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No Longer A "dofollow" Site

Discussion in 'Support & Feedback' started by digitalpoint, Jul 2, 2011.

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  1. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #21
    I'm not saying the concept of nofollow is flawed, but automating the process for premium members is flawed.

    Surely a "human" review instead of automation is possible when premium members make up for such a small percentage of the membership, and they pay for the privilege to use the forum.

    More importantly introducing nofollow was done to prevent spam, which is a problem which is associated with free members. Premium members should be innocent until proven guilty, and we shouldn't have some automated process determining if we're spammers.

    Just sayin.
     
    dcristo, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  2. newbie191

    newbie191 Notable Member

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    #22
    Very few people will read this thread and continue to make spammy posts. I suggest send an email to ALL the members about this change with a catchy subject like "Important change in DP forums".
     
    newbie191, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  3. addyj672

    addyj672 Peon

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    #23
    So there is only paid method of getting premium membership..... No other....
     
    addyj672, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  4. Mightee

    Mightee Well-Known Member

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    #24

    no one bothers reading emails from a forum especially, when you get hundreds of emails like "newbie191" just replied to your thread :D
    a javascript popup would work :p or a "message cloud" on the top - like the one which show tweets


    yes you have to pay to become a premier member
     
    Mightee, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  5. subdivisions

    subdivisions Well-Known Member

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    #25
    If the "advertising agency" in your sig is yours, you should be able to pay for a premium membership :\

    If premium memberships were post based, this forum would be mostly spam.
     
    subdivisions, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  6. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #26
    Nofollowing posts is about spam. Selectively nofollowing signature links is more about just not giving a "vote of confidence" to a link.

    If we manually reviewed every link, all 4 of your signature links would be nofollowed. :) None look like "quality" sites to me personally (quality sites to me means something I'm interested in reading, and probably bookmarking so I can return).
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  7. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #27
    wow Mr reformed blackhatter turned whitehatter. its a very noble thing you are doing. i am not asking if the sites in my sig are quality. i am not looking for a quality badge to place on my site to boost my ego. but to deem it "potentially spammy" and to remove the "vote of confidence" for a paying member based on some automated process seems absolutely ridiculous to me.
     
    dcristo, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  8. tattoos

    tattoos Prominent Member

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    #28
    Yeah it may take a while for the message to get through.
    Although adding something like this to signature links may help spread the word :D
    [Thread="2221026"][B]Links on digitalpoint are now nofollow[/B] :p[/Thread]
    HTML:
     
    tattoos, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  9. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #29
    You should drop the "paying member" part... Someone paying does not have any bearing what-so-ever if something would be deemed quality or not. Certainly something wouldn't magically being quality simply because someone paid (for anything).

    The system isn't sure if one of your links is quality or not, so it just nofollows it. No big deal... it's always worked that way. Looking at the site manually, I agree with the decision the system made. {shrug}
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  10. robjones

    robjones Notable Member

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    #30
    Bold move. May take a while for the message to get out, but it should help cut down on the spam. Good call.
     
    robjones, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  11. Stingerftw

    Stingerftw Well-Known Member

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    #31
    Well I don't believe it will mean no spam being made on the forums, but I do think it may reduce the actual amount I guess. Though it does seem a bit annoying that the biggest site that should help webmasters with their site is taking away one of the things that is most likely the most advantage to them. I see this as a 50-50 move, it has it's pros and cons.
     
    Stingerftw, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  12. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #32
    Exactly. He built himself up on the back of webmasters, and every announcement that is made these days just takes something away from what got him here in the first place. It's pointless even reading an announcement anymore because you know its going to be bad news.

    Applying nofollow on a webmaster forum is like going into a brothel and them telling you there is no sex. It just doesn't happen and it shouldn't.

