louquillio

Two words: option bloat.

Two words: same difference.
Leave things as they are, and let plugins implement “nofollow”.
LQ

Kafkaesqui:

All I’m simply pointing out is, the debate should be about the topic of this thread, and not someone’s ego …

Amen to no egos (though it all seems pretty on-topic to me).

My point is that “nofollow” is a border skirmish in somebody else’s war, and that it’s wiser not to take sides, at least not early.

And the strong scent of eager political correctness is, uhh … well, it’s weird. Almost corporate. Ya know?

LQ

… using terms like “your own PR” and “crippled” are just ploys to incite.

No, they’re not, at least not without a purpose.

Comment spammers seek to game the system. rel="no follow" is a counter-game. Independence demands we be in thrall to neither.

It’d be uncharacteristic and unwise for WordPress to pick its users’ allegiances. Consensus on “no follow” is not afoot. Wait awhile.

LQ

Uhh, ‘no-follow’ benefits Google et al., not site owners nor this Google user, and it’s doubtful that comment spam intends to boost pageRank in the first place. I hate it as much as anybody, don’t get me wrong. But if my query on “wordpress nuances” starts to feature a link to “BonerPill.com” on results page one, I’m still not following. Probably. And comment spam costs nothing to do. I’d like to meet the comment spammer who ever says, “Damn, my pageRank isn’t getting anywhere. Guess I’ll call the robot home.”

Anonymous commenting invites comment spam. Comment moderation or commenter authentication beats it. Some things can’t be automated.

Seems to me, then, that the no-follow attribute value should be an opt-in/plugin proposition, for site owners who’d rather cripple the Web than moderate. Search engines and site owners don’t have common cause here, not really.

Unless Google’s response will be to devalue links on blog-style sites (except Blogger.com sites, natch). But bowing to such threat invites a new tyranny.

LQ

Hmm, named entities stripped. That’s:

“… (namely <autolink>) aren’t being applied.”