How to remove or replace the log-in link for comment replies?

I need to edit the function get_comment_reply_link() in wp-includes/comments-template.php. All I really wanna do is take out the “log in to reply” text is puts in every comment for logged out users which is disturbing to me. How can I do this the right way? Here’s the function.

function get_comment_reply_link($args = array(), $comment = null, $post = null) {
global $user_ID;

$defaults = array('add_below' => 'comment', 'respond_id' => 'respond', 'reply_text' => __('Reply'),
    'login_text' => __('Log in to Reply'), 'depth' => 0, 'before' => '', 'after' => '');

$args = wp_parse_args($args, $defaults);

if ( 0 == $args['depth'] || $args['max_depth'] <= $args['depth'] )
    return;

extract($args, EXTR_SKIP);

$comment = get_comment($comment);
if ( empty($post) )
    $post = $comment->comment_post_ID;
$post = get_post($post);

if ( !comments_open($post->ID) )
    return false;

$link = '';

if ( get_option('comment_registration') && !$user_ID )
    $link = '<a rel="nofollow" class="comment-reply-login" href="' . esc_url( wp_login_url( get_permalink() ) ) . '" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">' . $login_text . '</a>';
else
    $link = "<a class='comment-reply-link' href='" . esc_url( add_query_arg( 'replytocom', $comment->comment_ID ) ) . "#" . $respond_id . "' onclick='return addComment.moveForm("$add_below-$comment->comment_ID", "$comment->comment_ID", "$respond_id", "$post->ID")'>$reply_text</a>";
return apply_filters('comment_reply_link', $before . $link . $after, $args, $comment, $post);
}

Answers:

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Method 1

You can filter the output for the comment reply link on … wait for it! … 'comment_reply_link'. Just do the same checks as the core function but return something else, in your case: nothing.

<?php # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
/**
 * Plugin Name: T5 No Comment Log In Link
 * Plugin URI:  http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/52350/73
 * Description: Removes the log-in link for comment reply links.
 * Version:     2012.05.16
 * Author:      Thomas Scholz <<a href="https://getridbug.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection" class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="0b62656d644b7f6478686364256f6e">[email protected]</a>>
 * Author URI:  http://toscho.de
 * License:     MIT
 * License URI: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
 */

if ( ! function_exists( 't5_do_not_ask_for_comment_log_in' ) )
{
    add_filter( 'comment_reply_link', 't5_do_not_ask_for_comment_log_in' );

    /**
     * Replaces the log-in link with an empty string.
     *
     * @param  string $link
     * @return string
     */
    function t5_do_not_ask_for_comment_log_in( $link )
    {
        if ( empty ( $GLOBALS['user_ID'] ) && get_option( 'comment_registration' ) )
        {
            return '';
        }

        return $link;
    }
}

All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0