Hide Comments Icon & Count from Toolbar when there are no pending comments

[celloexpressions]

The updates icon is only displayed in the toolbar if there are pending updates, so why is the pending comments icon always there, usually displaying "0"?

The only useful purpose for this link when there aren't pending comments is to get to edit-comments.php to manage approved and spammed comments; however, this is much less actional than the other links in the toolbar (updates, add/edit/view posts, profile, etc.). A link to the Posts list table would be as useful if not more useful than this link to the comments list table, and would serve effectively the same purpose. There is always the potential to add a content-types menu, or even a toggle for the entire admin menu, to the toolbar in the future, but for now it seems wrong to include the comments link in this context when there are no pending comments.

Especially for sites that don't use, or don't often receive very many/frequent comments (which unfortunately is likely the majority), the comments icon in the Toolbar is clutter that should get out of the way when it's unneeded.

[celloexpressions]

Don't display the comments toolbar item if there are no comments awaiting moderation.

[celloexpressions]

Patch doesn't account for live-updating of the comment count when comments are approved/unapproved, but I think it's better this way. If the count goes down to zero, you can still see the number change to zero, then the icon is gone on the next pageload. If there were zero pending comments and you unapproved one, you wouldn't get it back, but I don't think that's much of an issue. We could certainly account for those situations differently if desired, though.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Suggesting wontfix. The pending comments icon also lets you review and reply to existing comments hours after moderating them if needed. I think the button should stay for the convenience.

[celloexpressions]

Replying to Denis-de-Bernardy:

Suggesting wontfix. The pending comments icon also lets you review and reply to existing comments hours after moderating them if needed. I think the button should stay for the convenience.

Please read the ticket description. I'm suggesting that that use case is equivalent to wanting to visit any content list-table (posts, media, etc.), which needs a different solution. Since you mention hours, perhaps it would make sense to hide it after a period of time?

For sites that don't use comments at all, this will likely be addressed with #27111, but for sites with infrequent comments, this would be a nice de-cluttering step. When I say infrequent, I'm talking weeks and months, by the way.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

You can remove them using a plugin, btw:

add_action('wp_before_admin_bar_render', function() {
    global $wp_admin_bar;
    $wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('comments');
});

[celloexpressions]

Related: #32678, which in its current form would take care of this as well.

[swissspidy]

The need to quickly manage and write posts is surely bigger than the need to edit comments when there aren't even any pending comments.

What bugs me — and what I thought at first this ticket is about — is the "0" being displayed. It should not be there when there are no pending comments. There's no bubble in the admin menu either when there are no plugin updates.

Unfortunately there's a lack of traction on #32678, otherwise I'd be tempted to close this one as a duplicate. Anyway, leaving this for some more feedback.

[celloexpressions]

I still think we should hide the icon when there aren't any pending comments, to align with the update icon behavior. Since #32678 is likely to be in a holding pattern for some time due to the technical challenges of the admin menu integration, let's make this small change to reduce clutter and improve user experience.

[sabernhardt]

Yes, removing the link entirely when there are no new comments to moderate would be better than showing the number zero at half-opacity.

It would be nice to edit the conditional so it allows people to restore the link if desired, perhaps requiring a plugin similar to Links Manager after that was deprecated in #21307. Unlike #33165, the comment moderation link involves mainly administrators (plus editors and authors), and the option to hide/show based on the count was not made available before.

[SergeyBiryukov]

Related: #50538

[chaion07]

This ticket was brought up during one of our Design Triages and we feel that proving us with a screenshot will help is getting some feedback in regards to the Design Aspect of things.

Thanks!

[sabernhardt]

refreshed patch

[sabernhardt]

with refreshed patch

[sabernhardt]

Current behavior for users with edit_posts capability (including Author):

• On large screens, the Comments link displays the icon and moderation count in the toolbar (both admin and front end).
• If the moderation count is zero, the number is presented at half-opacity (which just passes contrast guidelines with the default color scheme at 4.52:1).
• The pending comments count is updated immediately in the toolbar with JavaScript as comments are approved, unapproved, deleted or restored from Trash/Spam.
• On narrower screens (401px to 782px), the link is always there and always showing the icon without the number.
• For the narrowest screens, the Comments link is hidden (in core styles).

With the refreshed patch:

• The Comments link does not exist if there are zero comments to moderate when the page loads. If any comments are unapproved or restored from Trash/Spam, the toolbar link would not show again until after refreshing the page.
• If the number of comments awaiting moderation is reduced to zero (without refreshing), the zero count still appears in the toolbar link at half-opacity. The script could be updated to remove the link, but I think it makes sense to leave the faded zero count in this case.

[tomjdevisser]

I really like the idea of cleaning up the admin bar. I would suggest removing the updates icon if there are none, but keeping the comments icon. This is the section that most clients/users will more frequently use even if there are no new comments, while the updates screen is only necessary when there are new updates.

[estelaris]

From a UX perspective, removing the comments icon is not a good thing.

There are users, like bloggers, that rely too much on the comments icon as part of their daily work. If for any reason, they login and there are no comments, they will certainly panic believing the site is broken, resulting in a lot of wasted time and stress.

[sabernhardt]

Thanks for your input. I'll close it then.