordPress users have complained in the forums, but so far WordPress hasn’t responded. I’m hoping that at least some of these issues will be resolved soon, but I suspect having to log in is here to stay.
If you’re a regular Shelf Love reader, please feel free to test out the comments here. I’m going to test a few scenarios myself, just so we can all see how the site behaves.
If you’re having trouble commenting, please e-mail me at teresakayep at yahoo.com or send me a tweet (@teresareads). I’m trying to get a sense of how much this is affecting our regular readers.
Shelf Love 
Testing with different e-mail address.
Test again
Testing Twitter login.
(It doesn’t seem to have the option to subscribe to comments by e-mail.)
Logged in via Twitter and changed the details to my usual e-mail and blog address. The option to subscribe to comments appeared
Logged in via Facebook. Option to receive comments by e-mail available.
Logged in using Facebook. Changed my information to my usual e-mail and blog addresses.
Google also changed their settings for comments, adding a second word for verification, both of which are really difficult to decipher. This section looks a little different, but it is accepting my ID (I’m logged in as a google user).
So it’s letting you log in as a Google user? Weird, because I don’t even see that option on my end. Maybe your Gravatar is somehow associated with your Google account. Anyway, I’m glad you were able to log in!
I’ve encountered those new word verifications on Google, and they are a challenge!
I don’t actually have to log in to comment – just click the “post comment” or “reply” box, and my info is automatically filled in – but that’s probably because I stay logged in to google while I’m on-line. It’s convenient for commenting, and it works on most blogs.
When I logged out of WordPress entirely, logged in with Facebook and then with Twitter, and tried changing my information to the usual information I give WordPress, I got an error message asking me to log in to WordPress.
The key seems to be what’s in the e-mail address line. So clicking “change” does not appear to work unless you’re logged in to WordPress. Grrr.
So that’s what is going on. I’m testing out a few settings too… I couldn’t comment on a ton of blog yesterday.
Our comments slowed down a lot over the past couple of days, but I just assumed people were busy, as sometimes happens. But now I’m wondering if this was contributing to the slowdown.
I’m afraid that this is affecting my blog as well. Perhaps people are just busy, but I did receive significantly less comments in the past few days.
I tried logging out with wordpress and then leaving a comment here with name + email, but I get an error telling me to sign in with wordpress, but no link that enables you to do so, which makes it look like too much work, if I weren’t a regularly logged in wordpress user.
Did you change any settings? I still have leaving an email as required on as a setting, and I wonder if that makes it any more difficult?
Iris, we still have it set up to require an e-mail address. From the forums, I get the impression that people who don’t have that requirement are also having issues. But the original post about the change was just update to indicate that there was a bug. If it ceases to be a problem for those users, we may have to look at changing our settings (which I’d rather not do, TBH).
I also think at the very least they should add a link to the log-in page when people get the message telling them to log in. That seems pretty basic to me.
I want to test one more thing.
How frustrating! One of the reasons I just switched from Blogger to WordPress was because people were having trouble commenting over there. Aaargh.
Thanks for testing this.
From talking to other bloggers over the years, I’ve gotten the impression that the easy commenting is the biggest reason people move to WordPress–and it’s the feature that seems to most tempt to Blogger users I know to switch. You’d think they wouldn’t want to lose that edge.
Agh, I hate this new system! My wordpress blog is completely private and can’t be seen by anyone but me as it’s just a backup of my other blog. I tried four times to comment on another blog’s lovely post on Joyce’s The Dead, but couldn’t manage it and finally gave up in frustration.
That is aggravating!
I wonder if you can log in to WordPress and then change the blog address? I’m going to try to change the address below (to Google), just to see if it works.
Well, it let me do it, but sent the comment to spam.
However, it didn’t spam the comment when I changed to my Twitter homepage, so it might just have been using Google that flagged it.
I noticed this on Iris’ blog the other day. I guess I have a WP login because of Gravatar. How annoying!
It’s especially annoying that they didn’t tell any WP users, except in a post in the forums, which I don’t make a habit of visiting. I was checking the forums yesterday for something completely different! I bet lots of WP bloggers still don’t know, unless commenters have e-mailed them to say they’re having trouble.
FYI, I am having (other) problems with wordpress, like prescheduling posts, as are other users, and when we tried to contact support, we were informed they were all off for the weekend! So I’m thinking (1) they changed the comment system and left town to hide under beds or (2) they don’t even know what’s going on yet or (3) they do know, but they want their weekend!
I saw that they were all off, although it looks like someone was around to change the error message when people aren’t logged in. But I’m thinking a combination of 1 and 3. I think there should be a rule that big changes have to go in place on Monday or Tuesday, so people are available to deal with it. Lucky for me, I haven’t had any other problems–I was just checking the forums to see if there was a way to turn off the new infinite scrolling they added to my theme. (And there’s not. Ugh.)
Teresa, I was able to turn off infinite scroll on Twenty Eleven by adding a footer widget. See here: http://worthdetour.wordpress.com/ .
I think once you do that you get an option check box in the reading settings for whether you want infinity scrolling and you can just uncheck it.
Unfortunately, Mistylook doesn’t have a footer widget option, so the choices are to live with it or change to a theme that does (since I suspect that even the themes that don’t have infinite scrolling now will be getting it).
That’s too bad about the footer, and, yes, I suspect WP will be adding this “feature” it to all themes. I actually added a footer to my main blog on the assumption that it will hit that one eventually.
Testing, testing — my problem is that it keeps logging me out. I think the problem is that that I have a WP, Gravatar, Twitter, & Facebook account all with same (blog) email but with different names (Beth Fish, Beth F, BethFishReads) — It’s sooooo frustrating. But I’ll keep on trying.
On thing I’m learning. After typing up a comment, copy it! If WP asks for a log-in (at least in my experience) it will trash your comment and you have to start over. ARGH.
[[[[[That just happened to me (again!) — thank goodness I had copied the above comment ]]]]
That is frustrating. Having a “remember me” option is helpful, but only if it works.
I’ve had to get into the habit of copying my comments for some blogger blogs, too.
Thanks so much for this, Teresa! WordPress really blew it with their changes. I was finally able to log in by resetting my password, but I have to do it almost EVERY time I want to comment. So frustrating.
You’re welcome! They really did a terrible job with the implementation.
I’m trying again after making some changes.
Thanks for posting this! Mumsy asked me yesterday what had happened with WordPress commenting, and I didn’t have a clue. Now I know! I shall make a post on my own blog linking to this one because you are the helpfullest person in all of Helpful-land.
Very happy to help!
But I don’t like this username! I DON’T LIKE WORDPRESS.
Ah! I found instructions for changing your username or your display name. Maybe that will help? http://en.support.wordpress.com/change-your-username/
Pingback: Wordpress being a jerk; and, give me books to read! « Jenny's Books
I actually feel oddly relieved that it’s a WP thing; I thought comments had tapered off because of me instead. Still, v annoying!
I felt the same way! I do hope people are able to find satisfactory work-arounds :(
Testing leaving a comment without an e-mail address.