NoFollows and the Homepage

[skitzzo]

Have you guys added a couple of NFs? For example on (some of the) links to profile pages and on in-post links?

I thought we disallowed the profile pages in the robots.txt. I dont think in-post links are supposed to have NF's... it might be time to sit down and actually figure out what exactly we need to do and how to do it. (in terms of robots, NF's etc)

[Wit]

Are you using Firefox with the "persistent css" hack that shows NF links? It can be annoying, but if you're tweaking the link structure of a site (forum, blog, whatever) it can be very useful....

Just put this in your userContent.css file:

a[rel~="nofollow"]:after {
content: "!";
background-color: white !important;
color: red !important;
font-weight: bold !important;
text-decoration: blink !important;
}

(Just telling it again LOL)

[anthonycea]

Please let us know what direction you guys take on this so we can discuss it!

I would not put no follow on profiles because you get a lot of people coming in from searching on members names!

A lot of forums are putting no follows on links in posts and signatures now days and there are reasons for this too!

[Wit]

It's not strange to put NF on (in-post) forum links, although I quite liked the purgatory approach (that allowed properly spidered links for 50+ post members)

But as I said: there is now NF on SOME of the links pointing to profile pages. It is not consistent, so if it was done on purpose, it won't work.

Using the code I posted there, I could spot that my nickname sometimes shows as Wit and sometimes as Wit!

[anthonycea]

This is a giant issue for all forum managers to learn about and a lot of forum administrators are not really educated on the right direction to go with this at this point in time!

I know there was some discussion on the tag issue at Dana Web a while back where she was referring to Google's instructions on using no follow links so members could not hurt the forums PR by linking to bad sites!

A lot more discussion needs to take place on these tags within posts and for signature links!

This is a hot button issue for sure as we all well know from the SEO Chat situation and it is not over by any means!

[skitzzo]

I think the NF stuff has caused more problems than its helped clear up. As soon as I have time (maybe this weekend), I will try to fix it but you have to remember, I'm not exactly an expert at this stuff. Thanks for bringing it up though Wit. We do need to fix it.

[anthonycea]

It is one hell of a can of worms alright Skitz, a lot of forum owners don't even want to discuss it, but that is stupid to be honest about it, the last thing you want to do is piss your members off by not being up front with them!

[skitzzo]

It is one hell of a can of worms alright Skitz, a lot of forum owners don't even want to discuss it, but that is stupid to be honest about it, the last thing you want to do is piss your members off by not being up front with them!

I meant that I dont know enough about the forum software, coding, etc to be confident in it but obviously we need to take a look and try and get it fixed. Discussing it is not the issue...

[anthonycea]

I was not talking about this forum, but forums in general

Most forum owners will not comment on the issue of no follow tags being applied in posts or on signatures, but they should discuss it with the members before making a move so there are no surprises in that regard!

I have no problem if a forum puts no follow on links in posts or signatures to be honest, because the signature links are not of great value as backlinks since the search engines devalue them even if they are followed.

I just think the issues are not understood very well by the community yet and a lot more education needs to take place and without discussion that will never happen!

[skitzzo]

I was not talking about this forum, but forums in general

Ah... sorry, I'm not feeling the best so I am probably cranky. My bad, ace.