Ghost Comment Manager is designed to reduce the time you spend moderating comments. Instead of re-approving the same people over and over, you mark a person as Trusted one time. From then on:

Their new comments publish immediately.
A subtle “ghost” indicator is shown to moderators only so you can spot and confirm at your convenience.
Visitors see a normal comment; nothing changes on the public site.

Alongside this workflow improvement, the plugin includes a lightweight Shield that blocks common spam patterns without external services. A simple dashboard gives you live counts and a clear picture of what is happening.

This plugin focuses on workflow, clarity, and speed. It plays nicely with Akismet or Antispam Bee if you already use them.

Why use this plugin

Save time: stop re-approving loyal commenters.
Stay safe: every trusted comment is highlighted to moderators until confirmed.
Cut spam: built-in Shield blocks common abusive behavior before it reaches your queue.
See everything: a simple dashboard with trusted totals and block reasons.
Keep control: bulk trust/untrust, user-profile control, and comment-screen filters.

Features

Core workflow
– Trust / Untrust a user from the Comments list.
– Auto-trust after X approved comments (configurable).
– Ghosted auto-publish for trusted users (mod-only highlight until confirmed).
– One-click Confirm to remove the ghost indicator.
– Role exclusions so specific roles (for example Editors) publish normally without ghosting.
– Custom ghost indicator icon and background color.

Shield Lite (no external API)
– Honeypot field that bots tend to fill.
– Minimum submit time to stop instant bot posts.
– Rate limits per IP (per minute and per hour).
– Maximum links per comment.
– Keyword and regular expression blocklist.
– Auto-close comments on old posts after X days.
– Minimum and maximum comment length.
– Duplicate comment protection within a time window.

Moderation UX
– Comment-screen filters:
– Pending (New Users): only untrusted comments awaiting approval.
– Ghost (Trusted): approved comments still awaiting moderator confirmation.
– Bulk actions: Trust or Untrust the user associated with selected comments.
– Trust from the User Profile screen (checkbox).

UI and Dashboard
– Colorful dashboard cards for trusted users, ghost-pending count, and totals.
– Shield Lite “blocks by reason” table.
– Clean and organized settings pages.
– “Pro Features” preview tab (coming soon items).

Integrations and compatibility
– Respects Akismet / Antispam Bee: if a comment is flagged as spam, this plugin does not ghost-mark or auto-approve it.
– Works with block themes and classic themes.
– Multisite compatible on a per-site basis.

How it works (non-technical)

🧠 Approve vs Trust

Approve = you approve one comment only.
Trust = you approve the person.
Once a user is trusted, their future comments are published instantly (no moderation wait).
- Example: You approve Sarah’s first few comments. After that, she’s trusted — her next comments appear immediately.

👻 Ghost indicator (moderator-only)

Trusted users’ comments publish instantly but can be optionally “ghosted” (hidden from public) depending on your settings.
If ghosting applies:
- Public visitors do not see ghosted comments yet.
- Moderators see them with a ghost icon 👻 or colored background.
- When you click “Confirm (remove ghost)”, the comment becomes visible to everyone.

Example:
John is a trusted user. His comment posts immediately but shows a ghost icon only moderators see.
You review and click Confirm it’s now public and the ghost mark disappears.

If the user’s role is excluded in settings (for example, “Subscriber”), their comments publish publicly right away with no ghost step.

⚙️ Auto-trust threshold

In Settings Ghost Comment Manager General, set Auto-trust after X approvals.
Example: set it to 3.
- When any commenter reaches 3 approved comments, the plugin automatically trusts them.
- Their future comments post instantly without waiting for moderation.
Changing this number later affects new users only; existing trusted users stay trusted.

🔐 Role exclusions (no ghosting)

Choose which roles should never be ghosted.
Example: check Administrator and Editor.
- Comments by these roles will always publish normally — no ghosting, no confirmation step.
- This ensures your staff or editors aren’t delayed or hidden from public view.

🛡️ Shield Lite (Spam / Abuse Guard)

Works quietly in the background to stop obvious spam before it reaches your moderation queue.
Uses:
- Honeypot field to trap bots
- Minimum submit time (prevents instant spam posts)
- Rate limits, link limits, and keyword blocklist
The default settings are safe and balanced.
You can fine-tune them anytime to match your community’s needs.

Step-by-step setup

Install and activate the plugin.
Open Ghost Comments → Settings → General:
- Set “Auto-trust after X approvals” (0 disables auto-trust).
- Choose any roles to exclude from ghosting.
- Pick an icon and background color for the moderator-only ghost indicator.
Open Ghost Comments → Settings → Shield Lite:
- Keep Honeypot on.
- Set Minimum submit time (3–5 seconds is typical).
- Set rate limits (for example 6 per minute and 60 per hour).
- Set the maximum number of links (for example 2).
- Add any keywords or regular expressions to block.
- Optionally auto-close comments on posts older than X days.
- Adjust minimum/maximum length and duplicate time window to taste.
Start using it:
- In Comments All Comments, click “Trust User” on a real commenter.
- Their next comments auto-publish with a moderator-only ghost indicator.
- Click Confirm to remove the indicator when you’re ready.

