AOS Digital

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.
<h4>✨ What you can do</h4>
🔍 Pattern Scanner 
Type a URL fragment (e.g. <code>shorturl.fm</code>) 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.
<h4>🎯 Who is this for?</h4>
<ul>
<li>Site owners who suddenly find hundreds of shortlink spam comments (you know who you are)</li>
<li>Bloggers who want passive spam protection without a heavy third-party service</li>
<li>Developers managing multiple WordPress sites who need efficient bulk moderation</li>
<li>Anyone frustrated by shortlinks like <code>bit.ly</code>, <code>shorturl.fm</code>, <code>cutt.ly</code> in their comments</li>
</ul>
<h4>❓ Why not just use Akismet?</h4>
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.
<h4>🔒 Privacy</h4>
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.
<h4>🌍 Translations</h4>
Ships with English and German (<code>de_DE</code>). Help translate at <a href="https://translate.wordpress.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">translate.wordpress.org</a>.
<h4>👨‍💻 Developer</h4>
Made by <a href="https://aos-digital.de/" rel="nofollow ugc">AOS Digital</a> — WordPress development from Germany.

AOS Comment Spam Cleanup

Clean up comment spam by URL pattern, schedule auto-cleanups, block bots with a honeypot, and auto-score comment quality — all in one panel.

John Dalesandro

Most spam filters make your visitors do the work by solving captchas, clicking image grids, or proving they are human before they can leave a comment. Analytical Spam Filter takes a different approach. It analyzes how a submission behaves and blocks spam automatically, with no friction for legitimate visitors.
Key Features
<ul>
<li>No captchas</li>
<li>No API keys</li>
<li>No third-party services</li>
<li>Privacy-friendly design</li>
<li>Behavioral spam detection</li>
<li>IP reputation tracking</li>
<li>Content fingerprinting</li>
<li>Cache-compatible operation</li>
</ul>
Install it, activate it, and it starts working.
Spam is identified by observing behaviors that real visitors naturally exhibit. People take time to read before typing, interact with the page, and use a real browser. Bots often skip those signals. The plugin uses those differences to distinguish legitimate submissions from automated spam without interrupting the user experience.
The plugin uses multiple independent detection techniques on every submission. A bot that bypasses one check is likely to be caught by another. This layered approach improves effectiveness over time. Once a spammer’s IP address or message content has been identified, future attempts can be blocked more quickly. Visitors with a previously approved comment are never flagged, regardless of the spam history associated with their IP address.
No visitor data is sent to external spam services, and no account registration or API configuration is required.
All field names added by the plugin are randomized during installation and can be regenerated at any time. This helps prevent bots from targeting the plugin based on known source code signatures. The plugin is compatible with caching plugins when Cache Compatibility is enabled.
The plugin blocks spam submitted through the default WordPress comment form only. It is also automatically compatible with the Micro Contact Form plugin.
<h4>Blocking Methods</h4>
<ul>
<li>Timestamp Blocking — Records when the page loaded and when the form was submitted. Submissions that arrive too quickly to have genuinely read the page, or after the token has expired, are blocked.</li>
<li>Duration Blocking — Measures how long the visitor actively spent filling out the form. Bots fill forms almost instantly. Requires Cache Compatibility to be enabled.</li>
<li>IP Blocking — Remembers which IP addresses have been blocked before. Once an address reaches the configured threshold, future submissions are flagged without running the remaining checks. IP addresses with a previously approved comment are never flagged.</li>
<li>Content Blocking — Remembers the content of blocked spam. If the same message appears again from a different IP address, it is flagged immediately. Content that matches a previously approved comment is excluded from the spam history.</li>
<li>Honeypot — Adds a hidden field that legitimate visitors never see or interact with. Bots that fill every available field are caught. Submissions where the field is missing entirely are also flagged.</li>
<li>Automated Client Detection — Blocks submissions from automated tools that do not identify themselves as a real browser. Legitimate visitors send this information automatically.</li>
<li>Referer Check — Blocks submissions that did not originate from a page on your own site.</li>
<li>URL / Domain Blocking — Flags submissions containing more URLs or domain names than the configured limit. Spam comments frequently contain multiple links.</li>
<li>JavaScript Check — When Timestamp or Duration Blocking is active, the plugin can determine whether JavaScript ran when the form loaded. Bots that skip JavaScript are caught automatically.</li>
<li>Randomized Field Names — Hidden field names are randomized during installation and can be regenerated at any time from the settings page, so bots cannot target the plugin based on known field names.</li>
<li>Trackback Blocking — Optionally block all trackbacks, which are a common source of spam.</li>
<li>Pingback Blocking — Optionally block all pingbacks, which are a common source of spam.</li>
</ul>
<h4>General Options</h4>
<ul>
<li>Send email notifications for blocked spam, valid submissions, or all submissions</li>
<li>Configurable email rate limit to prevent inbox flooding during attacks</li>
<li>Add spam to the WordPress spam queue, or block and reject it immediately</li>
<li>Optionally show rejection reasons to the submitter</li>
<li>Enable Cache Compatibility for caching plugin support and duration blocking</li>
<li>Regenerate security keys at any time from the settings page</li>
</ul>

Analytical Spam Filter

Stop spam without making your visitors prove they're human. No captchas, no accounts, and no external services required.

AOS Comment Spam Cleanup vs Analytical Spam Filter