Why “Like” and “Comment” Features Should Be Disabled in SharePoint Sites
In our wonderful age of digital collaboration, SharePoint is continuing on its march to be what it is – a great platform for content publishing, knowledge sharing and governance (my go to!). But not every feature should be enabled in every site. Two of the most deceptively harmless and sometimes mis-understood in terms of impact are the ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’ options on SharePoint modern pages.
While Like and Comment, classed as social features may seem like a ‘Oh yes! Let’s enable them throughout because doing that will increase engagement’ Utopian statement, enabling them can undermine governance, compliance, and clarity. This is especially true in structured, regulated or formal SharePoint sites.
Why? Brainstorm time:
Governance and Compliance Risks
Unmoderated Feedback: Comments are not subject to approval workflows using any automation engine. Anyone with access to the site from a contributor perspective can post; and guess what, those posts are immediately visible to others;
Audit Gaps: Comments and Likes are not version controlled. They are not visible in any audit trails, so that makes them invisible to compliance reviews. Forget using say Microsoft Purview to try track Likes or Comments – these interactions are not captured in Purview logs;
Policy Confusion: When users comment on pages, those comments create the illusion of a ‘feedback loop’. There would be no mechanism to act on them.
Content Integrity and User Experience (UX) Clarity
Noise Over Signal: Comments can dilute the authority and authenticity of ‘official’ content. Users can post anything – post questions, complaints, or off-topic remarks.
Visual Clutter: The social bar (Like, Comment, View Count, Save for Later, etc.) adds UI elements that may distract from the page’s purpose. So, not at all useful for pages whose key objectives are Dashboards, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), or compliance repositories.
Misleading Metrics: A “Like” on a ‘policy page’ does not mean the content of that page is understood. ‘Like’ is classed as simply a ‘vanity metric’ that can mislead stakeholders.
🛠️ 3. Operational and Technical Limitations
No Central Moderation: SharePoint does not have an Out-Of-The-Box (OOTB) ‘centralised comment moderation’ dashboard. Site ‘owners’ must manually monitor each page on the SharePoint site.
Default Enablement: If comments are enabled by default on modern pages this leads to no proactive governance – proliferate unnoticed.
No Alerts: Page owners will never receive notifications when comments are posted. This leads to stale and/or unaddressed feedback.
Example: Healthcare Intranet Misstep
Time to give you an example as to how a mid-sized healthcare provider learned the hard way. They launched a SharePoint Online communication site to publish internal policies, including those related to patient data handling and emergency standards. Unknown to the governance team, Like and Comments were enabled by default on every page on the SharePoint tenant. So, every page being created going forward on their SharePoint site had Like and Comments enabled.
Within weeks:
Staff began posting unmoderated feedback on sensitive policy pages;
Some comments included anecdotal patient references, violating internal privacy standards;
Others expressed disagreement with procedures, creating confusion about which policies were enforceable;
No one was alerted—the comments sat visible for weeks before being discovered during a routine audit.
The fallout?
A formal compliance review;
Emergency PowerShell scripts to disable comments across the tenant;
A new provisioning routine to enforce social feature settings;
Mandatory training for site owners on page settings and governance.
Best Practices for Disabling Social Features
Disable Comments Per Page: Use the page settings UI or PowerShell (Set-PnPClientSidePage -CommentsEnabled $false);
Hide the Social Bar: Use custom page templates or SPFx extensions to remove Likes, Views, and Save for Later. Check out the SharePoint Frameworks SPFX examples;
Automate at Scale: Include social feature settings in your site provisioning scripts or site designs;
Educate Site Owners: Make social feature governance part of your SharePoint training and onboarding;
Define the Environments. In a SharePoint / Teams instance mixed environment, split your governance based on the kind of collaboration needed. Things like Like and Comments are ‘post’ oriented and more related to the Teams Client than a SharePoint page.
My final thoughts to project to you 😊
In SharePoint, not every feature is a fit and ‘yes plonk every feature’ for every site. ‘Likes’ and ‘Comments’ are a part of Community / Project environments such as Microsoft Teams (Posts in Channels) or say Yammer-integrated pages. For policy repository based sites, policy pages, compliance dashboards, and formal communications – a governance liability.
Disable them by default. Enable them only with intent
🐝 SharePoint CoPilot Governance and Beekeeping: A Buzz-Worthy Comparison
In the world of digital collaboration, SharePoint is the hive—teeming with activity, rich with resources, and vital to collaboration. But just like a real hive, it doesn’t thrive on chaos. That’s where governance comes in. And oddly enough, the best way to understand SharePoint governance might just be… beekeeping.
Let’s suit up and explore how Microsoft Copilot and good governance practices keep your SharePoint buzzing smoothly—without getting stung.
🧭 The Queen Bee: Governance Strategy
In a beehive, the queen sets the tone. She doesn’t micromanage, but her presence ensures order, purpose, and continuity. In SharePoint, your governance strategy is the queen. It defines:
Who can do what (permissions and roles)
Where things go (site architecture and taxonomy)
How things are maintained (lifecycle policies and compliance)
Without a clear strategy, your SharePoint hive risks fragmentation, duplication, and data sprawl. Copilot helps by surfacing governance insights, suggesting policy improvements, and guiding admins toward best practices—like a seasoned beekeeper whispering to the queen.
🛠️ Worker Bees: Users and Automation
Worker bees are the backbone of the hive. They gather data (nectar), build structures (combs), and keep things clean. In SharePoint, your users and automated workflows play this role.
