SayHello Suppress Comments

A WordPress plugin that completely suppresses all commenting functionality across your WordPress site.

Description

This plugin provides comprehensive comment suppression for WordPress, including:

• Complete Comment Blocking: Disables comment support for all post types
• API Protection: Blocks comment submissions via REST API, XML-RPC, and all programmatic methods
• Admin Area Cleanup: Removes all comment-related menus, links, and UI elements from WordPress admin
• Frontend Suppression: Disables comment forms, existing comment display, and comment feeds
• Dashboard Cleanup: Removes comment widgets and counts from the WordPress dashboard

Features

Comment Functionality Suppression

• Disables comments and trackbacks for all post types
• Blocks programmatic comment insertion via wp_insert_comment() and wp_new_comment()
• Prevents comment submissions through forms
• Disables comment and ping status for all content

API Protection

• Disables WordPress REST API comment endpoints (/wp/v2/comments)
• Removes XML-RPC comment methods (wp.newComment, wp.getComments, etc.)
• Blocks comment feeds (RSS and Atom)

Admin Area Cleanup

• Removes "Comments" menu from admin sidebar
• Removes "Discussion Settings" from Settings menu
• Hides comment-related meta boxes from post edit screens
• Removes comments from admin bar
• Removes comment dashboard widgets
• Hides comment counts throughout the admin interface

Widget Management

• Unregisters the "Recent Comments" widget

Installation

1. Upload the shp-suppress-comments directory to /wp-content/plugins/
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
3. Comments are now completely suppressed - no configuration needed!

Requirements

• WordPress 5.0 or higher
• PHP 7.0 or higher

Usage

Simply activate the plugin. There are no settings to configure - all comment functionality is automatically suppressed site-wide.

To re-enable comments, simply deactivate the plugin.

Technical Details

Hooks and Filters Used

The plugin uses multiple WordPress hooks to ensure comprehensive comment suppression:

• init - Removes comment support from post types
• admin_menu - Removes comment-related admin menus
• comments_open - Forces comments closed
• pings_open - Forces pings closed
• comments_array - Returns empty array for existing comments
• admin_init - Additional comment support removal
• widgets_init - Disables comment widgets
• admin_bar_menu - Removes comments from admin bar
• wp_dashboard_setup - Removes comment dashboard widgets
• rest_endpoints - Disables REST API comment endpoints
• pre_comment_approved - Prevents comment approval
• pre_comment_on_post - Blocks comment submissions
• xmlrpc_methods - Disables XML-RPC comment methods

Security

This plugin provides multiple layers of protection to ensure comments cannot be submitted through any method:

1. Filter Layer: Uses WordPress filters to disable comment functionality
2. Action Layer: Intercepts comment submissions and blocks them
3. API Layer: Removes comment endpoints from REST API and XML-RPC
4. UI Layer: Removes all comment-related interfaces

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions, please visit: https://github.com/SayHelloGmbH/shp-suppress-comments

License

GPL-3.0-or-later

Author

Say Hello GmbH https://sayhello.ch

Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial release
• Complete comment suppression functionality
• Admin area cleanup
• API endpoint protection