Alter required message using comment form api

Question

I prefer not to use asterisk markers on required fields in the comment form.

So I'd like to remove or alter the 'required fields are marked (*)' message.

Being a good wordpress user, I'd like to do it with my functions.php. I can work out how to filter most areas of the form, but not this. I'm guessing it will involve modifying the 'comment-notes-before' field of the 'defaults' array, but I can't quite see how to do that.

Answer 1

What you need to use is comment_form_defaults filter that has large and nested $defaults array passed. That array will have (among other things) something like this in it:

fields
      author << this will have something like <span class="required">*</span> in it
      email << this will have something like <span class="required">*</span> in it
      url 
 comment_notes_before << this will have something like Required fields are marked<span class="required">*</span> in it

So in your filter you need to change these fields in array you got passed and return whole array.

Answer 2

Here is an example of how you can modify the notes before the comment form.

function wpse_comment_notes( $args ) {
    $args['comment_notes_before'] = "All fields are required, though I haven't marked them";
    return $args;
}
add_filter('comment_form_defaults', 'wpse_comment_notes');