In checking out some of the ProBlogger Top 5 entries, I visited Susan Drigger’s Top 5 Sins post, and while there noticed a nice little icon, “No Nofollow, fight spam, not blogs” that reminded me to check the no follow status of my comments. Oops! WordPress strikes again… it was there! With the addition of the DoFollow plugin from Semiologic, comments and track backs are now nofollow-free.
Some of you are wondering, “What’s the big deal”? If it’s built-in to WordPress by default, it’s got to be right. That’s a matter of opinion. Google introduced the concept of using an attribute rel="nofollow" on links in 2005, to theoretically help reduce comment spam, and create more accurate Page Rank. However, many disagree that it has had much influence on comment spam, and we feel people should get link credit for posting comments. If you would like more information on the controversy, you can check Michael Hampton’s May 2005 post, Nofollow Revisited. It covers the story well, from the intent, how it is supposed to work, and why it doesn’t work.
If you would like to join the Do Follow crowd, as I have–note the new “U Comment, I follow” icon (courtesy Randa Clay Design) in the side bar–visit the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community at BumpZee.
Thanks for the link. I was hardly expecting people would still be citing my article two years on. Then again, with Google’s likely ulterior motives in promoting nofollow, I’m not terribly surprised that we’re still stuck with it.
Your welcome, Michael. It was excellent coverage of all the points that needed to be covered. I think we all know the real reason it was created…
The problem is that once your blog is popular and has no nofollow the people commenting start having funny names such as credit, mobile phone or ring tone. It is really not an easy issue… 🙁
The point though is that the issue is the SPAM comments. Nofollow was supposedly designed to address that issue. It doesn’t, as I can attest from the SPAM I got before making the switch.
You need a different solution to adress SPAM. I use the built-in Akismet plugin for WordPress, along with moderating comments from first-time posters. I also am notified of, and read, every comment, even if automatically approved for a previous commenter.
If you prefer, there is another nofollow plugin, Link Love, that allows you to selectively approve removing nofollow for commenters that have exceed a certain number of comments. It defaults to 10, but you can customize.
I like that idea of removing the NoFollow after the person has posted a set amount of comments. This will ensure that they just don’t post silly things as ‘I agree’, ‘Yea that too’ etc.
Tomorrow (or tonight if I had time) I am going to impliment that into my site. I don’t run WordPress but it isn’t hard to modify a dynamic link that I already do some parsing on.
I also should pick up the U Comment -> I Follow icon too!
Interesting, I think I might implement it on my blog.
Give it a try… you can always change your mind later!
Ok I just implemented it (i have to put the cool logo on the page) but if you have commented on my blog more than 5 times in total, it removes the NoFollow attribute from your URL when you post a comment.
🙂
Guess I need to slide over and test it… I think I’m sitting at 4…
It should tell you what your total comments at the top left side of the screen when you come to my site, as long as you’ve posted before. I know you have. thanks!