Follow This
Michael Hampton, producer of the Bad Behaviour anti-spam plug-in for Wordpress has posted a convincing attack on the rel=”no follow” code proposed by google and implemented by MovableType, WordPress, Blogger, Flickr, and Slashdot.
This code gets added to any links left in comments on a site and is an instruction to search engines to ignore the link.
The supposed benefit? It stops link spammers from gaining google ranking from your site. The major side-effect? It breaks the structure of comments and links back-and-forth with which weblogs maintain their position in search rankings.
The post effectively dismantles any claims about the effects of rel=”no follow” on link spammers, showing how in fact it is likely to lead to an increase in spamming attempts. Its only effect will be to make blogs drop lower in search results.
If I’m looking for information I’d rather read a post written by an interested individual who has taken time to research it for themselves than a press release reprinted verbatim by a lazy hack or marketing copy that deceives to sell. People who complain about “blognoise” in search results are misguided. If you keep find irrelevent blog posts about someone’s new diet when you’re looking for something else, then learn how to use a search engine. Taking blogs out of google won’t make poorly constructed attempts to search the internet any more precise.
There’s a nonofollow plugin for Wordpress that removes rel=”no follow” from comments after a configurable number of days, allowing you to reward your true readers with a splash of googlejuice but giving you time to dump freeloading Texas Hold-em and his Viagra-toting buddies.
There are better ways to stop spammers. Michael is working on a real-time DNS-based blacklist to monitor the open proxies used to hammer websites with link spam so you can block any comments, pings or trackbacks sent via these anonymising machines. A Wordpress plug-in is now available.
May 27th, 2005 at 2:12 am
Hey, nice info! Will try out the nofollow plugin.
May 27th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
Just ran across this and thought it was appropriate here:
http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/05/11/wordpress-hashcash-20/
May 27th, 2005 at 4:14 pm
That looks really promising. Thanks for sharing your find, Corey - I’ll put trying this high on the “to do” list. I’m testing another antispam tool at the moment too and will post about it once I’ve had time to play with it properly.
So many toys, too little time!
May 27th, 2005 at 4:34 pm
I hear that!
Man, I just don’t know where to start, hah!
May 27th, 2005 at 4:53 pm
And once you start, where do you stop…? Way too many choices - open source sucks!