Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Is it just me or did SuN implement some sort of rel="nofollow link in our signature links?

Hi Dean - we do have a rel="nofollow" attribute assigned to links created in the forums and the blogs, as it`s a widely accepted practice that helps reduce the use of these types of services for search engine spamming.  It doesn`t affect the ability of users on our site to click on a link and visit the site in question, but it discourages those who would use the site to simply dump links for no reason other than spamming search engines.  More info on this attribute can be found at the Google blog.

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chuck fuller

I think that we should be rewarded for all of the content that we create by allowing our links to count towards our link popularity.  I have not noticed a problem with spammers at all in the forums just on the blogs, but that was taken care of. 

So far I have not noticed anyone trying to spam the forums and I am pretty active on SUN.  Is it an option to remove rel="no follow link for time to see if a problem with spammers developes?

Aaron - I understand your point, but frankly there`s no way we could scale a solution that involved selective use of the attribute. It`s never a question of if with spammers, simply a question of when. The reason you haven`t noticed a problem is that we are diligent about policing the site and keeping it free of those elements that have no goal other than to dump worthless posts and comments on the site. They are most definitely present, and even with the changes we`ve made we`re still contending with them on a daily basis.  As far as the blogs, implementing this is one of several steps we took to address the blog comment issue.


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chuck fuller

Just to clarify, I understand why the rel=nofollow script is used, but I just didn`t understand why it would be used on SUN when there is little spamming occuring. But since you clarified in your response to Aaron, then I understand.

Actually Chuck, my gripe was that the nofollow rule was taking up alloted 200 character space. Is it possible to increase the character space to, say 250?

thanks.

Fully get that Dean, I`m glad I was able to address that first question - in a perfect world, we wouldn`t need tools like this, but unfortunately spamming knows no bounds.

I`ll talk to Brian and gang about the attribute being included when you edit your signature, and see what we can do to fix that.


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chuck fuller

Thanks for explaining the situation.