Controlling Who Can Comment on Your Posts
Not every post needs to be open to comments from everyone, and Whistlr gives you control over exactly who can respond to what you share. Whether you want to open the floor to the whole community, keep discussion within your In Circle, or filter out specific words before they ever appear, these settings let you shape your comment section to match the tone you want for your content.
Setting Your Default Comment Audience
Go to Settings > Privacy > Comments to choose who can comment on your posts by default. You'll find three main options: Everyone, which allows any Whistlr user to comment; In Circle Only, which limits comments to accounts that follow you or that you follow back; and No One, which turns off commenting entirely across your posts. Whatever you choose here becomes the starting point for all new posts, though you can still override it for individual posts.
Sometimes a single post calls for different treatment than the rest of your feed — maybe it's a sensitive announcement you'd rather not debate publicly, or a fun update you want everyone to be able to react to. Before publishing, tap the comment settings icon in the post composer to choose a one-off audience for that specific post, independent of your account-wide default. This setting can also be changed after the post is live by opening the post, tapping the three-dot menu, and selecting Comment Settings.
Per-Post Comment Controls
Per-post controls override your default setting only for that post, so you don't need to keep switching your overall preference back and forth. This is especially useful for creators who normally welcome open comments but want to keep a particular post — like a personal update or an early product idea shared with close friends — limited to people in their In Circle. The post composer clearly shows your current comment audience selection so you always know who can respond before you tap Post.
Giving people real control over their own comment sections means conversations stay welcoming on their terms, not just the platform's default.
- Everyone: Any Whistlr user can comment on your post, which is the most open option and best suited for content meant to reach and engage a broad audience.
- In Circle Only: Only accounts in your In Circle can leave comments, keeping discussion among people you have a mutual following relationship with.
- No One: Comments are turned off completely for the post, and the comment icon will appear but won't open a composer for other users.
- Mentioned Accounts: On some posts you can further limit comments to only accounts you've directly mentioned or tagged, useful for replies and shout-outs aimed at specific people.
Filtering Specific Words Automatically
Beyond controlling who can comment, you can manage what kind of language appears in your comment section. Go to Settings > Privacy > Comments > Filtered Keywords and add specific words or phrases you don't want to see. Comments containing a filtered word are automatically hidden from your view and from other visitors to your post, though the commenter may still see their own comment as posted on their end. You can add, edit, or remove words from this list at any time, and changes apply going forward to both new and existing comments.
- Adding a word or phrase: Type the term into the filter list and tap Add. You can include common misspellings or variations of a word for broader coverage.
- Removing a word or phrase: Tap the term in your filter list and select Remove to allow comments containing it to appear again.
- Reviewing filtered comments: Filtered comments are kept in a separate view accessible from your comment settings, so you can double-check that nothing you wanted to see was caught by mistake.
These controls work well together with the comment management tools covered in our article on understanding comments and replies, such as deleting or hiding individual comments. Used together, they let you set broad ground rules for your comment section while still handling one-off situations as they come up.