Blog settings > Features > Comments > Default status for new comments

Thanks - but that is what I thought and set (see attached image). But any comment made goes straight to public with an email seeking moderation!

If you log out, do you really see the comment published?

What if you try to edit the comment, what status does it have?

Please note that if you post the comment yourself as admin it will autopublish indeed.

Francois
Notwithstanding the settings in the image above, in admin edit it has a status of Public and is visible in other browsers that are not logged in to admin. In testing I use another browser not logged into admin and a random test identity. Prior to moving the blogs to V5 this worked as expected. Try it out at http://www.cla.asn.au/index.php

Well, that's definitely not b2evolution's default behaviour.
Since you checked your settings, I would suggest disabling plugins (antispam question) and maybe trying with a default skin.

Thanks for the help. The Akismet plugin was the issue! Why - that I don't know