A Comment about Comments
Posted by Arctic Wolf on June 9, 2012
I have received feedback lately from some of my friends that they sometimes are asked for a “WordPress Password” in order to leave comments on my website. It is frustrating for them as they have always been able to comment in the past, and they really do not want to go to the trouble of obtaining a WordPress account. I was mystified by this development as I never changed any settings and really welcome the comments from all of my friends.
I got to the bottom of the mystery today and discovered that WordPress has become concerned that certain nefarious persons may be trying to hijack the identity of others in order to place comments upon certain blogs. I understand this concern completely as I have discovered that some persons have indeed been doing this upon my website. It seems that there always are some people who have nothing better to do than cause others grief. These actions are probably illegal; but stopping someone from using someone else’s email address to leave a comment is extremely difficult to police. The WordPress solution at this point is a system of verification in which they scan each commenting email address and if it is on their system as a WordPress user, a password is automatically asked for to verify the identity of the commenter.
The complication is that Gravatar Accounts are also WordPress Accounts. This means you may have a WordPress Account without even knowing it. If you are commenting using the email address which is attached to your Gravatar account, then you will be asked for a WordPress Password. Fortunately, your Gravatar Password is also your WordPress Password, and if you supply that password you are allowed to comment. I am truly sorry for the inconvenience, but I understand why WordPress felt they had to take action. Hopefully a better solution will be forthcoming.
Cheers!
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