The admin panel

Comments & spam protection

Enable comments, moderate them and stop spam with the built-in anti-spam suite.

Comments let viewers react to your videos and keep them coming back. TubePress ships a complete commenting system with an optional moderation queue and a layered anti-spam suite — so you can open the conversation without opening the floodgates to bots.

This page covers turning comments on, moderating them from the admin, and tuning each anti-spam control to match how much traffic — and abuse — your site attracts.

Enabling comments

Comments are controlled from Settings → General, in the Comments section. There are two switches:

Enable comments

Allow comments on videos at all. On by default.

Moderation

Hold every new comment for approval before it appears. Off by default.

With comments enabled but moderation off, approved-by-default comments appear immediately (still filtered by anti-spam). Turn moderation on when you'd rather check everything first.

Moderating comments

All comments flow into /admin/comments. The list can be filtered by status — pending, approved or spam — and each comment offers three actions:

Approve

Publish the comment on its video.

Mark as spam

Move it out of the way and flag it as junk.

Delete

Remove it permanently. You can also bulk-delete a selection.

When Moderation is on, new comments arrive as pending and stay hidden until you approve them — turning this screen into a review queue. The Pending Moderation widget on the dashboard shows the outstanding count at a glance, so nothing waits unnoticed.

The anti-spam suite

Whether or not you moderate, TubePress can screen comments automatically before they ever reach you. Open the Anti-spam settings link beside the Comments switches to reveal six independent controls. Each can be toggled on its own, and they work with or without the CAPTCHA configured in Security settings — they are belt-and-braces, not either/or.

Bot trap (honeypot)

Adds a hidden field that real visitors never see but automated scripts fill in — anything that completes it is rejected. On by default.

Minimum time on page

Rejects comments submitted faster than a human could plausibly type. Tunable in seconds (default 3; 1–30). On by default.

Rate limit per IP

Caps how many comments one visitor can post per hour (default 5; 1–100) and per day (default 30; 1–500). On by default.

Block duplicate comments

Stops the same message being posted twice within a window of minutes (default 60; 1–1440). On by default.

Block links

Rejects comments that contain more than a set number of URLs. Set the maximum to 0 to block all links (default 0; up to 20). On by default.

Comment length

Enforces a minimum and maximum character count (defaults 2 and 5000) to reject one-character noise and giant pastes. On by default.

Layer your defences. These filters are cheap and invisible to genuine visitors, so there is little reason to disable them. Leave the lot enabled and only loosen a control if it ever catches legitimate comments.

Recommended settings

There is no single correct configuration, but these starting points cover most sites:

A new or low-traffic site: keep comments on, leave every anti-spam control at its defaults, and leave moderation off — the automatic filters handle the bulk of junk on their own.
Getting spam through? Turn Moderation on so nothing publishes without your say-so, and add a CAPTCHA in Security settings for a second gate.
Under sustained attack: tighten the rate limits, shorten the link allowance to 0, and raise the minimum time on page. The honeypot and duplicate filter cost nothing — keep them on permanently.
Want a quieter community: raise the minimum comment length so drive-by one-word replies are rejected.

Next steps

ModerationHandle reports and keep content in line. SecurityAdd a CAPTCHA and lock down the admin. Users & rolesWho can comment and who can moderate.

Still stuck?

Open a ticket from your dashboard and our team will help you out.

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