DISQUS

Thank you Vlad. And I have decided to keep your blog in my reader. I would rather continue getting good information about affiliate marketing than to stop reading a blog because of one disagreement.

Regards,

Everett

Thank you Vlad. And I have decided to keep your blog in my reader. I would rather continue getting good information about affiliate marketing than to stop reading a blog because of one disagreement.

Regards,

Everett

Vlad I don't write about "fitness". I write about internet marketing and SEO. I happen to do so from the perspective of the fitness industry, but my posts are very much related to SEO, SEM and affiliate marketing. Your blog is about affiliate marketing, which is why I 'used to' read it.

I did think when I first installed the plugin that I would get more blog comment spam, and I did leave open the option of removing the plugin if that were to happen. So I come here and read your blog post because I like to see what others are saying, and you basically call me, someone who reads your blog, shallow. Although I do think my comment at the end about being an elitist would have been better left out, I was just being honest about the way your blog post made me as a reader feel - alienated as if because I'm worried about spam I'm not 'good enough' to be part of the DoFollow blog movement.

I was a blog reader providing you with honest feedback about one of your blog posts. I thought that's what the comment area was for.

Sure I will continue to follow the conversation (no, I don't consider it a comment war, but was worried that it would turn into such. You know how these things can get.) but beyond that you have lost a reader. That's all I'm saying.

Vlad I don't write about "fitness". I write about internet marketing and SEO. I happen to do so from the perspective of the fitness industry, but my posts are very much related to SEO, SEM and affiliate marketing. Your blog is about affiliate marketing, which is why I 'used to' read it.

I did think when I first installed the plugin that I would get more blog comment spam, and I did leave open the option of removing the plugin if that were to happen. So I come here and read your blog post because I like to see what others are saying, and you basically call me, someone who reads your blog, shallow. Although I do think my comment at the end about being an elitist would have been better left out, I was just being honest about the way your blog post made me as a reader feel - alienated as if because I'm worried about spam I'm not 'good enough' to be part of the DoFollow blog movement.

I was a blog reader providing you with honest feedback about one of your blog posts. I thought that's what the comment area was for.

Sure I will continue to follow the conversation (no, I don't consider it a comment war, but was worried that it would turn into such. You know how these things can get.) but beyond that you have lost a reader. That's all I'm saying.

Vlad,

First of all, I never said I don't like your blog. I said that I disagree with you. Just because you like a blog doesn't mean you have to agree with every single post.

Now how can you accuse people of being "sheep" and then get upset when someone doesn't fall into line like a sheep and agree with everything you say? Can you see the irony of that?

As for my signature, I was talking about the FPF blog, which is where I used the Dofollow plugin. That is why I signed with FPF. If this website were about camping, or surfing, or snowboarding, or chess I would have signed Everett. But it is about affiliate marketing, and I was reading it while 'working'. My work IS my business and my business IS my name.

If I wanted to spam you for anchor text I would have signed 'Fitness Marketing'. As you can probably see, I have no trouble ranking for my own business name and do not need comment spam to help.

I'm sure you'll make a snide comment about me or this post, and I'm sure you will not admit that what you just did was rude or uncalled for (i.e. accusing me of 'borderline' spamming your blog when I went out of my way to make a constructive comment about your post that was much longer, more thought-out and took more time to write than 99% of the comments anyone else bothers to leave - just because I signed my business name.) but I am not about to get into a blog comment war. There are better things to do with our time. So go ahead and have the last word if you will.

But I suggest you give your readers a little more respect because you just lost one. I have been subscribed to your blog for a long time and I think that might have been the first comment I've ever left. Rest assured this will be the last.

By the way, for someone who is supposed to be gathering people together for a cause, you sure are quick to alienate and disenfranchise those who are willing to join the fight.

Vlad,

First of all, I never said I don't like your blog. I said that I disagree with you. Just because you like a blog doesn't mean you have to agree with every single post.

Now how can you accuse people of being "sheep" and then get upset when someone doesn't fall into line like a sheep and agree with everything you say? Can you see the irony of that?

As for my signature, I was talking about the FPF blog, which is where I used the Dofollow plugin. That is why I signed with FPF. If this website were about camping, or surfing, or snowboarding, or chess I would have signed Everett. But it is about affiliate marketing, and I was reading it while 'working'. My work IS my business and my business IS my name.

If I wanted to spam you for anchor text I would have signed 'Fitness Marketing'. As you can probably see, I have no trouble ranking for my own business name and do not need comment spam to help.

