This is a look at the Comment Edit Lite plugin. The built-in WordPress comment system has been largely ignored. It is lacking in features, is difficult to manage, and is prone to spam. Consequently, some people disable comments site wide and others use third party plugins to improve the default comment system. Comment Edit Lite is just such as plugin that enhances WordPress comments.
Video Version
The Free Version – Comment Edit Lite
There is a free plugin in the WordPress plugin directory called Comment Edit Lite that is the foundation upon with Comment Edit Pro is based, so you will need the free plugin installed to use the pro version. Comment Edit Lite has more than 3,000 active installs and 46 five star reviews.
By default, WordPress does not allow someone who leaves a comment to edit it after it has been submitted. That can be frustrating if there is a typo or something the author would like to correct. Comment Edit Lite fixes this. All it does is provide a 5 minute timer and allow the comment author to edit their comment within that 5 minute window.
There are a couple of settings screens. On the first screen you can change the number of minutes, the way the countdown appears, and the how the button looks. On the Integrations screen you can enable the Mailchimp email list signup option.
When you toggle the Mailchimp option on then you need to enter you API key and pick the default mailing list.
If you enabled the Mailchimp feature then on the frontend you would see an option to signup for updates. That message seems a bit skimpy and it would be good to let the visitor know they are signing up for an email newsletter.
In terms of the main feature, on the frontend, after you add a comment you see the Click to Edit link with the countdown timer. When you click to edit you have the option to delete the comment, if that was enabled in the settings.
Conclusion
Comment Edit Lite does one job and that is to add the option to edit you comment. It works well. The developer has a pro version with more features and I’ll be covering that in a subsequent walk-through.
