[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #4950: Links in Trac tickets should be nofollow'd

[Making WordPress.org]

#4950: Links in Trac tickets should be nofollow'd
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 Reporter:  jonoaldersonwp  |       Owner:  dd32
     Type:  enhancement     |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  lowest          |   Milestone:
Component:  Trac            |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                  |
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Changes (by sarapalmes232):

 * keywords:  seo =>


Comment:

 Explanation of the Spam Issue

 I read your ticket: https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4950

 Sorry, the spam was from my side. Let me explain it clearly.

 Why the Spam Was Created

 Ahrefs is an SEO tool. All this spam was done only for Ahrefs, basically
 for generating backlinks.
 We place a link and wait for Ahrefs to crawl it. When it crawls the link,
 it shows a backlink from a high-authority website (nofollow or dofollow
 does not matter).
 The only purpose is to show the client a backlink from a high-authority
 site.

 Spammer Activity

 Your channel has more spammers active than you think.
 (You should try blocking their entire IP ranges.)

 I understand this system very well.
 The 13 MB file you saw was only to delay the crawl, nothing else.

 Why Some WordPress Trac URLs Get Spam and Some Don’t

 No Spam:

 https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/

 Reason: Ahrefs cannot crawl it. (Screenshot attached)

 Spam Occurs Here:

 https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/

 https://core.trac.wordpress.org/

 Reason: Ahrefs can crawl them. (Screenshot attached)

 Suggested Fix

 If you add these two lines to your trac robots.txt file and block the
 Ahrefs crawler, the spam will slow down and stop within a week because the
 crawler will stop scanning the site.

 User-agent: AhrefsBot
 Disallow: /

 Contact

 My email is: harikevin54 at gmail.com

 (I can see the emails here and reply, but it is not my real email.)
 [[Image()]]
 Thank you.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/4950#comment:17>
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