The State of CSS survey recently opened up. Last year, the survey confirmed everyone’s assumptions that TailwindCSS is super popular and CSS variables are mainstream. It also codified what many of us want from CSS, from Container Queries to a parent selector. (Spoiler alert, we now have both of ’em.)
While I wouldn’t say the results have been super surprising each year, this time I’m excited to start seeing more historical trends reveal themselves. The survey has been running since 2019, so that’s going to be four years (ancient in front-end years!) of data to see if certain frameworks came and went, specific features are gaining momentum, what general learning practices are out there, and just plain more context. It takes time for stuff to build up like this, so kudos to Sacha Greif for keeping this thing going.
And speaking of the team behind the survey, Lea Verou is new to the bunch and lead this year’s edition. Lea made some nice additions, including more open-ended comments, questions about browser inconsistencies, and a question that compares the amount of time you write CSS versus JavaScript.
Browsers actually use this stuff to help prioritize what features to work on — so definitely add your voice to the mix! The polls close on October 20.
This is the October 2022 edition of “This Month in WordPress with CodeinWP.” Hey, WordPress fans! We are back with you covering the latest WordPress news from the previous month.
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Do you want to improve your WordPress comment notification emails?
Comments drive discussion and user engagement on many blogs. However, WordPress doesn’t do such a great job when it comes to notifying users about comment activity.
In this article, we will show you how to better manage WordPress comment notification emails to boost user activity on your website.
Why Improve WordPress Comment Notification Emails
Comments are an important element of many WordPress websites, particularly on news sites and WordPress blogs. More comment activity means a more engaged audience which results in more page views and ultimately more revenue.
However, the comment system that comes with every WordPress website is fairly limited. It sends comment notifications only to site administrators and article authors. Apart from that, there isn’t a default option for other site users to be notified of new comments.
Wouldn’t it be nice if users were able to get comment notifications for the posts they like or when someone replies to a comment they left?
That said, let’s see how you can enhance the default WordPress comment system and notification emails for a more engaging user experience on your website.
The Default Comment Notification Options in WordPress
By default, WordPress does not have an option to send notifications to commenters.
However, it does have an option to send email notifications to site administrators when a new comment is published and when a comment is held for moderation.
You can view these options by going to Settings » Discussion from your WordPress dashboard and navigating to the ‘Email me whenever’ section.
Both these notifications are only sent to the site administrators. However, WordPress also sends an email notification to the post author about new comments.
If you get a lot of comments on your website, you might not want to receive email notifications for all comments held for moderation. You can simply uncheck the box here to disable those.
How to Let Users Know When Their Comment is Approved
If a user’s comment is held for moderation, they will see a message telling them so. However, they will have no idea whether you approve it or not without returning to your site.
Unfortunately, many of these users never return to your website to check, so they won’t ever know that you approved their comments.
Comment Approved Notifier Extended will notify users when their comment is approved. It works right out of the box, and there are no additional settings you need to configure.
How to Allow Users to Subscribe to Just their Own Comments in WordPress
Many users may not want to receive notifications for all comments on an article. However, they may want to know if someone replied only to their own comments.
How to Allow Authors to Subscribe to Other Author’s Posts
If you run a multi-author blog, then other authors may want to keep up with discussions across your website. If you already have comment subscriptions enabled, then each author can manually go and subscribe to comments.
Once the plugin is active, you can head to Notifications » Add New from your WordPress dashboard and can enter a title for your notification at the top.
Next, you can select ‘New Comment’ from the ‘Notification for’ dropdown menu. After that, simply add the user roles that will receive these notifications in the ‘Send To’ field.
The plugin also offers an option to send notifications to the post’s author and even exclude user roles from receiving email notifications for new comments.
How to Create Custom Comment Notification in WordPress
Want to create your own custom comment notifications in WordPress? Custom notifications can allow you to replace the default WordPress notification with your own.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Notifications » Add New page from your WordPress admin panel to create your custom comment notifications.
You can edit the notifications for new comments, comments awaiting moderation, and comment replies. Additionally, you can send notifications to any user role or to individual users.
The plugin also lets you add email addresses manually that are not even connected to a user on the site.
You have the option to completely customize the comment notification sent by WordPress and use shortcodes inside the email text to add custom tags.
How to Improve Deliverability of WordPress Email Notifications
All the above tips will fail if your WordPress site fails to send email notifications or if those emails are marked spam by email providers.
To fix WordPress email issues and improve email deliverability, you need to install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, visit the Settings » WP Mail SMTP page to configure plugin settings.
This plugin allows you to use SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to send emails. SMTP is a much better and more reliable method than the default mail function used by WordPress.
It works with any email service that supports SMTP. This includes your free Gmail account as well as Google Workspace, Mailgun, and Sendgrid.
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This is the October 2022 edition of “This Month in WordPress with CodeinWP.” Hey, WordPress fans! We are back with you covering the latest WordPress news from the previous month. 
