Comments Press Zone

Description

Comments Press Zone transforms your WordPress comments into a modern, engaging discussion platform. Built for performance and accessibility, it seamlessly replaces the default comment system while preserving all your existing comments.

Key Features

Engagement Tools

• Upvote and downvote comments
• Social sharing (Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn)
• Threaded replies with configurable nesting depth
• Confetti celebration on new comments
• Post-comment sharing prompts

Design Customization

• Three color modes: Light, Dark, and Theme Inherit
• Styling options: Square, Rounded, or Pill borders
• Adjustable padding: Wide, Standard, or Minimal
• Configurable border thickness
• Live preview in admin panel
• Fully responsive for all devices

Powerful Moderation

• Ban users permanently or temporarily
• Mute users for specified periods
• Issue warnings with custom messages
• Full moderation audit log
• User infraction history
• Report system for community moderation
• Comment editing and deletion

Security & Spam Protection

• Google reCAPTCHA v3 integration
• Comment rate limiting (throttling)
• Banned words filter
• External link blocking option

Performance

• Optimized database queries
• Optional Redis caching support
• Optional Memcached support
• Minimal frontend footprint

Accessibility

• WCAG 2.1 AA compliant
• Full keyboard navigation
• Screen reader optimized
• Focus indicators on all interactive elements
• Respects prefers-reduced-motion

Perfect For

• Community websites requiring robust moderation tools
• Publications wanting engagement metrics and voting
• Blogs needing customizable comment appearance
• Sites requiring spam protection beyond Akismet
• Developers building extensible comment systems

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher
• MySQL 5.7 or higher

External Services

This plugin connects to external services under specific conditions:

Google reCAPTCHA v3 (Optional – Admin Configuration Required)

• What it is: Google’s invisible spam protection service that analyzes user behavior to detect bots
• When used: Only when reCAPTCHA is explicitly enabled by the site administrator in plugin settings (Settings > Spam & Moderation > Enable reCAPTCHA) AND a user submits a comment
• Data sent:
  • Comment form token generated by reCAPTCHA JavaScript
  • User’s IP address for verification
  • reCAPTCHA response token
  • Browser/device information collected by Google’s reCAPTCHA script
• Purpose: Spam protection and bot detection to prevent automated comment spam
• User control: Site administrators can completely disable this feature in plugin settings. When disabled, no data is sent to Google.
• Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
• Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
• Additional info: https://developers.google.com/recaptcha

Social Media Sharing Links (User-Initiated Only – No Automatic Data Transmission)

The plugin generates share links for social media platforms. Important: No data is sent automatically. The plugin only creates clickable links. Data is only transmitted when a user voluntarily clicks a share button.

• Facebook Sharing

  • What it is: Direct link to Facebook’s share dialog
  • When used: Only when a user voluntarily clicks the Facebook share button on a comment
  • Data sent: Post/comment URL (via URL parameter: ?u=)
  • Purpose: Allow users to share comments on their Facebook timeline
  • User control: Users must explicitly click the share button. No data is sent otherwise. Administrators can disable Facebook sharing in plugin settings.
  • Privacy Policy: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/
  • Terms: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php
  • Note: The plugin does not embed Facebook tracking pixels or the Facebook SDK. It only provides a standard share link.

• Twitter/X Sharing

  • What it is: Direct link to Twitter’s tweet intent interface
  • When used: Only when a user voluntarily clicks the Twitter/X share button on a comment
  • Data sent: Post/comment URL (via URL parameter: ?url=)
  • Purpose: Allow users to share comments on Twitter/X
  • User control: Users must explicitly click the share button. No data is sent otherwise. Administrators can disable Twitter sharing in plugin settings.
  • Privacy Policy: https://twitter.com/en/privacy
  • Terms: https://twitter.com/en/tos
  • Note: The plugin does not embed Twitter tracking scripts. It only provides a standard tweet intent link.

• LinkedIn Sharing

  • What it is: Direct link to LinkedIn’s share article interface
  • When used: Only when a user voluntarily clicks the LinkedIn share button on a comment
  • Data sent: Post/comment URL (via URL parameter: ?url=)
  • Purpose: Allow users to share comments on their LinkedIn profile
  • User control: Users must explicitly click the share button. No data is sent otherwise. Administrators can disable LinkedIn sharing in plugin settings.
  • Privacy Policy: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
  • Terms: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement
  • Note: The plugin does not embed LinkedIn tracking pixels. It only provides a standard share link.

Important Clarifications:

1. No Automatic Tracking: The plugin does NOT automatically send data to social media platforms. It only generates share URLs. When a user clicks a share button, they are redirected to the respective platform’s website, which is outside the plugin’s control.

2. Administrator Control: Site administrators can disable any or all social sharing options in Settings > Comments Display > Social Sharing.

3. No External Scripts: The plugin does not load Facebook SDK, Twitter widgets, or LinkedIn tracking scripts on your site. All sharing is done via standard URL parameters.

4. Data Privacy: The plugin does not store or log sharing activity. All sharing happens directly between the user’s browser and the social media platform.

Privacy Policy

Comments Press Zone stores the following data in your WordPress database:

Comment Data (Standard WordPress)
* Comment content, author name, email, and IP address
* Comment timestamps and parent relationships

Engagement Data
* Votes (upvotes/downvotes) linked to user ID or IP for guests
* User reputation scores

Moderation Data
* User bans, mutes, and warnings with timestamps
* Moderation audit log entries
* User reports

No External Data Sharing

All data is stored locally in your WordPress database. External connections only occur when:

• reCAPTCHA (if enabled): Interaction data sent to Google for spam verification
• Social Sharing: When users click share buttons, they are redirected to social platforms

Development

Comments Press Zone is actively developed. Report issues or contribute:

• GitHub: github.com/avi-ezra/comments-press-zone
• Website: press.zone

Source Code

This plugin contains compiled/minified JavaScript and CSS files. The full source code is available in the plugin directory and on GitHub:

Compiled Files and Their Sources:

• admin/build/admin.js (minified) – Source in admin/src-vanilla/ directory

  • Individual module files: main.js, state/*, components/*, utils/*
  • Build command: cd admin && npm install && npm run build
  • Build tool: Webpack 5 with Babel

• Frontend JavaScript – Source in assets/js/ directory

  • All frontend JS files are uncompressed and included as-is
  • Files: frontend.js, components/*.js

• Stylesheets – Source in assets/scss/ directory

  • SCSS files that compile to assets/css/frontend.css
  • Build command: npm install && npm run build:css (from plugin root)
  • Build tool: node-sass/sass compiler

All source code is included in the plugin download and is available at: https://github.com/avi-ezra/comments-press-zone

Hooks & Filters

Developers can extend functionality using WordPress hooks. Documentation available on GitHub.

Credits

Developed by Press.zone

Technologies Used

• Vanilla JavaScript (no jQuery dependency)
• SCSS for styling
• WordPress REST API
• WordPress native comment system