[wp-hackers] OT: "Nofollow" Rant

[Terrence Wood]

If implementing rel="nofollow" in the core is the answer to spam, then 
provide an option to let it timeout, because making links invisible to 
search engines is restrictive and goes against everything that the web 
is about, which is the sharing of hyperlinks and distributed publishing.

What *should* happen is this: 'spam management' gets it's own section 
under 'manage' in the admin area in the default wordpress installation, 
instead of being an optional install via plugins.

In this 'spam management' section, tools like kittens spaminator, and 
kittens spamwords, should be included (if that's OK with kitten) 
together with an option to disable rel="nofollow" by default or after a 
certain time.

The comment form should have a preview button, so submitting the form 
requires two clicks, making it difficult for bots.

It's a case of 'don't make me think' people. If spam is such an issue 
for wordpress blogs, then it needs to be dealt with *properly* out of 
the box, not half-baked. Implementing google's initiative [again, making 
links invisible to search engines threatens the very fabric of the web] 
while real spam prevention measures are optional/additional install is 
half-baked IMO.


Terrence Wood.