Comment Threading is Here! (Plus Other Cool Comment Settings)
You asked, and we listened. Introducing threaded comments, comment paging, and comment order settings for your WordPress.com blog.
Go to Settings > Discussion in your dashboard, and you’ll discover three new options in the “Other comments settings” section:
- “Enable comments [x] levels deep”
- “Break comments into pages with [x] comments per page and the [first or last] page displayed by default”
- “Comments should be displayed with the [newer or older] comments at the top of each page”
With the threaded comments option, you can connect and interact with your readers while easily keeping track of who’s saying what to whom. You control the conversation by setting the number of levels allowed in your comment threads, from 1 to 10. (Ten levels deep means nine replies under each comment — that’s a lot!)
We suggest setting threaded comments to about three levels deep, to keep the conversation focused. Here’s how that looks with the Contempt theme:

To save you and your readers from scroll-finger strain, you can now break up comments into pages. You decide where to cut the thread, and whether to display the first or last page of comments as the starting point.
The default settings on your blog used to put the newest comment at the bottom. Now the order is up to you. If you want your readers to know what’s latest first, display the newest comment at the top. If you think it’s important to know the history of a conversation, display the oldest comment at the top.
It’s all part of our goal to help you improve the level of interaction on your blog, and give you more control over the look and feel of your blog.
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February 19th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Very nice! Kind of wish I had that on my WordPress.org personal website Blog…
Great feature though!
There’s probably a Plugin for it somewhere, I just suck, haha.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
If you have WordPress 2.7, then you already have comment threading and you probably just need a theme that is updated to use it. Check the WordPress.org support forums for more help.
February 19th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
OMFG!!! I’ve been waiting for this since you guys first announced it. This looks kind of bland on my blog though, I cant figure out what CSS class to change the reply comments a different color….any ideas for sandbox-10 users? Anyways, I luff you guys <3
February 20th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Would you mind heading over to the WordPress.com CSS Customization forum to discuss that?
February 19th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Truly, truly, truly! You folks are amazing! Wish you could be cloned for everything out there!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
AWESOME!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Thanks WordPress, this is soooo helpful!
February 19th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Very nice work it’s easier than going to your ‘ Admin Control Panel ‘ just to Edit a post! Thank You
February 19th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
You are so cool, guys! Amazing!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Hurray! Party in the comment section!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Thanks! That’s probably the biggest thing that WP used to lack. Now it is even more the blogging platform of platforms.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Wow, finally. Any link where we can see this in action?
February 20th, 2009 at 1:06 am
You can see it in action on your very own blog!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Nice additions
I’d love to see a preview section added to comments. So you can check your comments before you post them. I think that would very useful.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Thank you! It feels like i have been waiting for ever for this feature.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
First easy LJ transfers and now this. It feels like Christmas.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Oh this is great!
Enabled it on my blog now.
Thanks.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Could comments be sorted by post title? Thank you.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:09 am
While you can’t currently sort the “In Response To” column, if you click on the talk bubble icon next to a comment in your Comments menu, you will be able to view all comments associated with that post.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
This is so much better than adding my “authorial” response as a separate comment. The Comments widget space should be for readers’ comments, not mine.
Before this excellent innovation, I had to edit in a reply to a comment, and it looked sort of bogus. Thanks!
Now, if someone would just proffer a comment and start a thread, I could test it!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
That is a really cool feature, thanks!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Yeah! Thank you!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
And the support to insert ads in the blogs? WIll it happen?
February 19th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
We are considering the use of ads as an optional upgrade. Thanks for your feedback.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
This is great news I have been waiting for the thread comments option
thank you for enabling the feature.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
Apologies for being fussy… feel free to throw things at me
but…
would it be possible to develop the feature to include an option to only allow the post author to do a threaded response? I’m happy with the standard comment set up on my blog but it would be great to be able to have my responses to my readers’ comments below the original
/ducks
February 25th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Hi Jo. Author responses will show up directly below the original comment (as they do here) as long as you click Reply and add your response instead of creating a new comment. You can reply to comments from your comment moderation screen or your dashboard.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Thank you for Threaded Comments Option. It is imperesive. Even truly imperesive is what you are creating every day. Creative WordPress Team deserve congratulations on its hard work and commitment to WP.
