Pre-defined Replies for Moderators

Please note the following list includes common replies for forum moderators. Perhaps you were looking for common general support replies instead?

The following are the simple copy/paste replies to the most common requests.

Profanity

What defines profanity is up to you. Just be reasonable.

[Expletive moderated]

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Large code excerpts

Large is less of an issue now than it was before we fixed the forum code. Still, if it’s a whole template or stylesheet, remove it.

[Large code excerpt removed by moderator per our FAQ. Please use Pastebin or a Gist for all large code excerpts, they work better anyway.]

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Unformatted code excerpts

After fixing the code, add:

[Moderator note: code fixed. Please wrap code in the backtick character or use the code button. See our FAQ for more details.]

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Signatures

Courtesy signing (like: “Best regards, name”) is always OK, but longer signatures (with links, various unrelated and/or promotional messages, etc.) should not be in the forums. You can just delete them or leave this if you want.

[Signature removed by moderator per forum guidelines.]

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Someone asking for credentials

While I know you have the best of intentions, it's forum policy that you not ask users for admin or server access. Users on the forums aren't your customers, they're your open source collaborators, and requesting that kind of access can put you and them at high risk. 

If they are paying customers (such as people who bought a premium service/product from you) then by all means, direct them to your official customer support system. But in all other cases, you need to help them here on the forums.

Thankfully are other ways to get information you need:

  • Ask the user to install the Health Check plugin and get the data that way.
  • Ask for a link to the http://pastebin.com/ or https://gist.github.com log of the user's web server error log.
  • Ask the user to create and post a link to their `phpinfo();` output.
  • Walk the user through enabling WP_DEBUG and how to log that output to a file and how to share that file.
  • Walk the user through basic troubleshooting steps such and disabling all other plugins, clear their cache and cookies and try again (the Health Check plugin can do this without impacting any site vistors).
  • Ask the user for the step-by-step directions on how they can reproduce the problem.
You get the idea. We know volunteer support is not easy, and this guideline can feel needlessly restrictive. It's actually there to protect you as much as end users. Should their site be hacked or have any issues after you accessed it, you could be held legally liable for damages. In addition, it's difficult for end users to know the difference between helpful developers and people with malicious intentions. Because of that, we rely on plugin developers and long-standing volunteers (like you) to help us and uphold this particular guideline. When you help users here and in public, you also help the next person with the same problem. They'll be able to read the debugging and solution and educate themselves. That's how we get the next generation of developers.

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Email addresses

You don’t have to delete emails, but generally people will come back in 6 months asking you to delete the post and let’s just head ’em off at the pass.

[Email deleted]

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Pile-on, Me too

Please do not jump into other topics and detract from their problem. If the troubleshooting already posted made no difference for you, then, as per the Forum FAQ, please post your own topic. A lot more people will see your post, and that way you stand a good chance of getting the assistance you want. Despite any similarity in symptoms, your issue is likely to be completely different because of possible differences in physical servers, accounts, hosts, plugins, theme, configurations, etc. Thus one problem, on one setup is not indicative of the functionality and reliability of an application as a whole. Your post will be archived.

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Bumps

Generally we only have to do this when someone’s doing 10 bumps in a row.

[Per the Forum Guidelines we ask you NOT bump posts. We use the 'no replies' search on these forums regularly to find people who still need help. By bumping, you remove yourself from that list and make it HARDER for us to find you!]

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Closing Posts

If you have to close a post for any other reason, such as people getting way out of hand, you can use this.

[Per the Forum FAQ, we reserve the right to close any post that are deemed to be non-productive support/WordPress discussions.]

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Hosting provider recommendations

Close the topic and leave the following (or similar) remark.

Per the Forum FAQ, we close topics like this due to the amount of spam that they attract. The WordPress team has provided a list of a few recommended hosting providers. For more details and other recommendations, please search via your preferred search engine.

(Note: By closing this post I neither support nor condemn the use of the servers listed on the wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ official hosting page, or in this thread, and encourage you to search around.)

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When hosting topics go wrong

We appreciate posts that seek to educate and help the community, whether it is in the form of a review or if it inadvertently help others as a support thread. But threads that start off as or become attacks which do not give value to anyone are not welcomed and we will close this topic as per our forum rules.

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GPL Argument

Close the topic and leave the following (or similar) remark.

The argument about whether or not WordPress and its themes and plugins are GPL is not something we're qualified to debate here. Certainly WordPress is licensed under GPLv2, and all themes and plugins hosted on WordPress.org are required to be GPLv2 compatible in their entirety, so you are free to edit and redistribute as you see fit. If code is not licensed as GPLv2 (or later) compatible, we ask that you not bring it up here for discussion.

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Non-GPL Support Request

Close the topic and leave the following (or similar) remark.

Sorry, but your chosen theme is not released under GPL. Non GPL products are not welcome in the WordPress community. Official WordPress policy states that all plugins and themes that are publicly released are required to adhere to https://wordpress.org/about/gpl/ Any support requests for non-GPL products are usually ignored, in the interests of supporting the community and its freedoms.

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Requests for post deletion or editing

Generally speaking, posts are only edited or removed where to do otherwise might lead to serious consequences. Previous examples have included posts that accidentally incorporated proprietary code or where the poster asking has reason to fear for their online safety. Having a posted site url come up in Google in NOT a serious consequence. In each case, use your best judgement or ask for a second opinion. If the final decision to to leave the post “as is”, use something like:

When a post is made and people contribute answers to an issue, that then becomes part of the community resource for others to benefit from. Deleting posts removes this added value. Forum topics will only be edited or deleted if they represent a valid legal, security, or safety concern.