Using each feature

Trust / Untrust from Comments
– Where: Comments All Comments (hover a row).
– Action: click “Trust User” or “Untrust User”.
– Result: future comments from that user auto-publish (if trusted) and are ghost-flagged for moderators.

Auto-trust after X approvals
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings General.
– Action: set a number of approved comments required (0 disables).
– Result: users become trusted automatically when they reach the threshold.

Confirm (remove ghost)
– Where: Comments All Comments on the trusted comment row.
– Action: click “Confirm (remove ghost)”.
– Result: the moderator-only highlight disappears; the comment remains published.

Role exclusions
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings General.
– Action: check roles that should not be ghosted.
– Result: users with those roles publish normally without a ghost indicator.

Ghost indicator style
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings General.
– Action: set icon and color.
– Result: the moderator-only highlight uses your chosen style.

Shield Lite: Honeypot
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: keep “Honeypot” enabled.
– Result: bots that fill the hidden field are blocked immediately.

Shield Lite: Minimum submit time
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: set a minimum number of seconds (0 disables).
– Result: submissions that happen too quickly are blocked.

Shield Lite: Rate limits
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: set per-minute and per-hour limits (0 disables).
– Result: repeated posting from the same IP is throttled.

Shield Lite: Maximum links
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: set the link limit (0 means no limit).
– Result: comments with too many links are blocked.

Shield Lite: Keyword / regex blocklist
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: enter one rule per line; plain words match case-insensitive; regular expressions in /pattern/ or /pattern/i form are supported.
– Result: comments matching a rule are blocked.

Shield Lite: Auto-close old posts
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: set days after which comments are closed (0 disables).
– Result: new comments are blocked on very old posts.

Shield Lite: Min / Max length and Duplicate window
– Where: Ghost Comments Settings Shield Lite.
– Action: set minimum and maximum characters, and a duplicate-detection window in seconds (0 disables).
– Result: very short, very long, or repeated comments are blocked.

Filters on the Comments screen
– Where: Comments All Comments.
– Action: use the “GCM View” dropdown or the additional status links.
– Result: see either Pending (New Users) or Ghost (Trusted) items instantly.

Bulk actions: Trust / Untrust
– Where: Comments All Comments.
– Action: select multiple comments choose “Trust user of selected comments” or “Untrust user of selected comments” Apply.
– Result: users associated with those comments are updated in bulk.

Trust from the User Profile
– Where: Users All Users Edit user.
– Action: check “Trusted Commenter” and update the profile.
– Result: that user is trusted without needing to find a specific comment.

Dashboard
– Where: Ghost Comments Dashboard.
– Shows: trusted user total, ghost-pending count, totals for auto-trusted, ghosts marked, ghosts confirmed, and a table of Shield Lite blocks by reason.

Compatibility, performance, privacy

Compatibility
– Works with WordPress 6.0 and newer, classic and block themes.
– Plays well with Akismet and Antispam Bee; if a comment is flagged as spam, it will not be ghost-marked or auto-approved by this plugin.
– Multisite: activate per site or network-wide; settings are per site.

Performance
– Lightweight by design. No front-end JavaScript for visitors. Shield Lite uses simple server checks and transients.

Privacy
– Stores minimal user meta to remember trusted status and counters for the dashboard.
– No data is sent to external services by this plugin.

Troubleshooting

I trusted a user but their comment did not auto-publish
– Confirm the user is logged in with the same account you trusted.
– Check if another plugin is forcing all comments to be held for moderation.
– If Akismet flagged the comment as spam, it will not auto-publish.

Ghost highlight is not visible to moderators
– Ensure you are logged in with a role that can moderate comments.
– Confirm the comment belongs to a trusted user and has not already been confirmed.
– Check the indicator color in settings; choose a more visible color if needed.

Auto-trust threshold is set but users are not becoming trusted
– The threshold only counts approved comments after you enabled it.
– Set the threshold to a smaller number to test quickly.

Too many legitimate comments are blocked
– Lower the minimum submit time.
– Increase rate limits or set them to 0 to disable.
– Raise the maximum links or remove specific keywords/regexes from the blocklist.
– Reduce duplicate window time.

Roadmap / Pro

Coming soon in Pro:
– Trust levels with scoring and optional expiry
– Keyword rules with scoring and spam-gate thresholds
– Team assignments and internal notes
– Analytics with CSV export
– Advanced role and post-type overrides