Reconsidering the “Do Follow” list
Posted by
table4five)
The list of bloggers who allow Google and other search engine spiders to follow links on their blogs is called the “Do Follow” list. By default, blogs have “no follow” inserted in their code. Which means that if I leave a comment on your site, Google doesn’t “read” my URL and follow it over here, thus recording the link from your site to mine. There’s a plugin that change that to “Do Follow”, which means that every time you leave a comment here with your URL, Google reads your URL and follows it over to your site, giving you a link from me. Sounds nice, huh? A list of participating bloggers was started, and passed around, growing larger and larger each time someone posted it and added their own URL to the list.
The only problem is, spammers who are just looking for more links to their websites are using the “Do Follow” list. They visit a blog on the list and leave a comment on a post with the keywords they want Google to record for their search engine and their URL. Which means my comment field gets filled up with junk comments that contribute nothing to the discussion.
Effective immediately, I will be deleting comments that add nothing to the discussion, and disabling trackbacks for now. If someone leaves a comment that does add to the discussion, but the “name” they leave is a bunch of keywords, and the URL is a website and not a blog, I reserve the right to edit and/or delete the comment. This is MY blog, and I’m not giving up control of it to spammers. Period.
Edited to add: If you look below at “Jessica”’s comment, it’s a perfect example of what I am talking about. She left the name “Jessica”, but this is what her comment info says:
jessica | voulgarelis1@gmail.com | ticketstrategies.com |
Which brings up another point-if someone has a website and not a blog, should they still be commenting on blogs? Or do we only want other bloggers commenting here?
| 2.2 (1 person) |
Hello and welcome to Table for Five! I'm Elizabeth, and this blog started in September 2005 as a way for me to participate in the Mommy Blogging community. I'm married with three terrific kids-boys ages 11 and 9 and a 2 year old daughter. Things I love include my family, coffee, Diet Coke, TV, reading, and Target.
Please contact me at table4five AT gmail DOT com if you would like to discuss anything I've posted here, place a text or button ad, send me a product to review, or provide a guest post. Thank you for stopping by!
Thanks for this important info. I certainly plan on doing the same.
I’ve been doing that for months and months now. What kills me is that they actually think I’m going to leave their spam up and I refuse to because all they are after is that link back..
good for you! I got a weird comment on my blog the other day and left it. Perhaps I’ll just delete it — but I don’t have the “do follow” stuff…
I have adopted a hardline stance on comments on my blogs and put up a comment policy as well. And each day I get some idiot spammer thinking that their keyword will get through. If I like the comment I change the keyword name to a real name and delete their link. And then I comment and tell them that they violated my comment policy. I have no problem doing that on my wordpress blogs but you can’t edit the comments like that with blogger. So I toss those and any that are with the name anonymous. No thanks if what you say is important than you say it and say who you are.
Yikes, Bossy will try to remain on point. (John Cusack John Cusack John Cusack)
YES! I’m so glad that you’ve said something! I was going to write a post but didn’t want to sound like a bitch. I leave the comments but delete their urls IF they are relevant. If their comment is just totally ridiculous, I delete the whole thing. I decided that I didn’t want to be on the blogroll anymore, but some people still have copies of it with my link posted. They are still coming!
Crap my computer went bonkers! My link came out screwy.
I have been resisting putting some kind of spam blocker on my sites but it has gotten so bad that I resorted to using captcha. I don’t want to go into moderation yet, but that may be the next step. One of my blogs, I know, gets at least 20 spam comments a day and even after I put captcha, some are still getting through. So irritating!
I delete all comments that I think are spam.
Ree-Hope I didn’t sound too indignant when I wrote the post, I had just read the spammiest comment ever over on MomReviews. I’d rather have no comments, which is what I will probably get
Blueyes-Is there a way to add a comment policy type thing right below where it says “Post a Comment”? Is there any point in even telling people that you are going to delete their comment if it is spam? It’s not like they will come back and read it, and I certainly don’t want to reply to their email address and give them MY email address.
Mimi-MomReviews gets TERRIBLE ones. I’m constantly deleting!
Drew-Do any of the people whose comments you have changed ever say anything back to you? I wonder if they are even real people or just some kind of comment robot. Thanks so much for stopping by Table for Five, it’s always great to get a Dad reader! I’ll check out your site as well.
BOSSY-Not only are your comments always welcome, but if they include thoughts of John Cusack, well then, that’s even better
It looks like a bright idea that didn’t come off.
Sheena-Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a way to get myself off the Do Follow list officially. I never post it myself, I suppose any time someone does post it, I could comment and ask them to remove my URLs. You know, in my spare time
JMom-I can’t believe I didn’t think of that, using captcha. The spam comments aren’t as bad here on Table for Five, it’s MomReviews. And I have Akismet activated, but the spammers have found ways to get around that, too. I may have to try out captcha.