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Offering to Pay

Close the topic and leave the following (or similar) remark.

Please try https://jobs.wordpress.net/ and do not accept any hire offers posted to these forums.

This topic has now been closed as per the Forum Guidelines.

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Site Feedback Request

These forums are for supporting those experiencing problems with their WordPress websites. Instead of posting here, please request feedback from friends and family so that the volunteers here can spend their time helping those who are experiencing difficulties.

This thread will be closed per Forum Guidelines, and if you do need help with anything specific, we encourage you to open a new thread here.

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When someone says that “WordPress is hosting a site”

This normally comes with take down demands.

WordPress.org does not providing hosting for sites, it provides the software for other people to build their own sites on their own hosts. WordPress’ philosophy and bill of rights permit people to use WordPress software for any reason they want, without any enforcement over legality or illegality. We leave that up to the webhosts. In cases of theft, abuse, harassment, or other such behavior, your best recourse is to contact their web host directly. You can use WHOIS to determine where they're hosted, as well as resources like https://www.whoishostingthis.com to find relevant information.

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Requests to delete WordPress.org account

Please reply with the following and close the thread only if necessary.

Simply follow the instructions on our Data Erasure Request form.

(Please do not mention any laws or legalities, regardless of country, leave that to legal professionals.)

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Hacked?

Carefully follow this guide. When you're done, you may want to implement some (if not all) of the recommended security measures and start backing up your site.

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Requesting Support for a Commercial Product

Mods are encouraged to provide the actual support link to the developer

Since that is a commercial theme or plugin, we ask that you please go to their official support channel, so you can get support from the people who know it best.

[support link]

Forum volunteers are also not given access to commercial products, so they would not know why it is not working properly. Other community members who may have faced your issue might be able to help you but your best bet is your product's developer. Keep in mind we encourage you to use the official support venues, as it allows the developers to be aware of issues with their code and gives back to the community in a more robust way.

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Check plugins and themes

If you suspect a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party of causing the issue or a theme function then ask the user to verify if this is the case:

If you can install plugins, install and activate "Health Check": https://wordpress.org/plugins/health-check/  
It will add some additional feature under create a new menu position Tools > Site Health.
On its troubleshooting tab, you can Enable Troubleshooting Mode. This will disable all plugins, switch to a standard WordPress theme (if available), allow you to turn your plugins on and off and switch between themes, without affecting normal visitors to your site. This allows you to test for various compatibility issues. 
There’s a more detailed description about how to use the Health Check plugin and its Troubleshooting Mode at https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/appendix/troubleshooting-using-the-health-check/

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WP.org caching

If discrepancies happen with review numbers, posts, version numbers or more and you believe it is due to caching:

The plugin & theme repositories (and in fact all of WordPress.org) are synchronised across many servers. In order to withstand the constant traffic and posts, there will be times that the exact counts of posts, reviews, downloads, or even plugin/theme versions are ​_temporarily_​ out of sync. This usually resolves itself within a few hours and is nothing to worry about.

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Broken Upgrade

Have you tried:

  • flushing any caching plugins you might be running, as well as server and/or browser caches.
  • deactivating all plugins (yes, all) to see if this resolves the problem. If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s). If you can't get into your admin dashboard, try resetting the plugins folder by FTP or PhpMyAdmin (read "How to deactivate all plugins when you can't log in to wp-admin" if you need help). Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems. Also remember to deactivate any plugins in the mu-plugins folder. The easiest way is to rename that folder to mu-plugins-old
  • switching to the Twenty Sixteen theme to rule out any theme-specific problems. If you can't log in to change themes, you can remove the theme folders via FTP so the only one is `twentysixteen`. That will force your site to use it.
  • manually upgrading. When all else fails, download a fresh copy of the latest.zip file (top right on this page) to your computer, and use that to copy up. You may need to delete the wp-admin and wp-includes folders on your server. Read the Manual Update directions first.

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Suicide or self-harming threats

Yes – unfortunately this has happened on very rare occasions. In general, there are only two points to bear in mind:

  1. Don’t panic
  2. Remember that dealing with such behavior is well outside our remit.

The following may be a useful response in these situations:

We take all threats of harm very seriously but we are not trained to counsel you. Please contact one of the the following resources for help as soon as possible:

- https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
- http://www.suicide.org/
- https://save.org/

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Contacting the moderators

If you need to contact the moderators about this then you can do so via the Slack #forums channel.

To use that channel you need a Slack account. You can obtain one via these instructions.

    Slack – https://make.wordpress.org/chat/

When you contact the #forums channel, inform them what your WordPress.ORG forum user ID is. That will help the moderators find your account and ascertain what the issue is.

If you do use Slack do not direct message me or any other moderator. Use the #forums channel and any moderator there can assist you.

Forum topics will only be edited or deleted if they represent a valid legal, security, or safety concern.

See https://wordpress.org/support/guidelines/#deleting-editing-posts and https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/

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Flagged for moderation

You’ve been placed on “modwatch” until we’re convinced such postings have stopped. Your account has *not* been banned, we just want to check things for a while before they’re public. If you wish to take issue with this, contact moderators via the #forums channel on slack ( https://make.wordpress.org/chat )

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