Liam Gladdy

A WordPress plugin to allow simple upvoting of post objects by a user.

Upvotr

A WordPress plugin to allow simple upvoting of post objects by a user.

Avi Ezra

Comments Press Zone transforms your WordPress comments into a modern, engaging discussion platform. Built for performance and accessibility, it seamlessly replaces the default comment system while preserving all your existing comments.
<h4>Key Features</h4>
Engagement Tools
<ul>
<li>Upvote and downvote comments</li>
<li>Social sharing (Facebook, Twitter/X, LinkedIn)</li>
<li>Threaded replies with configurable nesting depth</li>
<li>Confetti celebration on new comments</li>
<li>Post-comment sharing prompts</li>
</ul>
Design Customization
<ul>
<li>Three color modes: Light, Dark, and Theme Inherit</li>
<li>Styling options: Square, Rounded, or Pill borders</li>
<li>Adjustable padding: Wide, Standard, or Minimal</li>
<li>Configurable border thickness</li>
<li>Live preview in admin panel</li>
<li>Fully responsive for all devices</li>
</ul>
Powerful Moderation
<ul>
<li>Ban users permanently or temporarily</li>
<li>Mute users for specified periods</li>
<li>Issue warnings with custom messages</li>
<li>Full moderation audit log</li>
<li>User infraction history</li>
<li>Report system for community moderation</li>
<li>Comment editing and deletion</li>
</ul>
Security & Spam Protection
<ul>
<li>Google reCAPTCHA v3 integration</li>
<li>Comment rate limiting (throttling)</li>
<li>Banned words filter</li>
<li>External link blocking option</li>
</ul>
Performance
<ul>
<li>Optimized database queries</li>
<li>Optional Redis caching support</li>
<li>Optional Memcached support</li>
<li>Minimal frontend footprint</li>
</ul>
Accessibility
<ul>
<li>WCAG 2.1 AA compliant</li>
<li>Full keyboard navigation</li>
<li>Screen reader optimized</li>
<li>Focus indicators on all interactive elements</li>
<li>Respects prefers-reduced-motion</li>
</ul>
<h4>Perfect For</h4>
<ul>
<li>Community websites requiring robust moderation tools</li>
<li>Publications wanting engagement metrics and voting</li>
<li>Blogs needing customizable comment appearance</li>
<li>Sites requiring spam protection beyond Akismet</li>
<li>Developers building extensible comment systems</li>
</ul>
<h4>Requirements</h4>
<ul>
<li>WordPress 6.0 or higher</li>
<li>PHP 7.4 or higher</li>
<li>MySQL 5.7 or higher</li>
</ul>
<h3>External Services</h3>
This plugin connects to external services under specific conditions:
Google reCAPTCHA v3 (Optional – Admin Configuration Required)
<ul>
<li>What it is: Google’s invisible spam protection service that analyzes user behavior to detect bots</li>
<li>When used: Only when reCAPTCHA is explicitly enabled by the site administrator in plugin settings (Settings > Spam & Moderation > Enable reCAPTCHA) AND a user submits a comment</li>
<li>Data sent:
<ul>
<li>Comment form token generated by reCAPTCHA JavaScript</li>
<li>User’s IP address for verification</li>
<li>reCAPTCHA response token</li>
<li>Browser/device information collected by Google’s reCAPTCHA script</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Purpose: Spam protection and bot detection to prevent automated comment spam</li>
<li>User control: Site administrators can completely disable this feature in plugin settings. When disabled, no data is sent to Google.</li>
<li>Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy</li>
<li>Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms</li>
<li>Additional info: https://developers.google.com/recaptcha</li>
</ul>
Social Media Sharing Links (User-Initiated Only – No Automatic Data Transmission)
The plugin generates share links for social media platforms. Important: No data is sent automatically. The plugin only creates clickable links. Data is only transmitted when a user voluntarily clicks a share button.
<ul>
<li>
Facebook Sharing
<ul>
<li>What it is: Direct link to Facebook’s share dialog</li>
<li>When used: Only when a user voluntarily clicks the Facebook share button on a comment</li>
<li>Data sent: Post/comment URL (via URL parameter: <code>?u=</code>)</li>
<li>Purpose: Allow users to share comments on their Facebook timeline</li>
<li>User control: Users must explicitly click the share button. No data is sent otherwise. Administrators can disable Facebook sharing in plugin settings.</li>
<li>Privacy Policy: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/</li>
<li>Terms: https://www.facebook.com/terms.php</li>
<li>Note: The plugin does not embed Facebook tracking pixels or the Facebook SDK. It only provides a standard share link.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Twitter/X Sharing
<ul>
<li>What it is: Direct link to Twitter’s tweet intent interface</li>
<li>When used: Only when a user voluntarily clicks the Twitter/X share button on a comment</li>
<li>Data sent: Post/comment URL (via URL parameter: <code>?url=</code>)</li>
<li>Purpose: Allow users to share comments on Twitter/X</li>