February 19th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Why aren’t the comments here threaded?
Great feature….Thanks!
February 19th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
this is a good thing
February 19th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
sick! i’m assuming upgrade for ads is paid?
February 19th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
There is not currently an upgrade that will permit you to run ads on your site. We’re considering this feature for a future upgrade.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
Thanks a lot, really helpful and make blog pages shorter!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
This is great!
Thank you so much!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I Love This! And it’s retroactive! Thanx for the update. However, a couple of my responses to reader comments did not “nest”. I think I may have approved those comments directly from my email and then replied to them from the comment field when viewing my site. Does this feature only work if you reply to comments via the dashboard>edit comments?
February 20th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
It should work if you click the “reply” links next to comments on post itself.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I hope that this means that the IntenseDebate guys, who I presume where involved in Automattic’s discussions about comments, are now going to get back into the game and try to catch up with Disqus. It has been sad to see Disqus execute user requests so well, while ID seems to dismiss huge user demand for features such as Facebook Connect integration.
February 21st, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Thanks for the feedback. Keep an eye out on the blog for updates about Intense Debate features.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Very nice! I was hoping for IntenseDebate integration, but hopefully that will be coming soon.
Also please consider letting us pay you money in order to use javascript and custom themes! It’s a shame that most of us have to migrate off wordpress.com’s servers because we want more customization — we’d rather pay you than someone else!
February 21st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Thanks for the suggestion
We’ll keep that in mind.
February 19th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Awesome, awesome, awesome!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Thank you .. it’s amazing!
February 19th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
T’ve been waiting for this
Thanks
February 19th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Yay, I’ve been waiting for this feature to break up comments into several pages. Thanks a lot!!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Muito Bom!
Very Good!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Thank you WordPress!! Thats Coolio
~monster86a
Rox!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Thanks for the tip, helps newbies like me well done
February 19th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Is there a way to make it so your page view stats reflect your own current time? I.e., that they reflect your local day ending at midnight, instead of at midnight UTC? I know you can reflect local time on posts and comments, but how about for stats? Any help would be appreciated…thanks!
February 20th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Currently this isn’t an option. All stats are calibrated to UTC time, regardless of the time zone used in posts.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
u gotta make it so you can put your own ads on as an upgrade!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
f****** yeah! I love you WP
February 19th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Threaded comments sounds good. Thanks
February 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Cool! Thanks a lot!
February 19th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
excellent.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Totally amazing. Thanks for making it.
February 19th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
W00! H00! Thank you.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Thank you very much, this is a nice feature!
I used to edit comments, inserting a “reply” in original text.
Now, i don’t need to do that anymore. ; )
February 19th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
One thing we really need: the ability to make the comment font smaller!
Thanks for all your hard work!
February 25th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
You can change the font sizes (or colors, or fonts themselves) if you have the Custom CSS upgrade.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
FINALLY!!!
I’m so happy about this I could dance.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
too cool thanks
:)
February 19th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
tanks very good
February 19th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
terrific! It seems as if you have read my thoughts. Badly needed nifty addition..thanks a bunch
February 19th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
Thank you. It feels like i have been waiting for ever for this feature.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
OMG! Whats next? Free CSS?
You are amazing. And you keep pushing it.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Very useful feature. Thank you very much!.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Score! Now I can stop @ing people!
February 19th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
It’s nice feature
thanx !
February 19th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
This is wonderful! Thank you so much.
February 19th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Oh wow, this is pretty cool. Thanks y’all.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Enabled it on my blog now.
Thanks.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:13 am
this is what i’m waiting for!
February 20th, 2009 at 12:18 am
excitement abounds
February 20th, 2009 at 12:18 am
ooooooooo thats cool! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE
February 20th, 2009 at 12:39 am
This is a great improvement! Commenting on WordPress.com is now almost perfect; the only thing missing now: live comment preview.
)
(Or even not live; a Preview button like Blogger would also do… it’s just that Live Comment Preview is probably easier to turn on
February 20th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Great!