But without guidance, even the most diligent workers can create clutter—unlabelled files, orphaned sites, or sensitive data exposed. Copilot steps in with intelligent nudges:
“This document hasn’t been accessed in 6 months—should we archive it?”
“This site has no owner—want to assign one?”
“These permissions look risky—want to review them?”
It’s like having a smart smoker tool to calm the hive and keep things orderly.
🧹 Hive Hygiene: Lifecycle and Cleanup
Beekeepers regularly inspect hives, remove dead combs, and prevent disease. SharePoint governance needs the same vigilance:
Retention policies ensure old content doesn’t clog the system
Metadata standards keep search efficient
Site reviews prevent zombie sites from haunting your intranet
Copilot assists by automating cleanup suggestions, flagging stale content, and even helping enforce naming conventions. It’s your digital hive toolset—always ready to tidy up.
🛡️ Guard Bees: Security and Compliance
Every hive has guard bees—protecting the entrance and repelling threats. In SharePoint, governance ensures your data is secure and compliant:
Sensitivity labels protect confidential info
Audit logs track who did what, when
Access reviews prevent privilege creep
Copilot helps admins monitor these defences, offering real-time insights and proactive alerts. It’s like having a swarm of vigilant guards, minus the stingers.
🌼 Pollination: Collaboration and Growth
Healthy hives don’t just survive—they pollinate. They spread value across ecosystems. SharePoint governance, when done right, enables:
Seamless collaboration across teams
Discoverability of knowledge
Scalable growth without chaos
Copilot enhances this by making governance approachable—turning complex policies into conversational guidance, and empowering users to self-serve without breaking the rules.
🐝 Final Buzz
Beekeeping isn’t just about honey—it’s about harmony. SharePoint governance, aided by Copilot, ensures your digital hive is productive, secure, and sustainable. So whether you’re an IT admin or a curious contributor, remember: good governance is the nectar that keeps collaboration sweet.
Now go forth and tend your hive—with Copilot as your trusty smoker and bee suit.
Thoughtless SharePoint Site Provisioning: The Hidden Cost of Convenience
In the age of rapid collaboration and cloud-first strategies, provisioning SharePoint sites has never been easier. But with great power comes great potential for chaos. When sites are created without proper analysis, planning, or governance, organisations often find themselves buried under a mountain of sprawl, broken workflows, and compliance nightmares.
Let’s unpack why this practice is risky—and explore real-world examples where it’s gone wrong.
🚨 The Problem: Convenience Over Strategy
Provisioning a SharePoint site is just a few clicks away. But when those clicks happen without:
Purpose definition
Information architecture planning
Governance alignment
Security and compliance review
…you’re not building a solution—you’re planting a ticking time bomb.
🔍 Real-World Failures from Poor Site Provisioning
The ROT Tsunami: Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial Data
A global consultancy allowed unrestricted site creation across departments. Within a year, they had over 2,000 SharePoint sites—many duplicating the same content. The result?
20%+ of their data was ROT (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial)1
Search performance degraded
Storage limits were exceeded, triggering Microsoft’s read-only mode
Cleanup took six months and required external consultants
“We thought we were empowering teams. We ended up drowning in digital clutter.” — IT Manager, anonymous case study
Broken Provisioning Templates: The Automation Trap
An IT manager at a mid-sized firm used a custom provisioning tool to create sites based on PnP templates. Unfortunately, the tool wasn’t tested for edge cases. Several sites failed to provision correctly, leaving users with half-configured environments and broken permissions2.
No document libraries were created
Navigation links pointed to non-existent pages
Users lost trust in the platform
“We had to manually rebuild sites and reapply templates via PowerShell. It was a governance nightmare.” — Microsoft Q&A thread2
The Collaboration Mirage: Failed Adoption
At a large enterprise, a SharePoint site was provisioned to replace an existing intranet without stakeholder input. The new site had:
No migration plan
No redirect strategy
No training or onboarding
Despite its modern design, users clung to the legacy site. Adoption stalled, and the new site became a ghost town.
“We built a beautiful site. Nobody came.” — Curtis Hughes, Collab365 Summit3
🧭 Why Thoughtful Provisioning Matters
✅ 1. Purpose-Driven Architecture
Every site should serve a defined purpose—project, department, community—with clear content types and lifecycle expectations.
✅ 2. Governance Alignment
Provisioning should trigger automated policies for:
Retention
Sensitivity labels
External sharing controls
Audit logging
✅ 3. Information Architecture Planning
Define:
Navigation structure
Metadata taxonomy
Content types
Permissions model
✅ 4. User Experience and Adoption
Involve stakeholders early. Design with their workflows in mind. Provide training and feedback loops.
🛠️ Geoff’s Governance Checklist for Site Provisioning
Before provisioning a site, ask:
Question
Why It Matters
What is the site’s purpose?
Prevents duplication and ROT
Who owns the site?
Enables lifecycle and compliance tracking
What content types will be stored?
Drives metadata and retention policies
Who needs access?
Ensures proper permissions and security
How will the site be maintained?
Avoids orphaned or abandoned sites
Is this replacing an existing site?
Triggers migration and redirect planning
🧩 Final Thoughts
Provisioning a SharePoint site is not just a technical task—it’s a governance decision. Without thoughtful analysis, you risk building digital silos, eroding user trust, and violating compliance standards.
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Power Platform Monitor enables operational insights for administratorsacross environments
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