<li>User control: Users must explicitly click the share button. No data is sent otherwise. Administrators can disable Twitter sharing in plugin settings.</li>
<li>Privacy Policy: https://twitter.com/en/privacy</li>
<li>Terms: https://twitter.com/en/tos</li>
<li>Note: The plugin does not embed Twitter tracking scripts. It only provides a standard tweet intent link.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
LinkedIn Sharing
<ul>
<li>What it is: Direct link to LinkedIn’s share article interface</li>
<li>When used: Only when a user voluntarily clicks the LinkedIn share button on a comment</li>
<li>Data sent: Post/comment URL (via URL parameter: <code>?url=</code>)</li>
<li>Purpose: Allow users to share comments on their LinkedIn profile</li>
<li>User control: Users must explicitly click the share button. No data is sent otherwise. Administrators can disable LinkedIn sharing in plugin settings.</li>
<li>Privacy Policy: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy</li>
<li>Terms: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement</li>
<li>Note: The plugin does not embed LinkedIn tracking pixels. It only provides a standard share link.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Important Clarifications:
<ol>
<li>
No Automatic Tracking: The plugin does NOT automatically send data to social media platforms. It only generates share URLs. When a user clicks a share button, they are redirected to the respective platform’s website, which is outside the plugin’s control.
</li>
<li>
Administrator Control: Site administrators can disable any or all social sharing options in Settings > Comments Display > Social Sharing.
</li>
<li>
No External Scripts: The plugin does not load Facebook SDK, Twitter widgets, or LinkedIn tracking scripts on your site. All sharing is done via standard URL parameters.
</li>
<li>
Data Privacy: The plugin does not store or log sharing activity. All sharing happens directly between the user’s browser and the social media platform.
</li>
</ol>
<h3>Privacy Policy</h3>
Comments Press Zone stores the following data in your WordPress database:
Comment Data (Standard WordPress) 
* Comment content, author name, email, and IP address 
* Comment timestamps and parent relationships
Engagement Data 
* Votes (upvotes/downvotes) linked to user ID or IP for guests 
* User reputation scores
Moderation Data 
* User bans, mutes, and warnings with timestamps 
* Moderation audit log entries 
* User reports
No External Data Sharing
All data is stored locally in your WordPress database. External connections only occur when:
<ul>
<li>reCAPTCHA (if enabled): Interaction data sent to Google for spam verification</li>
<li>Social Sharing: When users click share buttons, they are redirected to social platforms</li>
</ul>
<h3>Development</h3>
Comments Press Zone is actively developed. Report issues or contribute:
<ul>
<li>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/avi-ezra/comments-press-zone" rel="nofollow ugc">github.com/avi-ezra/comments-press-zone</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://press.zone" rel="nofollow ugc">press.zone</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Source Code</h4>
This plugin contains compiled/minified JavaScript and CSS files. The full source code is available in the plugin directory and on GitHub:
Compiled Files and Their Sources:
<ul>
<li>
admin/build/admin.js (minified) – Source in <code>admin/src-vanilla/</code> directory
<ul>
<li>Individual module files: main.js, state/*, components/*, utils/*</li>
<li>Build command: <code>cd admin && npm install && npm run build</code></li>
<li>Build tool: Webpack 5 with Babel</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Frontend JavaScript – Source in <code>assets/js/</code> directory
<ul>
<li>All frontend JS files are uncompressed and included as-is</li>
<li>Files: frontend.js, components/*.js</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
Stylesheets – Source in <code>assets/scss/</code> directory
<ul>
<li>SCSS files that compile to <code>assets/css/frontend.css</code></li>
<li>Build command: <code>npm install && npm run build:css</code> (from plugin root)</li>
<li>Build tool: node-sass/sass compiler</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
All source code is included in the plugin download and is available at: https://github.com/avi-ezra/comments-press-zone
<h4>Hooks & Filters</h4>
Developers can extend functionality using WordPress hooks. Documentation available on GitHub.
<h3>Credits</h3>
Developed by <a href="https://press.zone" rel="nofollow ugc">Press.zone</a>
<h4>Technologies Used</h4>
<ul>
<li>Vanilla JavaScript (no jQuery dependency)</li>
<li>SCSS for styling</li>
<li>WordPress REST API</li>
<li>WordPress native comment system</li>
</ul>

Comments Press Zone

A modern, high-performance commenting system for WordPress with voting, moderation, and customizable design.

Upvotr vs Comments Press Zone