February 20th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Bagus sekali nih…membuat blogger semakin enjoy. Terima kasih.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Thanks once again!
February 20th, 2009 at 1:25 am
What a great feature. I activated it the second I saw this announcement. Thanks for making this an option for us!
February 20th, 2009 at 1:25 am
thank you . It’s enough for me*
February 20th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Good! Great!
February 20th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Wow…wow….everyday improve..and improve….thank a lot!
My blog look more profesional.
February 20th, 2009 at 1:42 am
nice, wish more features in the future
February 20th, 2009 at 1:49 am
That’s looking good.
Thank you.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:18 am
great option!!
February 20th, 2009 at 3:34 am
Great feature… now I just need people to comment at my site so I can see this wonderful jewel
February 20th, 2009 at 3:35 am
Really nice feature. Go Go Go WP!
February 20th, 2009 at 3:41 am
all themes are supported?
February 20th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Yep. All WordPress.com themes support threaded comments.
February 20th, 2009 at 3:51 am
This should be a great improvement. When responding I used to copy, paste and italisize a specific comment, now I can just respond directly on blogs that choose this option.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:07 am
thanks. i want to have this feature for a time.
live comment preview on the Shreevatsa’s comment is better feature. i like it.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:10 am
@Shreevatsa: Live comment previewing (preferably optionally enabled) would be fantastic. Would also be great if it were bundled with the wordpress.org distribution so more people would be encouraged to use it on their blogs.
February 25th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
@sjk and @Shreevatsa: Since plugins aren’t enabled on wordpress.com blogs, it would be more appropriate to discuss plugins in the wordpress.org forums. Otherwise, people who see comments like this start sending support requests asking where they go to turn on plugins. Thanks!
February 20th, 2009 at 4:56 am
But at the moment it looks like you can’t set these options on or off for individual posts, correct? They’re only for the blog as a whole, right?
Because sometimes you might want the newest comments at the time, sometimes not.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Right, the threaded comments options are only for the blog as a whole.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Long overdue!
Better late than never!
WP rocks!
February 20th, 2009 at 5:08 am
This reminds me of forum board posting. Awesome feature!
February 20th, 2009 at 5:16 am
You won’t believe it was so much skin off my nose when they replied to my comments by editing it and leaving the replies just below my replies (so that it looked orderly)! That meant that I was not getting the email notification of the replies by the blog author (though I was getting other comments in my mailbox)! I had even suggested some of my WP friends not to do this.
This is simply put, ‘a revolutionary change!’
What is more anyone can reply to any comment. I guess the comment page will be the new centre of discussion on many blogs now! Nitawriter, Solilo, Nimmy : they’ll all love it! I am so excited I am leaving comments about this hot off the press news on my friends’ blogs. Thank you WP!
Please enable the option and see for yourself what a refreshing change it is! I tried it with many test comments and it works great (though the levels deep option does not have much effect on my theme after 3 levels; but I don’t’ mind it.
Dear WP guys, If possible, please introduce a signature option to go with posts (wherein the author can add a pic, name, signature, HTML, even social bookmarking) in future!
Thank you once again. I may be a new kid on the blo(ck)g but I am loving blogging and this wonderful platform called WordPress!
Today is the day to shower smilies guys!
Truly Unfortunate are those who do not have a blog on WordPress!
February 20th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Ir’a really so terrific. Thanks for your effort.
February 20th, 2009 at 5:29 am
I suggest we should also have “First Page”, “Last Page” as well as “Page 1″, “Page 2″, etc besides “Older Comments” and “Newer Comments”.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:30 am
Amazing. Thank you. I am looking forward to more changes!
February 20th, 2009 at 6:59 am
WOW WOW COOOLLLLLLL (^o^)b
February 20th, 2009 at 7:04 am
that’s awesome! now it’s much simpler to know who’s saying what to who! thankyou so much!!!
February 20th, 2009 at 7:36 am
My God! This is just the feature I needed for my blog. Keep up the good work guys. WordPress.com rocks!!
February 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am
yay, i find this very useful to keep up with visitor comments. thanks for informing us about this feature
February 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Thank you
February 20th, 2009 at 9:33 am
cool! thanks WP!!