diff --git a/custom/conf/app.example.ini b/custom/conf/app.example.ini
index e68727eb84..3920f5112c 100644
--- a/custom/conf/app.example.ini
+++ b/custom/conf/app.example.ini
@@ -688,6 +688,9 @@ AUTO_WATCH_NEW_REPOS = true
 ; Default value for AutoWatchOnChanges
 ; Make the user watch a repository When they commit for the first time
 AUTO_WATCH_ON_CHANGES = false
+; Default value for the minimum age a user has to exist before deletion to keep issue comments.
+; If a user deletes his account before that amount of days, his comments will be deleted as well.
+USER_DELETE_WITH_COMMENTS_MAX_DAYS = 0
 
 [webhook]
 ; Hook task queue length, increase if webhook shooting starts hanging
diff --git a/docs/content/doc/advanced/config-cheat-sheet.en-us.md b/docs/content/doc/advanced/config-cheat-sheet.en-us.md
index 17d349b583..5b86cadd44 100644
--- a/docs/content/doc/advanced/config-cheat-sheet.en-us.md
+++ b/docs/content/doc/advanced/config-cheat-sheet.en-us.md
@@ -474,6 +474,7 @@ relation to port exhaustion.
 - `ALLOW_ONLY_EXTERNAL_REGISTRATION`: **false** Set to true to force registration only using third-party services.
 - `NO_REPLY_ADDRESS`: **DOMAIN** Default value for the domain part of the user's email address in the git log if he has set KeepEmailPrivate to true.
   The user's email will be replaced with a concatenation of the user name in lower case, "@" and NO_REPLY_ADDRESS.
+- `USER_DELETE_WITH_COMMENTS_MAX_DAYS`: **0** If a user deletes his account before that amount of days, his comments will be deleted as well.
 
 ## SSH Minimum Key Sizes (`ssh.minimum_key_sizes`)
 
diff --git a/models/user.go b/models/user.go
index de12b804fd..584c9d032d 100644
--- a/models/user.go
+++ b/models/user.go
@@ -1151,6 +1151,15 @@ func deleteUser(e *xorm.Session, u *User) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("deleteBeans: %v", err)
 	}
 
+	if setting.Service.UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays != 0 &&
+		u.CreatedUnix.AsTime().Add(time.Duration(setting.Service.UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays)*24*time.Hour).After(time.Now()) {
+		if err = deleteBeans(e,
+			&Comment{PosterID: u.ID},
+		); err != nil {
+			return fmt.Errorf("deleteBeans: %v", err)
+		}
+	}
+
 	// ***** START: PublicKey *****
 	if _, err = e.Delete(&PublicKey{OwnerID: u.ID}); err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("deletePublicKeys: %v", err)
@@ -1205,7 +1214,8 @@ func deleteUser(e *xorm.Session, u *User) error {
 }
 
 // DeleteUser completely and permanently deletes everything of a user,
-// but issues/comments/pulls will be kept and shown as someone has been deleted.
+// but issues/comments/pulls will be kept and shown as someone has been deleted,
+// unless the user is younger than USER_DELETE_WITH_COMMENTS_MAX_DAYS.
 func DeleteUser(u *User) (err error) {
 	if u.IsOrganization() {
 		return fmt.Errorf("%s is an organization not a user", u.Name)
diff --git a/modules/setting/service.go b/modules/setting/service.go
index 5e74641d27..86f46898ac 100644
--- a/modules/setting/service.go
+++ b/modules/setting/service.go
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ var Service struct {
 	AutoWatchNewRepos                       bool
 	AutoWatchOnChanges                      bool
 	DefaultOrgMemberVisible                 bool
+	UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays           int
 
 	// OpenID settings
 	EnableOpenIDSignIn bool
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ func newService() {
 	Service.DefaultOrgVisibility = sec.Key("DEFAULT_ORG_VISIBILITY").In("public", structs.ExtractKeysFromMapString(structs.VisibilityModes))
 	Service.DefaultOrgVisibilityMode = structs.VisibilityModes[Service.DefaultOrgVisibility]
 	Service.DefaultOrgMemberVisible = sec.Key("DEFAULT_ORG_MEMBER_VISIBLE").MustBool()
+	Service.UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays = sec.Key("USER_DELETE_WITH_COMMENTS_MAX_DAYS").MustInt(0)
 
 	sec = Cfg.Section("openid")
 	Service.EnableOpenIDSignIn = sec.Key("ENABLE_OPENID_SIGNIN").MustBool(!InstallLock)
diff --git a/options/locale/locale_en-US.ini b/options/locale/locale_en-US.ini
index 73451eeebb..5e53637267 100644
--- a/options/locale/locale_en-US.ini
+++ b/options/locale/locale_en-US.ini
@@ -646,6 +646,7 @@ repos_none = You do not own any repositories
 
 delete_account = Delete Your Account
 delete_prompt = This operation will permanently delete your user account. It <strong>CAN NOT</strong> be undone.
+delete_with_all_comments = Your account is younger than %d days. To avoid ghost comments, all issue/PR comments will be deleted with it.
 confirm_delete_account = Confirm Deletion
 delete_account_title = Delete User Account
 delete_account_desc = Are you sure you want to permanently delete this user account?
diff --git a/routers/user/setting/account.go b/routers/user/setting/account.go
index ca9b5b3c32..3b4191f0be 100644
--- a/routers/user/setting/account.go
+++ b/routers/user/setting/account.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ package setting
 
 import (
 	"errors"
+	"time"
 
 	"code.gitea.io/gitea/models"
 	"code.gitea.io/gitea/modules/auth"
@@ -300,4 +301,9 @@ func loadAccountData(ctx *context.Context) {
 	ctx.Data["EmailNotificationsPreference"] = ctx.User.EmailNotifications()
 	ctx.Data["ActivationsPending"] = pendingActivation
 	ctx.Data["CanAddEmails"] = !pendingActivation || !setting.Service.RegisterEmailConfirm
+
+	if setting.Service.UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays != 0 {
+		ctx.Data["UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays"] = setting.Service.UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays
+		ctx.Data["UserDeleteWithComments"] = ctx.User.CreatedUnix.AsTime().Add(time.Duration(setting.Service.UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays) * 24 * time.Hour).After(time.Now())
+	}
 }
diff --git a/templates/user/settings/account.tmpl b/templates/user/settings/account.tmpl
index d753f9082e..4f7d8a50c7 100644
--- a/templates/user/settings/account.tmpl
+++ b/templates/user/settings/account.tmpl
@@ -173,6 +173,9 @@
 		<div class="ui attached error segment">
 			<div class="ui red message">
 				<p class="text left">{{svg "octicon-alert"}} {{.i18n.Tr "settings.delete_prompt" | Str2html}}</p>
+				{{ if .UserDeleteWithComments }}
+				<p class="text left" style="font-weight: bold;">{{.i18n.Tr "settings.delete_with_all_comments" .UserDeleteWithCommentsMaxDays | Str2html}}</p>
+				{{ end }}
 			</div>
 			<form class="ui form ignore-dirty" id="delete-form" action="{{AppSubUrl}}/user/settings/account/delete" method="post">
 				{{.CsrfTokenHtml}}