You Comment, I Follow. So What Are You Waiting For?
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Many of you have seen this logo floating around various blogs lately. It was created by Randa Clay. She’s a designer and marketing consultant, and she created the logo to show her participation in the dofollow movement. Like Randa, and a handful of other bloggers, I’ve decided to remove the rel=”nofollow” attribute from my comments…with a tiny catch.
I looked into a few WordPress plugins that removes the nofollow. I chose the Share The Link Love plugin by Andrew Timberlake. Once a commenter has commented at least 10 times (this is configurable), the nofollow attribute is removed. For all newer commenters, the nofollow remains. The point is to reward regular commenters. Comment history is based on your email address and not domain or URL, so it allows a commenter to take advantage of link marketing tactics. I would just turn it off altogether, but I hesitated a bit as it is…and I’m hoping the “goal” of 10 will incent readers to comment.
Other NoFollow WordPress Plugins
The dofollow plugin is straight to the point: you just activate it and it works. Nofollows are removed from comments and trackbacks…period.
The Case-By-Case nofollow plugin offers a little more control. It allows you to select which comments DO NOT get the nofollow attribute. In other words, the plugin turns nofollow off throughout the entire blog; however, when you come across a comment that you do not think deserves to be followed, simply add ‘/dontfollow’ to the link in the comment. The intent was to eliminate following spamments from getting link love. That’s why I use Akismet.
Don’t use WordPress? Well Saman over at Samanathon.com chose to remove nofollow from his blog as well. He also included some links for removing nofollow from Movable Type, Typepad, and Blogger users.
Speaking of Spam
Many WordPress bloggers have been updating to Version 2.2. During the upgrade process, spammers may use this vulnerability as an opportunity to squeeze a few spamments in to your blog. Lorelle VanFossen shows us how to recheck your comment list for comment spam after a successful WordPress update.
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May 29th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I like the Share the Link Love plugin. Never heard of that one before. It is nice since you are not losing your link juice to people who comment once.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Thanks for the post. I added the same plugin to my site. I also linked the logo on the side of my page to the post describing what I’m doing.
Read You Comment, I Follow.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Nice idea - I had been looking for something like this - but I couldn’t find a follow plugin I liked… I’ll try this one out. Hopefully it will work.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
@ Lisa: No kidding. I only have so much link juice to go around.
@ Shaine: Sweet! I’m glad you’re using it too. If there’s one thing I hate more than spammenters it’s giving them link love.
@ Matt: I hope it works out for you. I was in your shoes until I came across this one. Keep us posted.
May 29th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Personally I am not a fan of that specific plugin. Why do you only allow the removal of ‘nofollow’ after 10 comments?
Surely this will just encourage 10 spammy comments just so people can then be ‘nofollow’ enabled.
In my opinion, if you are going to do ‘nofollow’, then you should do it with no strings attached.
Just my two cents
- Martin Reed
May 29th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
I hear you loud and clear, Martin. This was part of my conflict. Since posting this, each comment has contributed to the bigger picture. No “nice post” spamments yet. You’ve got 9 more to go now.
And we all love The Hoff. So, don’t be a stranger.
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Hey Derrich,
I had just finished a post and as usual, checked out my Sphere related articles and this was one of them!
I just wrote a Remove NoFollow script for Classic FTP Blogger pages, and after seeing what you WordPress guys are doing — I may have to churn out an update for it already.
But I am more inclined to use the other method called the “fading nofollow”. I think that is what it is called. There is a time limit before the “nofollow” pumpkin turns into a “dofollow” carriage. The premise is that it will give you enough time to spot spam that slips through and act on it.
My personal feeling on the imposed 10 posts is that you may lose some valuable contributions, and maybe even readers in general.
For instance, if I had not known about this post and how you handled your comments … then by looking at another post, one would have to wonder why some were Nofollow and some were not. First thought that would pop into my mind (not being hip to WP plugins) is that some people are allowed and some are not.
So, I would have to vote with Martin in saying that you are either Nofollow or Dofollow, and no strings attached.
June 3rd, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I appreciate your comments very much. I’ve been contemplating the nofollow since this post, and have come a little closer to reducing the number to 3. My spamments (if any) are pretty recognizable. But then again, if I reduce it to 3, why not remove it at all? I know, I know. I’m a mess…with something that should be so simple.
I also like the idea of the fading nofollow. Thanks for the ideas. I’ll be in deep thought this week.
June 24th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Does it track the URL on the nick if I used this plugin?
June 25th, 2007 at 7:48 am
As far as I’ve read, it’s tracked by the email address you enter. So, you can use a different name and a different URL each time you comment if you wanted to.
July 3rd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
[…] Derrich […]
July 10th, 2007 at 11:45 am
I like it and will implement it (once I have traffic that comments, lol). I think if you set it at a more moderate number like 5 - it is a number that wont encourage anyone to waste their reputation in order to reach the dofollow quickly.
- Scott
July 15th, 2007 at 12:40 am
Doesn’t this encourage spam? enabling the follow tag will encourage spammer to post useless post in order to get into search engine.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Good point…and that’s why I use the 5 comments and then I follow approach.
July 22nd, 2007 at 7:13 am
The NoNoFollow or U Commnet I Follow movement is a great way to increase blog participation at the end of the day - if you want to leave a comment the last thing you want is for it to be moderated by some backdoor piece of code. I for one have implemented the DoFollow plugin on my blogs and hope more people do so in the future.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Interesting article, just wanted to let everyone using wordpress know that version 2.2.2 has fixed all the Spam issues!
Keep up the articles Derrich
September 13th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Sweet post i will probably ad same to my blog. Need post guest?
September 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Its ironic that many bloggers talk about this but then they actually use no follow.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:13 pm
My blog now follows links. At first I thought nofollow was a good idea but I have changed my mind on that. After a long time procrastinating I have seen the importance of “dofollow” and making sure everything stays connected and links don’t get broken. I will follow comments on my blog, http://www.reallyreally.net I hope more people adopt these principals. Regards Bree.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Thanks, I’m going to look into this.
Cheers,
Matt
October 18th, 2007 at 2:22 am
I’m trying similar thing on my blog, because I want to build a community around it. This is the best way to promote commentating.
November 11th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Good and really useful post for all readers and specially for me, thanks!
November 16th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
on another blog
they had teh policy that nofollow is used when a user has more than 10 comments , so as to prevent spamming
so u want spamming huh
March 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Nice to see your supporting the do follow movement Derrich…best of luck sir
April 10th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
It seems like nearly all “I follow” blogs on the web are PR0 or PR ‘n/a’.
It’s hard to find anyone with a PR1+ that follows.
I still think it’s a good thing and I applaud you for following.
May 1st, 2008 at 7:18 am
I think that is a great idea, regular commenters get links.
I like the comment luv application too. Its a great tool if you write killer titles which I seem to be sorely lacking in.
I ahve also seen a few bloggers taking it in their own hands too and using the top commentators and if you end up in there at the end of the month, they will post about you with a link back to your blog.
October 25th, 2008 at 5:38 am
I’ve seen many of this and read different opinion about it. Some people support it and some people don’t. I myself support it but don’t know how to do it in blogsome