Automatic comment moderation?

The last time I asked, the functionality is the same, for now. Later, there is supposed to be a difference between automatic/manual. ??

Yes. These two are identical. The manual moderation is for future additions to the system such as bayesian filtering for comments.

So if I put automatic on, it does.. what?

LL described it correctly, but accidently changed “manual” and “automatic”.
So, let’s sum it up again:
“Manual” means, that you decide yourself about approval of newly posted comments. Currently “automatic” has the same meaning. But in the near future “automatic” will be the first step to allow WP to “automatically” approve comments by using things like “blacklist matching” or “bayesian filtering”.

Perhaps I’ve missed something in 03-28-2004 build… but I cannot find a way to set commentary for automatic approval. A key functionality of blog is that people are able to post and see their comments immediately, and NOT have to wait for approval. I can’t find a setting that will turn off the email notification feature, forcing feedback to be moderated. Maybe I’ve just missed it. ?? Help?

In the new version: Options > Discussion > check “An administrator must approve the comment (regardless of any matches below)”

I think what I was looking for was more of something where:
(1) the post would be immediate, without moderator approval;
(2) the moderator would be notified of the post, and could take action if they chose.
The reason a post should appear immediately for the author is to convey that it has been received by the system. It also appears to be a standard Blog functionality. You don’t want the author sitting there wondering what happened to their post. Again, I sort of assume that it’s in the system somewhere, but it isn’t obvious how this is done.
Looking over the code, I would suggest that you consider modifying functions.php. If a post is to be accepted automatically, you will need to modify the wp_notify_moderator function. It is only a minor tweak, but it would be a modification to line 1160 where you change [is waiting for your approval] to [has been submitted], and an addition to the routine below line 1179 where the comment is now changed from a status of “0” to “1”.
If you want to make the routine more sophisticated (a good idea), you will have to build in a bit more query and tie it to permission settings from the admin module, e.g. “allow automatic posts” which should be a system setting.
Hope that helps. I think your product rocks, by the way. This is only a minor tweak, suggestion. ??