First public release with trusted workflow, ghost confirmation, Shield Lite, filters, bulk actions, user-profile control, and a dashboard.<\/p>"},"ratings":[],"assets_icons":{"icon-128x128.png":{"filename":"icon-128x128.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"128x128","location":"assets","locale":""},"icon-256x256.png":{"filename":"icon-256x256.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"256x256","location":"assets","locale":""}},"assets_banners":{"banner-1544x500.png":{"filename":"banner-1544x500.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"1544x500","location":"assets","locale":""},"banner-772x250.png":{"filename":"banner-772x250.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"772x250","location":"assets","locale":""}},"assets_blueprints":{},"all_blocks":[],"tagged_versions":["0.1.4","0.1.5"],"block_files":[],"assets_screenshots":{"screenshot-1.png":{"filename":"screenshot-1.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"1","location":"assets","locale":""},"screenshot-2.png":{"filename":"screenshot-2.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"2","location":"assets","locale":""},"screenshot-3.png":{"filename":"screenshot-3.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"3","location":"assets","locale":""},"screenshot-4.png":{"filename":"screenshot-4.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"4","location":"assets","locale":""},"screenshot-5.png":{"filename":"screenshot-5.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"5","location":"assets","locale":""},"screenshot-6.png":{"filename":"screenshot-6.png","revision":3378584,"resolution":"6","location":"assets","locale":""}},"screenshots":{"1":"Dashboard with trusted counts and Shield Lite blocks.","2":"Comments list with Trust \/ Untrust actions and the GCM status column.","3":"Comments screen filters for Pending (New Users) and Ghost (Trusted).","4":"Settings \u2192 General with auto-trust, role exclusions, and indicator style.","5":"Settings \u2192 Shield Lite with anti-spam options.","6":"User Profile screen with the Trusted Commenter checkbox."},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"plugin_section":[],"plugin_tags":[107,32272,1756,599,42414],"plugin_category":[44,54],"plugin_contributors":[249204],"plugin_business_model":[],"class_list":["post-254845","plugin","type-plugin","status-publish","hentry","plugin_tags-comments","plugin_tags-ghost","plugin_tags-moderation","plugin_tags-spam","plugin_tags-trust","plugin_category-discussion-and-community","plugin_category-security-and-spam-protection","plugin_contributors-devfluxr","plugin_committers-devfluxr"],"banners":{"banner":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/banner-772x250.png?rev=3378584","banner_2x":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/banner-1544x500.png?rev=3378584","banner_rtl":false,"banner_2x_rtl":false},"icons":{"svg":false,"icon":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/icon-128x128.png?rev=3378584","icon_2x":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/icon-256x256.png?rev=3378584","generated":false},"screenshots":[{"src":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/screenshot-1.png?rev=3378584","caption":"Dashboard with trusted counts and Shield Lite blocks."},{"src":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/screenshot-2.png?rev=3378584","caption":"Comments list with Trust \/ Untrust actions and the GCM status column."},{"src":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/screenshot-3.png?rev=3378584","caption":"Comments screen filters for Pending (New Users) and Ghost (Trusted)."},{"src":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/screenshot-4.png?rev=3378584","caption":"Settings \u2192 General with auto-trust, role exclusions, and indicator style."},{"src":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/screenshot-5.png?rev=3378584","caption":"Settings \u2192 Shield Lite with anti-spam options."},{"src":"https:\/\/ps.w.org\/ghost-comment-manager\/assets\/screenshot-6.png?rev=3378584","caption":"User Profile screen with the Trusted Commenter checkbox."}],"raw_content":"\n
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:<\/p>\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n
This plugin focuses on workflow, clarity, and speed. It plays nicely with Akismet or Antispam Bee if you already use them.<\/p>\n\n
Core workflow\n- Trust \/ Untrust a user from the Comments list.\n- Auto-trust after X approved comments (configurable).\n- Ghosted auto-publish for trusted users (mod-only highlight until confirmed).\n- One-click Confirm to remove the ghost indicator.\n- Role exclusions so specific roles (for example Editors) publish normally without ghosting.\n- Custom ghost indicator icon and background color.<\/p>\n\n
Shield Lite (no external API)\n- Honeypot field that bots tend to fill.\n- Minimum submit time to stop instant bot posts.\n- Rate limits per IP (per minute and per hour).\n- Maximum links per comment.\n- Keyword and regular expression blocklist.\n- Auto-close comments on old posts after X days.\n- Minimum and maximum comment length.\n- Duplicate comment protection within a time window.<\/p>\n\n
Moderation UX\n- Comment-screen filters:\n - Pending (New Users): only untrusted comments awaiting approval.\n - Ghost (Trusted): approved comments still awaiting moderator confirmation.\n- Bulk actions: Trust or Untrust the user associated with selected comments.\n- Trust from the User Profile screen (checkbox).<\/p>\n\n
UI and Dashboard\n- Colorful dashboard cards for trusted users, ghost-pending count, and totals.\n- Shield Lite \u201cblocks by reason\u201d table.\n- Clean and organized settings pages.\n- \u201cPro Features\u201d preview tab (coming soon items).<\/p>\n\n
Integrations and compatibility\n- Respects Akismet \/ Antispam Bee: if a comment is flagged as spam, this plugin does not ghost-mark or auto-approve it.\n- Works with block themes and classic themes.\n- Multisite compatible on a per-site basis.<\/p>\n\n
