Why is your comment pending on Disqus?

Disqus is one of the most popular commenting plugins. Helps publishers build engaged communities on their website by fostering colorful discussions. If you were part of one of those discussions, you know how exciting it can be to exchange with other users. That’s why it can be frustrating if your comment suddenly doesn’t appear, effectively removing you from a discussion indefinitely.

Read on to learn why your Disqus comment is marked “Pending” and what you can do about it.

Who moderates comments on Disqus?

Before we move on to the reasons why a comment may not be posted immediately, it’s important to note that Disqus does not moderate comments directly.

In most cases, website owners using the Disqus plugin are in charge of moderation. For that reason, your commenting experience may be significantly different depending on the website’s inpidual moderation policies.

So, if your comment isn’t appearing in a thread and you can’t seem to identify why, your best bet is to contact the site’s moderators.

You can find a contact form or email address on most websites, allowing you to quickly contact the support team. They are the only ones who have the authority to approve a comment or offer an explanation of its status.

Why is my comment waiting for approval?

Website administrators using the Disqus plugin can pre-moderate comments based on specific criteria. If your comment meets any of these criteria, it will be marked as “Pending” until a moderator reviews it. After review, your comment will be published or deleted.

When you notice a “Pending” message next to your comment, we suggest revisiting the thread after a while to check if the comment is visible. Sometimes there is a delay in data duplication throughout the Disqus system, causing a delay in posting comments.

If your comment is still pending, take a look at the most common reasons for this status.

Pre-moderation is enabled for all comments

Website owners can choose to moderate all incoming comments before allowing them to be posted. Therefore, all comments on that particular website will initially be marked as “Pending”. Moderators can then manually approve comments or delete them.

You are commenting for the first time

Website owners subscribed to Pro and Business plans in Disqus You can choose to pre-moderate new commenters. As a result, your comment will automatically be marked as “Pending” if you have never posted on that particular website before.

Website editors can set the deadline for pre-moderation of new commenters. After that, you will be able to use the comment options like the rest of the website users.

You made the comment as a guest

Some websites allow users to leave comments without creating a Disqus account.

If you check the “I prefer to post as a guest” box after writing your comment, you will only need to leave one email address. Disqus does not verify this address. As a result, all guest comments are automatically marked as “Pending”, regardless of the pre-moderation settings on the particular website.

You have not verified your email address

Your comment will not be published if you have registered on Disqus but couldn’t verify your email address. To prevent your comments from being marked as “Pending” in the future, simply click the “Verify” button in the welcome email sent by Discuss.

Your comment contains a link

One of the pre-moderation settings allows editors to prevent comments containing links from being published until they are approved by a site moderator.

Your comment contains a restricted word

Website administrators can make a list of up to 2,000 restricted words. If your comment contains at least one of these words, it will not be published immediately.

Restricted words differ significantly depending on the website you visit. For example, some websites allow swear words, while others choose to first review comments that contain them.

Disqus prepopulates the list of restricted words with its recommendations. In general, they prohibit the following content in their comments:

• hate speech
  
• Targeted harassment
  
• Active threats of harm
  

Your display name contains a restricted word

Let’s say your comment doesn’t contain any words that could be considered inappropriate, but it’s still marked “Pending.” In that case, take a look at your display name. If a restricted word appears in your display name, all your comments will remain pending until they are manually approved.

Your comment is marked as spam

Sometimes the spam filter may automatically flag a comment if it detects it as spam. This may occur if you do any of the following:

• Post several comments to promote a product or service.
• Posting the same comment repeatedly, thus interrupting a thread.
• Include your signature in multiple comments.
• Use strange syntax, such as excessive paragraph breaks or strange punctuation.

Your comment has a bad reputation

If website users disagree with a comment, they can express their disapproval by downvoting the comment. A large number of downvotes makes the comment have a low reputation. Website administrators can choose to include these comments in pre-moderation settings. As a result, the comment will display a “Pending” message next to it until the moderators decide if it is appropriate to remain on the site.

Your comment contains media

According to Disqus Basic rules, graphic media that contain pornographic or violent content are expressly prohibited. However, web publishers may choose to prevent the publication of any comments that contain media, regardless of the content itself. After reviewing the media, the moderators will decide if your comment can be published.

Argue away

Now that you know the factors that may have contributed to your comment not being published, you know what to pay attention to moving forward. If you follow the guidelines when leaving comments, you’ll have no problem participating in lively discussions on websites that use Disqus.