I understand why Google wants us to nofollow tag all of the comments on our blogs.

Comment spam is crappy -true. It’s a nuisance and an eyesore -true. Add to that the weight and importance Google places on links in their ranking algo… It’s no wonder Google perceives comment spam as such a problem.

I got it.

Now, here’s the problem - and mind you, this isn’t anything that hasn’t already been said by people a lot smarter than me. The problem is, slapping a nofollow tag on somebody’s link when they’ve taken the time and effort to make a thoughtful and compelling remark or comment on your blog or site, just isn’t cool.

What does it say?

Does it say; ‘Hey, thanks for being a contributor to my site and helping to develop a great discourse about the topic to everybody’s betterment!‘?

Not exactly. It’s more like; ‘thank you drive thru‘ - it’s not even that nice. More accurately, nofollow - in my mind at least - says;

‘You left a comment. I would love to acknowledge your existence, but you might be a spammer. Since you might be a spammer, I better not link to you. Google doesn’t like spammers and… you know, you’re either with Google or you’re against them. So, I can’t really, you know, risk it.’

Well, here’s a newsflash for you: that sucks.

The Internet, is about links. Links are why Google is good -remember? Links make the algo hum and the results relevant (to some extent at least). That’s great and I appreciate Google for their work. That said, if the links are abused and somehow manipulated to leverage some advantage in Google… why is that any body’s problem but Google’s?

Why all of a sudden do we have to start being rude (and yes, nofollow is rude) to people who have shown us courtesy by leaving us a comment? I’m from the South. I guess maybe I’m hypersensitive to rudeness - but that’s how I see it.

(more…)

As many of you know, I’ve been bouncing around with a number of projects - but I am going to be frequenting WebProBlog a little more. Because I haven’t posted about the industry in a while, I’ve done a little catching up before writing and the big story right now, at least from the blogosphere’s perspective, is about Kathy Sierra.

WebProNews’ Joe Lewis has an excellent write-up about the unfortunately ridiculous situation, as does SEOMoz’s Rebecca Kelley. As a part-time blogger and frequent message board user, all I can say is this - as we all know, the Internet allows you a certain degree of anonymity and there are morons out there who try their hardest to ruin a good thing for everyone.

In this particular case, the perpetrators went overboard with their unmoderated message board-like responses (Ever see an AintItCoolNews message board discussing a disappointing movie? They don’t call this place the cesspool of the Internet for no reason…) that took on a threatening manner and the blogosphere exploded with support for Sierra and admonishment for the cowardly behavior exhibited by the posters.

There also seems to be an idea that these acts may have had such an effect on Kathy that she may not blog again for a while - something I hope that doesn’t happen. Folks, bloggers, even the unpopular ones, are public figures and because we put ourselves on an open forum, sometimes flotsam and jetsam like the cowardly posters targeting Sierra make it through.

I can only hope Kathy stands strong and doesn’t stop sharing her knowledge with the rest of us. Ceasing to do so would only give them strength.