WordPress Comment Moderation by E-mail Address or IP Address Only
Annoyingly, WordPress comment moderation requires a previously approved commenter to enter their exact same name and e-mail address for comments to automatically bypass the moderation queue. This applies when the following settings are applied in the Discussion Options tab:
Before a comment appears:
NO : An administrator must always approve the comment
YES : Comment author must fill out name and e-mail
YES : Comment author must have a previously approved comment
This inconvenience to the commenter can be resolved by altering a query setting in one of the core system files.
In WordPress 2.3.x, locate comment.php in the /wp-includes/ directory. Inside the file, look for line 49, which displays this code:$ok_to_comment = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT comment_approved FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE comment_author = '$author' AND comment_author_email = '$email' and comment_approved = '1' LIMIT 1");
Replace that line of code with the following, depending on what you would like to use for comment moderation:
Bypass moderation if the commenter uses a previously approved e-mail address:$ok_to_comment = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT comment_approved FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE comment_author_email = '$email' and comment_approved = '1' LIMIT 1");
Bypass moderation if the commenter is from a previously approved IP address:$ok_to_comment = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT comment_approved FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE comment_author_IP = '$user_ip' and comment_approved = '1' LIMIT 1");
I have verified that the e-mail address verification is not case sensitive. User can now enter any name and still bypass moderation if their e-mail address was previously entered (and is attached to an approved comment).
Note: Since this is a core file, you will have to repeat this modification after each updated that requires you to overwrite this system file.
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