Improve Comment Follow-Up With The Subscribe to Comments WordPress Plugin

If you are a WordPress user, you are probably aware that their are hundreds (if not thousands) of great Wordpress plugins scattered all over the internet.  These plugins are created by your fellow WordPress users that want to make the software better and more functional, and most are available to you at no charge.  Of these plugins, many I would consider to be situational plugins, but there are a few that all WordPress blogs should use in my opinion. 

Subscribe to Comments is one of the important plugins that every blog should offer to their readers. This plugin will automatically place a subscription box in your comments form and allow your readers to receive e-mail notifications each time a follow up comment is left on your site.  If you’d prefer to tell the plugin where to display the box, you can do so by placing the following code into your comments.php file where you want the subscription box to appear:

<?php if (function_exists('show_subscription_checkbox')) { show_subscription_checkbox(); } ?>

I recommend placing this just above the Submit button (or whatever your button says to submit the comment). This will allow readers to see the “subscribe box” before reading the comment and check it if they want to be notified of any responses to their comment.  

It is important to note that you should NOT have this box checked by default (you can control this in your plugin’s Option panel).  This will significantly annoy potential commentators as well as turn away some readers.  I’ve noticed a few websites that have it checked by default and there is nothing more frustrating than leaving a comment and finding out you were subscribed to a post you commented on against your will.  Make the box visable and people will use it if they want notification.   I will sometimes check this box when I want to see any follow up comments, but I generally will not comment on sites that have this checked by default.