Activation & Verification

Activation

Once you have installed the plugin via the WordPress Admin Dashboard, follow these steps to enable the privacy features:

1. Navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins.
2. Locate Private Comments in the list.
3. Click the Activate link.

The plugin is active immediately upon activation. There are no additional settings pages to configure; the visibility filters are applied globally to all posts and pages.

Verification

To ensure that the plugin is correctly filtering comment visibility, we recommend performing a verification check using different user roles. The plugin logic dictates that a comment is only visible if the viewer is:

• The Administrator.
• The Post Author (the user who wrote the post).
• The Comment Author (the user who wrote the comment).

Testing Steps

Follow these steps to verify the privacy restrictions are in effect:

1. Post a Comment: Log in as "User A" (e.g., a Subscriber) and leave a comment on a specific post.
2. Verify as Comment Author: While still logged in as "User A," refresh the post page. You should see your comment.
3. Verify as Guest/Public: Open the same post in an Incognito/Private window (where you are not logged in). The comment section should appear empty or indicate that no comments have been posted.
4. Verify as Another User: Log in as "User B" (a different Subscriber). Navigate to the same post. You should not be able to see "User A's" comment.
5. Verify as Administrator: Log in as an Administrator. Navigate to the post. You should see all comments from all users.

Visibility Matrix

You can use the following table to cross-reference expected behavior during your audit:

| Viewer Role | Can see own comments? | Can see others' comments? | | :--- | :---: | :---: | | Administrator | Yes | Yes | | Post Author | Yes | Yes | | Comment Author | Yes | No | | Guest/Logged-out | No* | No | | Other Registered Users | Yes (their own) | No |

*Note: Guests may see their own "held for moderation" comment if they just submitted it, depending on your WordPress cookie settings, but it will not be visible to any other non-privileged users.

Troubleshooting

If comments are still visible to the public after activation:

• Caching: Clear your site-side cache (e.g., WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache) and any server-side caches (e.g., Varnish or Cloudflare).
• Theme Overrides: Ensure your theme uses the standard WordPress comments_template() or get_comments() functions, as the plugin hooks into the standard WordPress comment queries.