DoFollow (WP Plugin) – Kimmo Suominen
This is a plugin for WordPress. It will disable the automatic rel="nofollow" attributes added to external links. You may want to do this if you have good spam filtering for your comments, or if your blog is moderated. Optionally you can also set a comment age limit for adding the attributes.
This seems perfect for awarding people who take time from their busy schedule and write a line or two on your blog. They’ll get back a bit of Page Rank from your blog through the back link, which may be enough motivation for many to start typing.
Mind you, the NoFollow attribute was introduced by Google et al. as a means to fight spam comments. But it may have done more harm than good, as blog spammers have always found ways to elude it. And it ended up penalizing honest bloggers who happened to like one of your posts, took the time and efforts to contribute and now would like a little something back – a link to their blog perhaps?
The DoFollow plugin helps you take back control of your blog, by removing the NoFollow attribute that is automatically added to all outgoing links in comments. It’s common sense to pair it with an automated comment spam filtering solution (Warning to wanna be spammers: I prefer the manual way though, brain is harder to fool than a Bayesian filter).
The comment age limit option in the DoFollow plugin helps you make sure that no spammer who happens to slip through the filters will be rewarded a back link by the time you notice and clean up.
It’s a win-win situation for both. Viral. Content building.
Do you think the DoFollow plugin should be enabled by default on the entire blog?
