Index, No Follow for links in thread

Ryan Kent

Well-known member
I have a thread I would like to post on my site which lists every other site I could locate which mentions TERA, the game my site supports.

My recent SEO learnings indicate it would be bad for my site to offer links to any "bad" sites. Many of the links in the list I gathered are to sites which are dead, spam or otherwise would be considered "bad".

I have never used Index, No Follow but I presume that it would apply to this particular post. I desire Google to list this post, but not to follow any of the links in the post nor relate them to my site in any way. My questions are:

- Is Index, No Follow the correct tag to use?
- How do I use Index, No Follow for a forum post?
 
So if I copy an article from another site, share it in a post with my members, provide a link back to the original article, the original site doesn't get any credit/recognition for my link? Links from XF sites don't provide any SEO benefit?
 
So if I copy an article from another site, share it in a post with my members, provide a link back to the original article, the original site doesn't get any credit/recognition for my link? Links from XF sites don't provide any SEO benefit?
Nope they dont, and thats why I like it, same in signatures as well.
 
Before I go digging I'd like to ask if anyone knows where the code is off-hand to add nofollow links?

I would like to create a group for trusted posters so when they add content, nofollow is not used. I don't like the idea of not giving credit to the original authors.
 
I noticed there are some links on my site which do not have the "nofollow" attribute added. I would like to better understand the conditions where "nofollow" is or is not added to a link.

I do see the nofollow tag on the links in my signature. To the best of my knowledge I have not made any template adjustments which would affect links.

Example thread: http://www.terapvp.com/threads/tera-healing-is-more-than-just-whack-a-mole.2790

At the very bottom is anchor text "original article link"

<a href="http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/01/healing-in-tera-is-more-than-just-whack-a-mole/" target="_blank" class="externalLink">original article link</a>
 
Links by admins in posts are not nofollow'd. (Signatures are always nofollow'd.)
That's a big learning for me. I have a few couple-up questions.

- In this context what determines an admin? Having the admin permission group added? Or being added in ACP > Users > Administrators?

- Are there any other groups such as Moderators who have no-followed links?

I know you guys are hard at work on XF 1.1 and other projects. I really really hope after 1.1 you can make it a priority to write a XF administrator's guide. The document wouldn't need to be perfect. A central location where details such as this can be found would be very helpful.

I just went into my SQL database and changed the user on a post from an admin account to a registered user account and learned that changed the link from a followed link to a no followed link as you suggested. I will have to invest a lot of time this week making this change for a large number of posts. I never had any realization about this follow / no-follow effect and how it changes for admin accounts.
 
I was just about to start a topic about nofollow (before seeing this thread). I didn't understand why on my website, when I quoted someone that was no-follow, the link in the quote lost the no-follow. Perfectly fine the way it is, I was just trying to figure it out.
 
I was just about to start a topic about nofollow (before seeing this thread). I didn't understand why on my website, when I quoted someone that was no-follow, the link in the quote lost the no-follow. Perfectly fine the way it is, I was just trying to figure it out.
Actually that's something that I never considered. The only thing I could think of is that we should always nofollow quoted text then.
 
Today I removed my main account from Administrators (ACP > Users > Administrators).

The reason I made this change was so all the links in threads I created would then become no follow. Two observations:

- the links in threads I previously created are still followed
- new threads I create still have followed links

I tried logging out of the forum and back in. Issue remained.

I then remembered I was a super admin. Thinking that may be a factor I removed myself from the config.php file. Issue remained. I also tried logged out and in again but that had no effect.

I also ensured I was removed from the Administrative permissions group, which I was.

To the best of my knowledge my account on my site is a normal Moderator account yet all my links still show as followed, and any new links I create are followed as well. Am I missing something?
 
The same check applies to moderators as well. I'm not sure why you want to nofollow content that you're posting on your own site though. It's mostly an anti-spam tool. (There were uses for page rank sculpting in the past, but changes by Google several years ago mean that's not particularly effective any more.)
 
I'm not sure why you want to nofollow content that you're posting on your own site though.
Several reasons:

- recently I made a post listing every site that covers the same topic as my site. I offered an evaluation of what content was available, etc. I certainly don't wish to link to these sites.

- often I will post in off-topic to discuss a variety of subjects, but I don't want to offer followed links to the sites we discuss

- sometimes I desire to clear up misinformation. I would share "according to xyz.com/information you cannot do something" but then I would offer evidence that they were wrong. I definitely don't wish to link to them.

Basically I want to be able to have full control over what links are and are not followed. If I see a member copy good content from another site and provide a link, then I would like to be able to click on the link and say "hey, this is a good link, please follow it". Likewise if I share a link to a "bad" site, I would like to be able to click on the link and set the "nofollow" tag.

I realize that flexibility is not currently available. I am just trying to understand the system so I can try to adjust for it until the feature is (hopefully) added at a later time.
 
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