I'm sure you'll make a snide comment about me or this post, and I'm sure you will not admit that what you just did was rude or uncalled for (i.e. accusing me of 'borderline' spamming your blog when I went out of my way to make a constructive comment about your post that was much longer, more thought-out and took more time to write than 99% of the comments anyone else bothers to leave - just because I signed my business name.) but I am not about to get into a blog comment war. There are better things to do with our time. So go ahead and have the last word if you will.

But I suggest you give your readers a little more respect because you just lost one. I have been subscribed to your blog for a long time and I think that might have been the first comment I've ever left. Rest assured this will be the last.

By the way, for someone who is supposed to be gathering people together for a cause, you sure are quick to alienate and disenfranchise those who are willing to join the fight.

OK then, I'm going to not be a sheep here and disagree with you. An overwhelming influx of spam is something that any blog owner has good reason to be afraid of when implementing a DoFollow policy on blog comments. It is only natural. To tell them they are shallow for having a legitimate concern - even though they are doing more than most bloggers by even 'trying out' a dofollow plugin - is just silly.

I thought about the issue for a long bloody time before taking off the nofollow tags on comments. I went back and forth on my thoughts about it for awhile, not because I was following any trend, but because life is too damn short and I have too much work to be spending hours every day sorting through comments to find out if any of them are spam.

We're not talking about blatant spam here trying to sell you some pill. We're talking about someone leaving a slighly-relevent, but very shallow comment for the purpose of getting a link to a site that you may or may not want to link to. This takes time. Instead of checking real quick to see if the comment links to a pills/porn/casino site, you need to check the page you're linking to so you can make sure they aren't doing anything that would make you not want to be associated with them.

Yes, I get it. I agree that someone who takes the time to comment on my blog in a meaningful way - whether they do it for the link or not - should get a followable link for their effort and contribution to the discussion. I think it's B.S. that Wordpress comes standard with nofollow comment links, and that this entire NoFollow fiasco in general hasn't accomplished what it was supposed to accomplished and, much like the war in Iraq, should NOT continue to go on just because the powers that be can't admit that they were wrong.

But if my comments get out of control in regard to automated comment spam, and my Askimet and Captcha safe guards aren't keeping most of it out of the main comments, one additional step that I might take in combating this would be to remove the Dofollow plugin.

This hasn't happened, of course, and I doubt that it will. But to call people shallow for considering that as an option is shallow itself. Stop being an elitist. We get enough of that attitude from Digg.

OK then, I'm going to not be a sheep here and disagree with you. An overwhelming influx of spam is something that any blog owner has good reason to be afraid of when implementing a DoFollow policy on blog comments. It is only natural. To tell them they are shallow for having a legitimate concern - even though they are doing more than most bloggers by even 'trying out' a dofollow plugin - is just silly.

I thought about the issue for a long bloody time before taking off the nofollow tags on comments. I went back and forth on my thoughts about it for awhile, not because I was following any trend, but because life is too damn short and I have too much work to be spending hours every day sorting through comments to find out if any of them are spam.

We're not talking about blatant spam here trying to sell you some pill. We're talking about someone leaving a slighly-relevent, but very shallow comment for the purpose of getting a link to a site that you may or may not want to link to. This takes time. Instead of checking real quick to see if the comment links to a pills/porn/casino site, you need to check the page you're linking to so you can make sure they aren't doing anything that would make you not want to be associated with them.

Yes, I get it. I agree that someone who takes the time to comment on my blog in a meaningful way - whether they do it for the link or not - should get a followable link for their effort and contribution to the discussion. I think it's B.S. that Wordpress comes standard with nofollow comment links, and that this entire NoFollow fiasco in general hasn't accomplished what it was supposed to accomplished and, much like the war in Iraq, should NOT continue to go on just because the powers that be can't admit that they were wrong.

But if my comments get out of control in regard to automated comment spam, and my Askimet and Captcha safe guards aren't keeping most of it out of the main comments, one additional step that I might take in combating this would be to remove the Dofollow plugin.

This hasn't happened, of course, and I doubt that it will. But to call people shallow for considering that as an option is shallow itself. Stop being an elitist. We get enough of that attitude from Digg.

I'd like to know if it works. I have a few blogs that I thought about using it on, but I'm not sure how much it would increase the amount and quality of links coming into a medium-traffic blog in a niche industry.

I'd like to know if it works. I have a few blogs that I thought about using it on, but I'm not sure how much it would increase the amount and quality of links coming into a medium-traffic blog in a niche industry.

Happy Birthday! Catch a bigun!

Happy Birthday! Catch a bigun!