Anti-spam Reloaded vs AOS Comment Spam Cleanup

This is fork of successful Anti-spam plugin v5.5 written by webvitalii, for more info visit GitHub Fork. From version 5.6 maintained by kudlav. GitHub Anti-spam Reloaded plugin blocks 100% of automatic spam messages in comments section and also blocks all trackbacks.No captcha required. Plugin is simple and easy to use: just install it and it just works. Blocked comments can be stored in the Spam area and converted to regular comments if needed. Anti-spam Reloaded plugin is GDPR compliant and does not store any other user data except of the behaviour mentioned above. Plugin blocks spam only in comments section.. Plugin does not block manual spam (submitted by spammers manually via browser). Compatibility All modern browsers and IE11+ are supported. Anti-spam Reloaded plugin works with disabled JavaScript. Users with disabled JavaScript should manually fill current year before submitting the comment. Server compatibility: WordPress 3.3 – 6.5 PHP 5.6 – 8.2 Doesn’t use jQuery Plugin is incompatible with: Disqus Jetpack Comments AJAX Comment Form bbPress If site has caching plugin enabled and cache is not cleared or if theme does not use ‘comment_form’ action and there is no plugin inputs in comments form – plugin tries to add hidden fields automatically using JavaScript. How does it work? The blocking algorithm is based on 2 methods: ‘invisible js-captcha’ and ‘invisible input trap’ (aka honeypot technique). ‘invisible js-captcha’ The ‘invisible js-captcha’ method is based on fact that bots does not have JavaScript on their user-agents. Extra hidden field is added to comments form. It is the question about the current year. If the user visits site, than this field is answered automatically with JavaScript, is hidden by JavaScript and CSS and invisible for the user. If the spammer will fill year-field incorrectly – the comment will be blocked because it is spam. ‘invisible input trap’ The ‘invisible input trap’ method is based on fact that almost all the bots will fill inputs with name ’email’ or ‘url’. Extra hidden field is added to comments form. This field is hidden for the user and user will not fill it. But this field is visible for the spammer. If the spammer will fill this trap-field with anything – the comment will be blocked because it is spam.

AOS Comment Spam Cleanup helps you remove comment spam in bulk using URL pattern matching, and prevents future bot submissions with a honeypot and quality scoring. Whether you have hundreds of shortlink spam comments or want ongoing protection, this plugin has you covered. It works alongside Akismet and other spam filters, not instead of them. ✨ What you can do 🔍 Pattern Scanner Type a URL fragment (e.g. shorturl.fm) into the scanner, click Check Count to see exactly how many comments match, then choose your action: mark as spam, move to trash, or delete permanently. ⏱ Scheduled Auto-Cleanup Set a WP-Cron job to run hourly, twice daily, daily, or weekly. Configure your patterns and action once — the plugin keeps your comment section clean automatically. 🤖 Honeypot Bot Protection An invisible form field is added to your comment form. Real visitors never see or fill it. Bots that automatically fill every form field get rejected with a 403 error — silently, without affecting real users who never see or fill the field. 📊 Comment Quality Scoring Every new comment is automatically scored based on: – Number of external links (+2 per link) – Shortlink in author URL (+4 points) – Very short text under 15 characters (+2 points) – High symbol/punctuation density (+3 points) – Known spam keywords like “casino” or “viagra” (+3 points) – Excessive ALL-CAPS usage (+2 points) If the score exceeds your threshold, the comment is held for review or marked as spam automatically. 🚫 Gravatar Privacy (GDPR-friendly) Optionally block all external requests to gravatar.com. When enabled, avatar images are suppressed completely, preventing third-party data transfers without visitor consent — helpful for GDPR / DSGVO compliance. 💬 Disable Comments Globally Close comments and trackbacks / pingbacks on all posts, pages, and custom post types in one click. Existing comments are not deleted — only new submissions are blocked. Disabling the toggle restores original comment status immediately without any database changes. 🛡 WordPress Blocklist Integration Add URL patterns directly to WordPress’s native disallowed_keys list — new comments containing those patterns are caught before they even reach the scanner. 📋 Spam Domain Analysis Automatically scans your existing spam and trash comments to surface the most common offending domains, so you always know what to block next. 🎯 Who is this for? Site owners who suddenly find hundreds of shortlink spam comments (you know who you are) Bloggers who want passive spam protection without a heavy third-party service Developers managing multiple WordPress sites who need efficient bulk moderation Anyone frustrated by shortlinks like bit.ly, shorturl.fm, cutt.ly in their comments ❓ Why not just use Akismet? Akismet is great for real-time filtering — but it doesn’t help you clean up existing spam, and it doesn’t support pattern-based bulk actions. AOS Comment Spam Cleanup fills that gap. Use both. 🔒 Privacy This plugin does not collect, transmit or store any personal data on external servers. All processing happens on your own server. No external API calls are made during normal operation. 🌍 Translations Ships with English and German (de_DE). Help translate at translate.wordpress.org. 👨‍💻 Developer Made by AOS Digital — WordPress development from Germany.