[wp-forums] Request to edit .ORG profiles

[Joost de Valk]

Unfortunately, rel="nofollow" doesn't mean what it's supposed to mean
anymore, in part because many large sites (including Wikipedia and
WordPress.org in for instance plugin pages) started to blanket nofollow
links instead of properly policing their content. So even though those
links are nofollowed, they'll still show up in people's backlink reports in
Google Webmaster Tools. Annoying? Yes. Our (as a web community) own bloody
fault? Yes.

So let's "man up" and just fix it. It doesn't need to be automated,
Wikipedia has a spam fighting team for exactly the same reason.


On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 6:28 PM, Half-Elf on Tech <ipstenu at halfelf.org>
wrote:

> They're all marked rel="nofollow"
>
> Joost, you're smarter about that than I am, but I thought that meant
> Google'd ignore it? Or is that only for WPORG?
>
> Yes it would be nice if we could delete that garbage but it's a separate
> system. I can't think of how to safely automate it either, since Good
> People Get Bozo'd from time to time.
>
> Joost de Valk wrote:
>
>>
>> He can disavow, but it's not in WP.org's best interest to leave those
>> links
>> up: it's spam, whichever way you look at it. It means our internal search
>> will bring up that stuff as well, as soon as we don't use Google. Cleaning
>> up spam is not a task that's full of glory, I realize that, but in the
>> long
>> run, it *really* is better if we get rid of it.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Mark Ratledge<mark at markratledge.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>> if the OP's domain is unlockiphone.co.uk, he does have lots of links
>>> from
>>> spam profiles. More than likely is own doing.
>>>
>>> He should know or realize that he can do a disavow list with GWT.
>>>
>>> --songdogtech
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Jul 15, 2014, at 9:58 AM, Joost de Valk wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> LOL he's requesting the editing as part of a link cleanup because Google
>>>> has penalised his site. He has probably had those links created for him
>>>>
>>>
>>> by
>>>
>>>>
>>>> an agency where he bought links himself.
>>>>
>>>> The only interesting bit here is to see whether those profiles were
>>>>
>>>
>>> created
>>>
>>>>
>>>> from the same IP, and if other profiles were created from that IP too,
>>>> could be an easy purge in that case.
>>>>
>>>> If needed I'll hereby volunteer to clean up profiles on WP.org if
>>>> someone
>>>> gives me the appropriate rights.
>>>>
>>>> Best
>>>> Joost
>>>>
>>>> On Tuesday, July 15, 2014, Jan Dembowski<jan at dembowski.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Putting aside the fact that forum moderators can't edit .ORG profiles
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> (not
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> forum profiles, those we can edit) I do not think this request should
>>>>> be
>>>>> entertained.
>>>>>
>>>>> https://wordpress.org/support/topic/please-remove-some-fake-
>>>>> and-spammy-profiles?replies=10&view=all
>>>>>
>>>>> Part of the reason posts are not edited except in extreme cases is that
>>>>> editing posts on requests can be a full time job. One that would
>>>>> suck-wind-loudly at that.
>>>>>
>>>>> Would someone like to chime in on that topic? I've already explained
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> that
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> SERP is not a good reason to generate that work load. I don't want to
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> argue
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> with that member but I do think that topic should be closed with a "I'm
>>>>> sorry but those profiles will not be edited for those reasons."
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Jan Dembowski
>>>>> https://blog.dembowski.net/
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> wp-forums mailing list
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>>>>> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-forums
>>>>>
>>>>>
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