Sooner or later, most WordPress users want to know how to turn comments off, either globally, or selectively. Given that the very strength of the blogging platform is to allow for some interactivity between the blogger and her visitors, why would someone want to disable this feature?
Why Turn Off Comments in Your WordPress Blog?
There are a number of reasons why bloggers may want to know how to turn off comments in WordPress. Here are just a few:
1. With WordPress continuing to grow as a robust content management system (CMS), business owners want their WordPress site to look more like a static web site. In such cases, creating and maintaining a thread of communication becomes secondary to the direct delivery of products, services, and information.
2. Some blog owners may want to turn off comments simply because they don’t want the level of involvement and maintenance needed to read and reply to comments.
3. Other site owners may simply be frustrated by the amount of comment spam they’ve been receiving (though there are better ways to increase the signal to noise ratio).
4. There may threads that are outdated, or have obtained so many comments that the thread of conversation is cumbersome to follow, or other threads whose time has simply come – the conversation has matured and reached its logical conclusion.
5. Certain types of entries simply don’t need to be commented on. Site owners may want to elicit feedback and questions, but probably not so much on an ‘About Us’ page or on a ‘Contact’ page, for example.
Depending on the situation, the blog owner may want to either turn off comments site-wide, or do so with selective pages or posts. Here’s how to do both.
How To Turn Off Comments Globally
1. Log into the WordPress admin panel.
2. On the left sidebar, click on Settings and the select Discussion.
3. In the Default article settings section, deselect the option to Allow people to post comments on new articles.
** Note that if your blog already has some posts or pages with comments, those comments will remain. Comments will be disabled from this point forward, but old comments will not be removed.
How To Turn Off Comments by Post or Page
1. Log into the WordPress admin panel.
2. Open the post or page for which you wish to disable comments.
3. Click the Screen Options link on the upper right to reveal a list of features you can apply to your post or page. Place a check in the Discussion box.
4. Scroll down to the bottom of the post or page, and turn off the comments options that are now displayed. To disable comments for this single post or page, uncheck the Allow Comments box.
Note that checking or unchecking an option in Screen Options does not itself enable or disable the feature. Rather, it allows the feature to be displayed on your post or page screen. Once displayed, you can then choose to enable or disable the feature.
By the way, you’ll notice that I have not turned off comments for this post. So…talk to me! 