I am new to this. And I have been reading conflicting reviews on how important linkbacks are, and if the no follow should be enabled or disabled.
I guess I will just continue to post wherever I feel I can add to the discussion, and keep creating content. ALl the rest is too smart for me!
I did find something interesting today. I wanted to leave a comment on a site that had a general theme, but that day’s post was very specific to my site and keywords.
I wrote something and tried to add to the conversation, but felt I couldn’t use the keyword - even though it applied. made for some awkward sentences!
Take Care!
Jessica
I am sitting here scratching my head like huh????
I’m not sure i understand all of this but, since I comment all the time, I sure hope my comments are adding to the discussion. I’ve been known to ramble about a lot of nothing sometimes, so, whenever that happens, please feel free to delete my comments.
Sounds like a good plan. I’ve been deleting comments when in doubt for a while. I love using the Do Follow plugin, I don’t recall if I’m on the list or not, but I see no point in allowing poor quality comments.
If you’re comfortable editing your theme you may be able to add a comment policy right above the comment box. It’s just a matter of finding where in the PHP on the single post pages the comment form is called.
Well first of all, it’s your blog so moderate and delete as you desire.
I do it, everyone else does it. You are completely within your rights to do it.
Yes, there is a way to put a note in with your comments policy but it involves editing your wordpress php files. You may not feel comfortable doing that and it may not be the easiest thing in the world to do. I managed it on my blog but depending on what theme you are using depends on where you have to edit the file.
I highly recommend Lucia’s Linky Love plugin - it enables you to set a number of comments before that commentor gets do follow on their name. Of course, you should test it on your test blog before installing it on your live blog in case it isn’t compatible with one of your other plugins.
You have a test blog, right?
Some of the text do follow lists = a lot of spam in your comments section. That’s because people deliberately go out and comment on that list of blogs in order to get links back to their blog. I’m a part of the Bumpzee do follow community and NOT any of the text lists. I rarely get the same kind of comment spam that those on the text lists get.
Cheers,
Snoskred
http://www.snoskred.org
I’ve been doing this for awhile. I strip out their urls.
Jessica got you again E, it’s up there ^.
She doesn’t seem to understand that linking to her site isn’t ok to do.
I allow bloggers to leave comments. I don’t allow links to sites that are selling anything, drugs, porn, real estate and yes Jessica, that includes bloggers with ulterior motives like the tickets you are selling.
Be a ticket broker, it’s all cool, but by leaving comments even if they are on topic, to your ticket brokerage blog, is still a site selling something.
So anyway, I strip out their urls, they never see the light of day because I moderate all comments, and then I send the persona comment reply thanking them for visiting, but that I stripped out the url to their site because it is spam.
It’s your blog, you own it, pay for it, and these spammers need to find another way to promote their sites.
Ya know, like buy a text link off us.
I moderate first time commentators and generally that catches my spam as well as those just using my blog to get a link - they get deleted rather quickly.
hmmm E i really don’t think I have a clue what it is that you are talking about. Anyways I would go ahead and delete the comments that really don’t have anything to do with your posts. Am I correct with this line of thinking: This Do Follow thing is beyond the blog rolls right? Its an “easier” way to have links to blogs on one hand yet cause bloggers to get mad because the comments are full of keywords?
And how do I know that what I say in my comments are not keywords?
Okay, so I am confused and a bit offended.
Your original post says “Effective immediately, I will be deleting comments that add nothing to the discussion, and disabling trackbacks for now. If someone leaves a comment that does add to the discussion, but the “name” they leave is a bunch of keywords, and the URL is a website and not a blog, I reserve the right to edit and/or delete the comment.”
That is great and it is your blod, do whatever you like.
1. Did I add to the discussion? I think I did. I did not just stop by and say “great post” or “i agree” like spammers do. Sorry if you felt my comments were not real enough.
2. I don’t have a single keyword in my post. Not a single thing that would make you connect me with my site, etc
3. It is not a website, it is a blog. Every single page of my site is a blog. No products. No attempt to solicit business. It is 100% blog.
4. My site is less commercial than this site, or Kat’s site, or any other site where you allow a linkback. Kat has her link, and if you follow it, there are multiple ways she can monetize your visit. Yes, you could easily argue my visit to he site could earn her money, and that her goal may be to create links to get you to he site that makes money. My site does not have a single link. Not one. No adsense. No banner ads. No text links. Who is really using this site to make money?
Anyway. I am sorry I visited. And I won’t be back.
And one small thing - it’s poor ettiquette to post an email publicly, especially when its says it will be private and not be made public. That’s okay, its how I found out about these comments.
I am sure this post won’t see the light of day, but that’s fine.
Jessica
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