Editor’s Note: There are changes taking place with WordPress. I don’t have a choice in accepting any of these changes. Regardless of what the company wants to happen I will say this; The Pitt POV is a non-profit blog and will not be ‘monetized’ in any way, shape or form. You will never have to pay a penny to read or comment on here. The only price you ever have to pay on here is adhering to respecting others and civility.

Hi, this Reed and Pauli Kohberger, doing tech support for the POV. We’ve been monitoring the comments/logins situation. Here is what we can best figure out. First – WordPress modified its blogging platform and that is when the “Anonymous” comments started showing up. Bottom line is that WordPress is doing this to force commenters to commit to a logged in status (where your name and avatar show every time after you’ve logged in) under WordPress. Same with having you login under a Facebook account. Why? Who knows?

So – here is the way forward and your options: When you comment on a post on the Pitt POV, the following box now shows up. From left to right, the upper buttons options are to log in with WordPress, log in with Facebook, or don’t log in at all but provide a name/email for your comment.

Option #1:

If you were to simply write a comment and hit “reply,” without choosing any of the three blue options, your comment would be listed under Anonymous. It may also take a few minutes to show up in the comment section (around 1-3 minutes) and will not have a name or avatar attached. You could add your name at the bottom of the actual comment text but again, you would have to do this for each comment you write.

Option #2:

If you click the WordPress icon to log in with WordPress, this appears:

By inputting your WordPress username or password, or connecting with Google or Apple (you may have to input your Google or Apple password for this), you can log in to post comments with your name and avatar showing from then on. If you don’t have Google or Apple you can start a WordPress account (it is free).

After doing one of the above you should only have to log in once, unless you’re using a public computer, an incognito window, or have cleared your browsing history and cookies (e.g. clearing your cookies from WordPress). If that happens you would have to log in again.

Logging in with Facebook is similar. Input your email/phone and Facebook password, and you will be able to log in with your name/avatar and have it show up on every comment you make from then on.

The third option is a bit unusual and very repetitious… If you click on the email button you get this:

For this, you can simply input your preferred name and email (and website, if wanted), and you can post a comment with this information. However, because this is not an actual login and has no authentication, it is possible to impersonate others, and provide false information. In addition, you will have to input your name every single time you comment, instead of it already being provided.

The choice is yours… I suggest that if you are a continual reader and/or commenter then log in using WordPress or the Facebook option and your comments will show as they always have done since 2016.

If you don’t want to do that you can either have “anonymous” show up or do the third button and input your email and name every time.

Choice is yours… But I say again that you will never have to pay a penny to read or comment on here.

HTP!