Stopping Blog Comment Abuse and Spam

This is rel="nofollow" and I don't like it for the following reasons:

1) It doesn't stop idiots (or bots) posting.

First, people who don't know about rel="nofollow" and robots will still spam you anyway; you will still have to monitor your blog and delete these comments.

2) It doesn't stop useless posts.

Second, automated protection measures like this don't stop useless "Great post" or "Me too" comments, unlinked or otherwise, that add nothing to the article and just get in the way of reading useful, interesting or entertaining responses.

3) It could be bad for your site.

Third, Google have announced that the PageRank that would have been sent down the link if it were not marked rel="nofollow" isn’t actually saved and redistributed to the other links; instead it is just lost. In other words, rel="nofollow" links cause PageRank bleed. Many people think this is deliberate misinformation from Google, but why take the chance? 

4) Relevant links out could actually help your site!

Finally, relevant external links are looked on favourably by Google, and allowing them in certain circumstances creates an incentive for people to post and could even help your rankings.

My Recommendations for Comments

1) Configure the blog so that all comments are pre-moderated and that this is made clear.
Spam or useless posts can be kept off the site.

2) Add a captcha to the comment process 
The ReCaptcha one is highly recommended. There are few (if any) bots that can get past this.

3) Provide a plain text area (NOT an HTML area) for the comments.
Allowing people to add executable code to your site is a big security risk. Make sure that only plain plain text can be added.

4) Add an HTML editing area to the comment edit facility
Once you see what people have said, you can decide whether or not to allow comments within their link, or a link to their site. Reward good comments with links.

5)Keep "Thanks, great post!" responses to a minimum.

This means that links from your articles page will only be to related content that you think is interesting – a relevant article perhaps, or some useful data. This actually adds value to your site.

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