The comments section is quite a big section to properly explain, but here are the basics
First, here is the “Settings >> Discussion screen
It is here that you set how and when comments will be displayed on the front end on posts. Here is a quick description of the most important setting
- Allow people to post comments on new articles >> Comment section in posts are displayed if ticked
- Users must be registered and logged in to comment >> If ticked, only users registered can post comments
- Comment must be manually approved. If this is ticked, admin must first moderate the comment before it will appear in front end.
When a comment is left on a post, that comment is saved in the db in wp_comments with the unique ID of the post it is attached to. This comments are visible in the backend in the “Dashboard >> At a Glance” widget, “Dashboard >> Activity” widget and in the “Comments” admin screen. There will be no special notices in back end to alert you of new comments.
How ever, when “Comment must be manually approved” is ticked, there will be an alert to let you know there is a comments for moderation in the form of a round orange bubble next to the “Comments” section in the back end.
I hope this cleared it up for you. I would also just like to say, the comments area is the no1 spot on a site used for spamming, so if you enable comments on your site, you really need to go and have a look at what type of security measures are you going to take to combat spam. And believe me, in one one single day you can hundreds of spam comments. So this is a good point to keep in mind