Example:<\/strong> If the user\u2019s role is excluded in settings (for example, \u201cSubscriber\u201d), their comments publish publicly right away<\/strong> with no ghost step<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trust \/ Untrust from Comments\n- Where: Comments \u2192 All Comments (hover a row).\n- Action: click \u201cTrust User\u201d or \u201cUntrust User\u201d.\n- Result: future comments from that user auto-publish (if trusted) and are ghost-flagged for moderators.<\/p>\n\n Auto-trust after X approvals\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 General.\n- Action: set a number of approved comments required (0 disables).\n- Result: users become trusted automatically when they reach the threshold.<\/p>\n\n Confirm (remove ghost)\n- Where: Comments \u2192 All Comments on the trusted comment row.\n- Action: click \u201cConfirm (remove ghost)\u201d.\n- Result: the moderator-only highlight disappears; the comment remains published.<\/p>\n\n Role exclusions\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 General.\n- Action: check roles that should not be ghosted.\n- Result: users with those roles publish normally without a ghost indicator.<\/p>\n\n Ghost indicator style\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 General.\n- Action: set icon and color.\n- Result: the moderator-only highlight uses your chosen style.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Honeypot\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: keep \u201cHoneypot\u201d enabled.\n- Result: bots that fill the hidden field are blocked immediately.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Minimum submit time\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: set a minimum number of seconds (0 disables).\n- Result: submissions that happen too quickly are blocked.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Rate limits\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: set per-minute and per-hour limits (0 disables).\n- Result: repeated posting from the same IP is throttled.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Maximum links\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: set the link limit (0 means no limit).\n- Result: comments with too many links are blocked.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Keyword \/ regex blocklist\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: enter one rule per line; plain words match case-insensitive; regular expressions in \/pattern\/ or \/pattern\/i form are supported.\n- Result: comments matching a rule are blocked.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Auto-close old posts\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: set days after which comments are closed (0 disables).\n- Result: new comments are blocked on very old posts.<\/p>\n\n Shield Lite: Min \/ Max length and Duplicate window\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Settings \u2192 Shield Lite.\n- Action: set minimum and maximum characters, and a duplicate-detection window in seconds (0 disables).\n- Result: very short, very long, or repeated comments are blocked.<\/p>\n\n Filters on the Comments screen\n- Where: Comments \u2192 All Comments.\n- Action: use the \u201cGCM View\u201d dropdown or the additional status links.\n- Result: see either Pending (New Users) or Ghost (Trusted) items instantly.<\/p>\n\n Bulk actions: Trust \/ Untrust\n- Where: Comments \u2192 All Comments.\n- Action: select multiple comments \u2192 choose \u201cTrust user of selected comments\u201d or \u201cUntrust user of selected comments\u201d \u2192 Apply.\n- Result: users associated with those comments are updated in bulk.<\/p>\n\n Trust from the User Profile\n- Where: Users \u2192 All Users \u2192 Edit user.\n- Action: check \u201cTrusted Commenter\u201d and update the profile.\n- Result: that user is trusted without needing to find a specific comment.<\/p>\n\n Dashboard\n- Where: Ghost Comments \u2192 Dashboard.\n- Shows: trusted user total, ghost-pending count, totals for auto-trusted, ghosts marked, ghosts confirmed, and a table of Shield Lite blocks by reason.<\/p>\n\n Compatibility\n- Works with WordPress 6.0 and newer, classic and block themes.\n- 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.\n- Multisite: activate per site or network-wide; settings are per site.<\/p>\n\n Performance\n- Lightweight by design. No front-end JavaScript for visitors. Shield Lite uses simple server checks and transients.<\/p>\n\n Privacy\n- Stores minimal user meta to remember trusted status and counters for the dashboard.\n- No data is sent to external services by this plugin.<\/p>\n\n I trusted a user but their comment did not auto-publish\n- Confirm the user is logged in with the same account you trusted.\n- Check if another plugin is forcing all comments to be held for moderation.\n- If Akismet flagged the comment as spam, it will not auto-publish.<\/p>\n\n Ghost highlight is not visible to moderators\n- Ensure you are logged in with a role that can moderate comments.\n- Confirm the comment belongs to a trusted user and has not already been confirmed.\n- Check the indicator color in settings; choose a more visible color if needed.<\/p>\n\n Auto-trust threshold is set but users are not becoming trusted\n- The threshold only counts approved comments after you enabled it.\n- Set the threshold to a smaller number to test quickly.<\/p>\n\n Too many legitimate comments are blocked\n- Lower the minimum submit time.\n- Increase rate limits or set them to 0 to disable.\n- Raise the maximum links or remove specific keywords\/regexes from the blocklist.\n- Reduce duplicate window time.<\/p>\n\n Coming soon in Pro:\n- Trust levels with scoring and optional expiry\n- Keyword rules with scoring and spam-gate thresholds\n- Team assignments and internal notes\n- Analytics with CSV export\n- Advanced role and post-type overrides<\/p>\n\n\n
\nJohn is a trusted user. His comment posts immediately but shows a ghost icon only moderators see.
\nYou review and click Confirm<\/strong> \u2192 it\u2019s now public and the ghost mark disappears.<\/p>\n\n\u2699\ufe0f Auto-trust threshold<\/h3>\n\n
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\nExample:<\/strong> set it to 3<\/strong>.
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\ud83d\udd10 Role exclusions (no ghosting)<\/h3>\n\n
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\nExample:<\/strong> check Administrator<\/strong> and Editor<\/strong>.
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\ud83d\udee1\ufe0f Shield Lite (Spam \/ Abuse Guard)<\/h3>\n\n
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\nYou can fine-tune them anytime to match your community\u2019s needs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\nStep-by-step setup<\/h3>\n\n
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Using each feature<\/h3>\n\n
Compatibility, performance, privacy<\/h3>\n\n
Troubleshooting<\/h3>\n\n
Roadmap \/ Pro<\/h3>\n\n
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