Title: Squelch Unspam
Author: Matt Lowe
Published: <strong>February 21, 2013</strong>
Last modified: April 10, 2024

---

Search plugins

![](https://ps.w.org/squelch-unspam/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=2366665)

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://ps.w.org/squelch-unspam/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2366670)

# Squelch Unspam

 By [Matt Lowe](https://profiles.wordpress.org/squelch/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/squelch-unspam.1.5.1.zip)

 * [Details](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/squelch-unspam/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/squelch-unspam/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/squelch-unspam/#installation)
 * [Development](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/squelch-unspam/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/)

## Description

Unspam by Squelch Design is the simplest [WordPress anti-spam plugin](http://squelchdesign.com/wordpress-plugin-squelch-unspam/)
you can find for **reducing your comment spam** problem. Once installed there’s 
nothing
 to configure, and nothing changes to your visitors: No captcha or silly
games. Once installed the plugin will simply randomize the names of the fields in
the comments form on your blog and reject comments that are sent to the standard
WordPress field names, or where bots have blindly submitted data to the honeypot
fields.

What this means for spammers is that they have to do quite a lot more work to send
spam to your website. It may also make sending
 spam to your website unreliable 
as changes to your theme may upset their spam submission tools. Or they may have
to resort to using humans to send spam to your website (not much I can do about 
that I’m afraid) which will cost them more money.

Currently implemented:

 * Names of fields are randomized every night at 12:00,
 * Submissions to the standard WordPress field names are automatically deleted,
 * Honeypot fields added to comments form,
 * WooCommerce support.

Additional (planned) features:

 * Contact Form 7 integration
 * Statistical collection,
 * Automated blocking of persistent IPs,
 * Opt-in centralized collection of comment spam and statistics for additional research.

## Installation

### Recommended Installation

 1. From your admin interface go to Plugins > Add New
 2. Search for _unspam_
 3. Click “Install Now” under the plugin in the search results
 4. Click OK on the popup
 5. Click “Activate” to enable the plugin

### Manual Installation

 1. Unzip the installation zip file
 2. Copy the files to your plugins directory (via FTP or whatever)
 3. From the admin interface click Plugins
 4. Find the plugin in the list of plugins and click “Activate”

### Configuration

Currently there is no configuration on this plugin.

## FAQ

### How do I configure the plugin?

There is currently no configuration available on this plugin, just install it and
activate it and it will start protecting your blog.

### Does this plugin require my readers to fill out a CAPTCHA?

No. I hate CAPCTHAs as much as the next person, this plugin does not use them. Future
versions might include the option to enable
 a CAPTCHA if you really want one.

### Does this plugin require JavaScript to be enabled on my visitors’ browsers?

As of version 1.3, yes. This plugin will require JavaScript to be enabled by your
users as an additional safeguard against spam.

### Don’t my users have to do something to prove they’re human?

Nope, spammers just have to prove that they’re NOT human. We give the spammers enough
rope to hang themselves with.

### What about false positives?

With the exception of a few rare scenarios and users without JavaScript enabled,
there shouldn’t be any false positives.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Squelch Unspam” is open source software. The following people have contributed 
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Matt Lowe ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/squelch/)

[Translate “Squelch Unspam” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/squelch-unspam)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/squelch-unspam/), check
out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/squelch-unspam/), or 
subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/squelch-unspam/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/squelch-unspam/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.5.1

 * Tested up to WordPress version 5.5

#### 1.5

 * Fixed a bug that prevented logged-in users from being able to add comments from
   the front end (logged out users were still able to comment though)
 * Set minimum version to 4.4 as the above fix may cause issues on earlier versions
   of WP, but I don’t have time to test so safer to simply prevent Unspam updates
   to anything <WP4.4

#### 1.4

 * Fixed another minor bug that could be exploited to reduce some of the existing
   protection.
 * Tested up to WordPress 4.4

#### 1.3

 * Fixed a minor bug that could be exploited to circumvent some of the protection
   that was in place.
 * Added two new honeypot fields to the form.
 * Changed the naming scheme for randomized fields to make them legitimate page 
   IDs.
 * Added in a JavaScript check (very few spammers will execute JavaScript).
 * Modified the hiding of the fields to use inline CSS instead of embedded styles
   to make it harder to detect honeypots.
 * Enhancements to give WooCommerce reviews the same protection as comment forms.
 * Created two external dependencies without which the comment form will not work
   in an attempt to catch out manual spammers.

#### 1.2.1

 * Removed the ‘WooCommerce not supported’ message

#### 1.2

 * Added in WooCommerce support.

#### 1.1

 * Fix for plugin interfering with 404 Redirected plugin (and potentially other 
   plugins) in the admin interface

#### 1.0.1

 * Removed the ‘Field names will automatically update next time a post/page with
   comments enabled is viewed’ message by default, can be re-enabled by appending?
   unspam-rmvmsg=showfieldupdatemessage to the page URL (in admin). Only really 
   useful for testing.
 * Added “Remove this message” options to messages generated in admin.

#### 1.0

 * Initial version

## Meta

 *  Version **1.5.1**
 *  Last updated **2 years ago**
 *  Active installations **50+**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.4 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.5.8**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/squelch-unspam/)
 * Tags
 * [comments](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/comments/)[filter](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/filter/)
   [spam](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/spam/)[spam filter](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/spam-filter/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://test.wordpress.org/plugins/squelch-unspam/advanced/)

## Ratings

 3 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  0 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  1 3-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/?filter=1)

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Matt Lowe ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/squelch/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/squelch-unspam/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](http://squelchdesign.com/wordpress-plugin-squelch-unspam/)