DMOZ and rel="nofollow"

If:

A. If DMOZ thinks their directory isn't to be utilized for SEO purposes.

And

B. If DMOZ thinks that their directory is actually used by visitors to find sites.

Then:

Why doesn't DMOZ just add a rel="nofollow" to every outbound link?

It would certainly reduce their spam problem.

 

Interesting deduction. I'd be for it. Even though I have a site listed there, it would be the right thing to do IMO.

 

Just one problem. How are we to force all of our users (like the Google directory) to use this nofollow also.

 

You wouldn't have to. The DMOZ alone would be good enough.

 

On what do you base that?

DMOZ can make all the millions of it's links nofollow, and it won't affect any other directories - most of all Google - that take their data from DMOZ.

See Why not Nofollow?

It won't redice spam, it won't make an iota of difference. No one cares about their links from DMOZ, it's the Google directory and all the other clones that create the obscene demands.

 

It would certainly be a start.

But then all of the corrupt editors might quit.

 

Yeah, it would be difficult for DMOZ to keep on going with only 4,500 editors

 

It's also possible that google just assigns a set value to any site that has a DMOZ listing. Since google pulls from DMOZ, it would really be google that would need to make the decision it wasn't going to put value on the listings.

I have a few sites in DMOZ and the traffic they provide isn't worth the time it takes to apply- and I think a large pecentage of the small traffic is webmasters looking for link exchanges.

 

What a brilliant idea! Seriously.

If half the shit that DMOZ editors have posted is credible, I'm surprised they haven't implemented this months ago.

 

Do you think that Google will stop giving some value to the listings in the ODP just because ODP put the "rel=nofollow" thing?

Google will stop using ODP when they think it has no value to them, not because ODP or us tell them to do it.

I don't think webmasters will stop submitting their sites (and spammers submitting their spam) to the ODP just because the "rel=nofollow", at least not me. I think the "rel=nofollow" wouldn't change a dam thing.

 

hmm...This is an interesting way to look at it. If simply adding a rel="nofollow" to every outbound link would make every corrupt editor quit and keep editors who turn corrupt from joining in the first place, I'd be all for that.

A change like that couldn't be implemented at the editor level; that would be something to propose to dmoz staff, and I believe it's been discussed. Problem is, are we sure it would end corruption?

(edited to remove email address)

 

Will, you have brought this up before and it got discussed to death back then - why are you bringing this up again? Nothing has changed since the last time you claimed it would make such a difference.

It absolutely wouldn't cause that effect at all, in my opinion. The way I understand it (which may be flawed) is that Google sees an entry in the ODP as a "trusted" site. How would a "nofollow" change that?

Google takes the ODP dump (which is not HTML, and thus can not transfer the nofollow tag) and adds it to its directory.

I just don't see how this would decrease any interest in the ODP from corrupt editors, since it has been established that they are only interested in what Google does with it.

Correction: It wasn't Will that brought it up... See http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=16883&page=5 from post #49 onwards for the long discussion started by nddb

 

And, as a follow-up, I need to take issue with Will's premises:

I don't believe that anyone has ever said that, Will.

Some people use it for that, sure, but it is far from the only use of the data.

So really I question your premises.

Look, the editors at the ODP are trying to build a directory of sites full of quality content and properly categorized. Period. The result is in two forms - the website dmoz.org and the RDF files. The data is made available under the open source licence. The more people that use the result of this work, the better, as far as I am concerned. If people see an ODP listing as giving a boost to some search result, then good for them!

It sounds like you are saying that the ODP should take responsibility for what downstream users of the data do with it, or could do with it. That's like saying that every car manufacturer should somehow feel liable for every bank robbery where their car was used as a get-away vehicle.

If people want to use the ODP as a basis for their search engine, please, go ahead. (But please do it using ALL the data - see my other thread that I started yesterday on this forum).

Some further reading, so you can see other comments in the same subject:
* http://resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31494

 

i'm not really bothered either way, but from Google and the other search engines that pay attention to the nofollow tag, it's a ridiculous abuse of the purpose of the nofollow tag - the links in DMOZ are about as throughly reviewed and vouched for by the site as you could want - nofollow is for links not posted by the people running a site, i.e. blog comment spam, forum signatures, and so on, which google shouldn't be paying as much attention to as links in dmoz (no matter how much you may hate DMOZ, you must concede this is true), but would if dmoz were to =nofollow its links.

the GoogleBlog post about nofollow can be read here. Read it and consider whether =nofollowing ODP links would be the kind of use Google & co were looking for. At the end of the day, it would reduce the quality of google SERPS, and all for what, so that DMOZ editors get less hassle?

Don't forget, ODP was setup to provide a list of quality sites reviewed by humans, and to make this available to all - nofollowing its content makes it unavailable to Googlebot. Furthermore, as many have pointed out, since the links would appear in google directory fairly sharpish, minus &rel=nofollow, they wouldn't remain inaccessible to googlbot for very long, and would still be of considerable value to profit-driven webmasters, dmoz link nofollowed or not.

So at the end of the day... what would be achieved?

 

Less spam would be achieved.

Not "no" spam, but "less" spam.

I concur that the Google Directory should also implement rel="nofollow". It is a very good point that DMOZ implementing rel=nofollow alone is not sufficient.

But I understand why the DMOZ editors would not want to give up their links.

 

Will, I'm sorry, but I still do not understand how you come to this conclusion. The points I have made show that adding it will have little or no effect on anything Google-related, and I think most (if not all) spam on the ODP is because of its use by Google, so how do you reach this, please?

Will, why do you have to take a good discussion which you started into the realm of cheap digs? If people expect ODP editors to behave better in fora, then it should go both ways, please.

 

This is really the most pointless discussion.

NOFOLLOW is HTML code, unless someone builds from scraping the sites, it would not be seen.

Google and most directories gets data from the RDF - the RDF does not have HTML code - they then create their own HTML from that

Anyone who scrapes would have to change the scrape code

To implement this, you would have to:

1. change the definition of the RDF
2. reprogram the RDF creation system
3. get all scripts that create directories to change to the new format
4. get Google and all the other directories to agree to put in nofollow for all the links created from the RDF

at which point all directories using DMOZ would break

But that's probably what you had in mind.

 

or better yet, stop using DMOZ data, as should every other directory doing so (especially since they almost always do so for profit, to provide 'content' for their site) if DMOZ nofollowing its links was to have any noticeable impact on the attractiveness of being listed in DMOZ in the eyes of unscrupulous webmasters.

But for DMOZ to decide to no longer let sites use its data would be a massive debate - it would even have to change its name (Open, in 'Open Directory', referring to the availability of its data)! It certainly would root out the self-interested editors, for a while at least. But consider how advanced and widespread scraper site technology has become as of late - how long until sites use dmoz data (without preserving the nofollow), this time without DMOZ's approval? And then we'll be back to square one, DMOZ having undergone big divisions, search engines having had a harder time to get to the valuable DMOZ content, and nauseating scraper site technology having been developed even further...

 

Oh no, you should not have said that, now we'll get the usual rants from the usual suspects about how ODP is not Open