    At the end of the day, obv this is just a band aid solution to a much bigger problem. Instead of being a Matt Cutts and trying to fight spam, I'd work on creating value for members. Then MAYBE a few good members would stick around and it would resemble what DP used to be all about.
     
    dcristo, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  13. snakeair

    snakeair Notable Member

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    #33
    It's about time your signature gets no-followed Rob.
     
    snakeair, Jul 3, 2011 IP
    CReed, robjones and psharma like this.
  14. robjones

    robjones Notable Member

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    #34
    Interesting comparison... Just wasn't aware the point of the site was to benefit sig whores.
     
    robjones, Jul 3, 2011 IP
    Digital_shubhi likes this.
  15. Leo Ghost

    Leo Ghost Well-Known Member

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    #35
    That should reduce the amount of posting for links, sure. I can see the reasoning behind it. However, doesn't this mean that the primary purpose of signatures will now be to get the attention of other members here? An example would be a user who in the past placed a link like "Keyword Keyword" and will now use links like "Buy my guide!". The purpose of the signature will now switch from getting linkbacks to marketing to other users.

    Well, now I'm confused. Colors and styling are used to draw attention. As users, we've trained ourselves to ignore the green links below a user's post. Using fancy colors can help catch attention and draw eyes.

    I want to be clear that I'm not against the new policy, It's not my choice and I use this site primarily as a great marketplace and community. I'm just confused as to why signatures weren't removed completely (following the logic).
     
    Leo Ghost, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  16. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #36
    Not really, the site has been around since 1995 and had nothing to do with webmasters until 10 years later. Even then it was by accident. The forum was started in 2004 because we needed a support venue for our existing users of our products and tools.

    For example the keyword tracker has been around longer than the forum (it was one of the tools that had so many users that we needed a place to support them): http://tools.digitalpoint.com/tracker.php

    Did you know the second largest webmaster forum (and probably the oldest) doesn't allow LINKS (even nofollow) or signatures? :)

    Of course it's not a magic solution to all spamming problems... we have a ton of others as well (for example about 75 new accounts are deleted every day before they even *try* to make their first post because there is a good probability they are spammers).

    If you feel this site has no value other than as a way to get links, I would argue that you haven't actually looked around. :)

    The world's largest search engine position tool: http://tools.digitalpoint.com/tracker.php
    System to recover your stolen computer: http://tools.digitalpoint.com/phonehome.php
    Geo Visitors: http://tools.digitalpoint.com/geovisitors.php
    Analytics Globe: http://tools.digitalpoint.com/analytics-globe.php
    Replacement for vBulletin search: http://products.digitalpoint.com/vbulletin-sphinx-search.php
    How to make your vBulletin installation scale: http://articles.digitalpoint.com/content.php?r=7-Optimize-vBulletin-4
    9,400+ sites/domains for sale: http://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/
    Digital Point Ads: http://advertising.digitalpoint.com/
    etc, etc, etc...

    So yes... if you find nothing of use on this site other than being able to get dofollow links for a post you make, then I suspect we will lose you as a user. But saying we aren't at least *trying* to build things of value for users is just silly... and even more silly being that you can't build things of value *and* fight spam (the notion that we have to pick one or the other is borderline absurd).

    If you want to go really far back, Digital Point was about accounting software for Internet Service Providers... maybe we could go back to the "good ol' days". lol http://www.digitalpoint.com/lists/month-1-1998-06.html

    It's certainly possible that someday they may be. Just because something is a certain way now, who knows what it will be like years from now. Personally, I'm not opposed to signatures but giant obnoxious blinking signatures would be annoying. And the amount of spam/pointless posts we have to deal with because people think they are going to get a link is even more annoying.
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  17. williamsweb

    williamsweb Active Member

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    #37
    we want dofollow back :(
     
    williamsweb, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  18. digitalpoint

    digitalpoint Overlord of no one Staff

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    #38
    I want to have sex with Victoria's Secret models. :)
     
    digitalpoint, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  19. williamsweb

    williamsweb Active Member

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    #39
    not allowed here, this is a SEO/webmaster forum :D
     
    williamsweb, Jul 3, 2011 IP
  20. Mightee

    Mightee Well-Known Member

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    #40
    Show them the money and you will get what you want :D

     
    Mightee, Jul 3, 2011 IP
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