I’m frequently asked ‘how to moderate all posts and comments on student blogs so that nothing is published until approved by a teacher’ because there are situations where it’s necessary.
I’ll tell you how to do it below – but first it’s important to mention educators have differing opinions on moderation and use two main approaches:
- Students are allowed to publish own posts and approve all comments
- Students posts and comments aren’t published until approved by a teacher
There are pros/cons to each of these approaches which I don’t have time to discuss in this post but would love to follow up in a later post.
So please share your thoughts on moderation by leaving a comment:
- Which approach do you take and why?
- Do you moderate all comments and posts? Or not?
Step 1: Create the student blogs using the gmail+ method
The easiest way to moderate all the comments is for all comments from the student blogs to be sent to one email account.
You do this by creating the blogs using the gmail+ method.
How it works is Gmails ignores anything in the first half of an email address after a plus sign so if you create each email with the format username+studentname@gmail.com all emails will be sent to the inbox of username@gmail.com.
If you don’t want to use your own gmail account then set up a gmail account for your class e.g. room15@gmail.com.
This means every comment that is posted on any of the blog will automatically be sent to the one gmail account making it really easier for you to read, approve or delete.
All you need to do is just click on appropriate link in the email!

Here are instructions for creating student blogs:
- For free Eublogs blog users – read Creating student blogs using the Signup page
- Edublogs Supporter and Edublogs Campus users – refer to Using Blog & User Creator to create student blogs
Tip: Remember to add yourself as administrator to the student blogs!
Step 2: Change The Comment Moderation Settings
The default comment setting for all newly created blogs is ‘Comment author must have a previously approved comment.’ This means once you’ve approved one comment from a commenter all subsequent comments by that person will be automatically published without being moderated.
For all comments to be moderated and approved by a teacher before appearing on the blog you need to change the comment moderation setting for all student blogs to include ‘An administrator must always approve the comment’.
Changing comment settings is as simple as:
- Go to Settings > Discussion

- Select ‘An administrator must always approve the comment’.

- Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page
For more information about managing comments refer to:
- Engaging with readers through comments
- Controlling who can comment on posts
- Managing, editing and approving comments
Step 3: Changing the Student’s role on the blog
In most situations student blogs are created with the students automatically assigned the role of administrator.
To moderate their posts, so it a post is only published after approval by a teacher, you need to change their role on the blog to Contributor.
To change their role:
- Go to Users > Authors & Users

- Select the user you want to change, click on drop down arrow to select Contributor and then click Change

When a contributor writes a post it is saved as a pending to await approval by an administrator or editor.
To approve a post:
- Navigate to the dashboard of the student blog

- Click on Post > Edit

- Those posts submitted for review by your student will have pending next to their title.
- Hovering your mouse over the title of a post brings up four action links: Edit; Quick Edit; Delete and Preview.

- To publish just click on Edit or Quick Edit and then click Update Post.
For more information refer to Editing posts.
Please note:
- Contributors have decreased responsibilities on a blog and can’t upload media files to posts. Also contributors can view comments but can’t edit, delete or approve the comments.
- Read Managing Students on Blogs…What Role Do You Assign Students? for more information on user roles
FINAL THOUGHTS
Please share your thoughts on moderation by leaving a comment:
- Which approach do you take and why?
- Do you moderate all comments and posts?
- Or do you allow students to publish own posts and approve all comments?
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Analyzing blog metrics always gives me a headache!










Reminder!
Tips For Dealing With Spam Commenters
Like most bloggers I really love comments.
And it’s great to get comments that express concern such as “Sue – you’re back and…not blogging yet?:)”……. only to discover it’s a spam comments.
I’ll tell you how I minimize spam comments below – but first a little on the WHAT.
What are Spam Comments?
The reason why people write spam comments is to provide links to the spammer’s commercial web site; to get you and/or your readers to visit their site.
Common spam commenting techniques include:
Spammers generally write comments with minimal substance such as:
Thank you for this tips; Good Stuff!; Good job, bro; Very informative and helpful; Yes, it is very helpful; Thanks you for the information and I’ll return here often…….
If it smells like spam it normally is!
Check the URL to confirm— and DELETE!
Refer to Managing, editing and approving comments for more info on deleting comments!
Ways of Minimizing spam comments!
An annoying aspect of spammers is they’ll often target posts with numerous comments.
So while deleting their comments helps it doesn’t prevent emails being sent to commenters who selected ‘Notify me of followup comments via email’.
The key is make it harder for spammers to leave comments so eventually they give up and move on! And in the process reducing their spamming of your readers!
The two main methods I use are:
1. Comment moderation
I’ve found comment moderation the most effective method because it allows me to target specific spammers.
It’s as simple as:
Now any comments written that contain any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP will automatically be held in your moderation queue where you can decide if to approve or delete them.
2. Akismet
It checks the content of the comment anonymously with an online server, to determine whether it is spam or not.
All comments considered spam automatically placed by Askimet in a spam queue where it is held for a month and then deleted.
Refer to these instructions for setting up and configuring Akismet!
Please Note:
Final Thoughts
@spammer! Yes, I’m back from holidays and thanks for inspiring this post
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