[wp-forums] PR and Spam

[Scott Merrill]

Podz wrote:
> ifelse wrote:
>  > This is one of the instances where there's a stronger argument for the
>  > use of nofollow.
> 
> I'm not entirely sold on nofollow - never was :)

Generally, I'm not convinced about nofollow either; but then I don't 
play the SEO game, so I've no idea how effective it may or may not be.

> I think there is an argument for using nofollow on all posts until 
> someone has posted a number of links. That way, the hit'n'run spammers 
> get the nofollow whereas genuine and useful links that are provided in 
> the forum get the link juice benefit.

Answers.com uses nofollow very well:
http://philringnalda.com/blog/2005/03/best_use_of_nofollow_by_a_commercial_site.php
Links to non-helpful pages get nofollowed.  All links from the forums to 
the codex, however, should _not_ have nofollow applied, because we 
specifically want codex links in search engine results.

I think it's reasonable enough that all member profiles get nofollow. 
We're there to provide support, not generate PR for ourselves.  We can 
do that in other ways.

The questionable bit here might be plugins.  When I announce a plugin on 
the forums, I might want to get some googlejuice for that link.  But how 
to disambiguate legitimate versus spam links?  On the balance, nofollow 
for all external sites seems the most "fair" policy.

> But then they are still leaving their URL's around - and I'd still say 
> that they need to be deleted. It's like any spam - visibility to humans 
> is just as good.

But the same can be said for all kinds of abuse.  That's why we have mods.

>>> Maybe we should start using a 'spam?' tag ? After all, if one person 
>>> says "This looks like spam" and a mod agrees, then it goes ?
>>
>>
>> This has promise especially as it'll mean a single page (for mods) to
>> check up and address critical issues. Perhaps we can extend this line
>> of reasoning to use a 'mod_look' tag so that we can use it to tag
>> other posts as well such as:
>> dupes
>> security vulnerabilities
>> unproductive off-topic discussions
>>
> I like the 'mod_look' tag idea

I'm still not sold on tags, either, and new users might not know the 
right tag words.  I like how Flickr has a "Flag this photo as 'May 
Offend'".  It's a button (or link) that any user can hit.  That could 
set an internal flag on the post, just like 'resolved' / 'not resolved', 
and the mods could have a seperate view of all 'spam' posts.  Or 
whatever we call it.

-- 
skippy at skippy.net | http://skippy.net/

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 9CFA4B35
506C F8BB 17AE 8A05 0B49  3544 476A 7DEC 9CFA 4B35