Kevin Burton would like to see links in comments brought back from the dark side.

Discussion started around nofollow rel links and how it was a shame that all comments fall into the same nofollow category.

If a weblog has comment moderation this behavior could be changed a bit. If the comment is approved the nofollow relation wouldn't be used. This way valid comments with links would contribute to PageRank (and other ranking algorithms).

If the comment isn't approved we could move it to a comment spam feed (for lack of a better name).

The feed wouldn't be user visible of course and all links would have nofollow just in case google finds it. It could then be used by other weblogs (and spam detection systems) to help fight spam.

As a frequent commenter elsewhere who often links back to relevant stuff here, I think this sounds like a fine idea. The approval of a comment through moderation ought to validate the links and enable the juice.

Filed in: comments blogtech