Title: WordPress 2.8.5: disabling comments
Last modified: August 19, 2016

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# WordPress 2.8.5: disabling comments

 *  [boboboi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/boboboi/)
 * (@boboboi)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/)
 * I am having trouble disabling comments in my entire site. Reading most of the
   forum topics, people are instructed to uncheck “Allow people to post comments
   in articles”. However, in v2.8.5 this option has been replaced with “Allow people
   to post comments on NEW articles”. So when I uncheck this option, it has no effect
   on all of my previous posts and pages. I am 99% sure I have overlooked something
   and would appreciate your help!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [@mercime](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mercime/)
 * (@mercime)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288202)
 * If you want to disable comments entirely, you can delete the “call” to comments.
   php see this for reference about which tag to delete in both Posts and Pages 
   [http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/comments_template](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/comments_template)
   
   OR If you don’t want to touch your theme install a plugin [http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/close-old-posts/](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/close-old-posts/)
 *  Thread Starter [boboboi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/boboboi/)
 * (@boboboi)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288212)
 * Thanks for the suggestions!
    Unfortunately that wasn’t exactly what I was looking
   for, which is in no way your fault as my initial post was unclear. I guess I 
   should also say what it is I want to exactly achieve.
 * My site has been up for more than a year, many posts and pages have been added
   on to the site. I have recently added a new page and I would like only that page
   to have commenting enabled. On the older versions of wordpress you could just
   uncheck “allow people to post comments in articles” and just individually enable
   commenting on the posts/pages that I want as I add them to the site. With 2.8.5
   it appears that I cannot do that, and I doubt the only solution is to manually
   disable comments on all of my previous pages and posts.
 * Reading your post again mercime your solution may work for me, just that my php
   knowledge is quite basic and I will need some guidance as to what the instructions
   mean and such.
 *  [@mercime](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mercime/)
 * (@mercime)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288224)
 * Ok, now it’s clearer to me. WP 2.8.5 does allow override of disabled comments
   in individual Posts or Pages, so your situation is odd. The first thing you should
   do is upgrade your install to WP 2.8.6 ASAP for security. It could also resolve
   your problem about enabling comments only for specific Posts or Pages.
 * If upgrading doesn’t resolve enabling comments in individual Post/Page, then 
   you might have some theme or plugin conflict. The easier thing to do is change
   theme back to default theme and check in Post or Page write panels whether you
   can enable/disable comments/trackbacks. Then change back to custom theme. If 
   that doesn’t work, disable all plugins and enable one by one and checking the
   enabling comments in between each plugin activation to find the culprit.
 *  Thread Starter [boboboi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/boboboi/)
 * (@boboboi)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288263)
 * Thanks for sticking around to help me out!
    The thing is I need the exact opposite
   of what you’re describing, I am able to individually enable comments on posts/
   pages. The thing I am unable to do is globally (I believe that’s the term) disable
   commenting on the site. I have recently decided to enable it on one page, but
   the only option I have on 2.8.5 is to enable it for all pages/posts and then 
   individually disable it on the new posts/pages that I will be creating.
 * I realize my situation is very odd, hence the confusion even I get when reading
   what I just wrote, this is why I believe I am overlooking a very simple solution.
 *  [alism](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alism/)
 * (@alism)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288267)
 * If you want to disable it for all existing posts, have a look at MichaelH’s final
   response in this thread:
    [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/310934?replies=6](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/310934?replies=6)
 * Then just re-enable the post/page you do want comments for.
 *  Thread Starter [boboboi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/boboboi/)
 * (@boboboi)
 * [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288296)
 * Thanks! Running those 2 lines in PHPmyAdmin has disabled comments for all posts!
 * However, now when I re-enable comments for specific posts/pages, the comment 
   box does not show anymore. I am aware I need to include the code: <?php comments_template();?
   > in my theme’s page.php file and I have included that. Any ideas why this is
   the case?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘WordPress 2.8.5: disabling comments’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [Comments](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/comments/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [boboboi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/boboboi/)
 * Last activity: [16 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-285-disabling-comments/#post-1288296)
 * Status: not resolved

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