There are some interesting posts appearing about comment policies, do follow, and the do follow list at Affilliate Watcher – Are Do-Follow Bloggers Dishonest?, and Reader Appreciation Project – Are We Do-Follow Frauds?, and I think it is beneficial to set out my opinion.

The key complaint is that there are sites that advertise themselves, either on the site, or on a do-follow list, as not marking up links in comments as no-follow, that are not doing what they say. They have advertised that they do not no-follow and yet they still do.

Now, obviously if you advertise that you do something and don’t do it then that is misleading and you should take steps to resolve it; and if what you have decided to advertise is that you will not add the no-follow attribute to links then you should be clear on what that means and whether you can deliver it.

Some sites, it seems, are disabling no-follow on the name, but keeping it for links within the text, and this isn’t really in the spirit of things really.

I think personally you should either do-follow or you not; however, my issue is really with the concept of a do-follow list in the first place.

The no-follow attribute doesn’t achieve what it was intended to achieve: to reduce spam. So in my eyes it is useless and I use it only because it is automatic, not because I agree with it. If, by removing it, I can offer some advantage to my readers then that is a good thing.

Take careful note however that I only care about it in relation to my readers.

What the do-follow list does is advertise that you give Google juice, however little you have, to people who comment on your blog. This creates the situation whereby someone can find your name from a list visit your blog and add a comment purely because they expect that link to benefit them.

It may be that I am being naive, and if so then that’s fine, but I feel quite strongly that a comment is there because you want to connect with the person, you want to say something, or you want to take part, and if there is search love as a result of that, well that is an added bonus. If the desire for benefit comes first then I have a hard time caring about what someone thinks they will get by commenting.

The obvious answer, of course, is not to be part of the list; I ain’t. I also consider myself lucky that my Google juice is so weak that no one would want to comment who couldn’t care less about what I actually wrote, purely because it gets them some advantage.

Two other things were also brought up are comment signatures, and typing something that isn’t a name into the name field.

Comment signatures don’t bother me as they are usually pretty innocuous but I have had problems with keywords in the name field.

The thing is, I like people to comment, and when someone doesn’t use their name it always feels a little like they are putting up a wall between us. I wonder whether they would rather use my blog for their own searchy gain, than receive a comment back and whether they will ever visit again.

When I do respond I wonder what I should say? Can I use their name? must I call them ‘Master Builder’ or is ‘Geoff’ OK? And if I do use ‘Geoff’ will the rest of the commenters in the conversation understand who I mean?

I do get comments from people that use their site name instead of their real name, people I have had ongoing comment conversations with, and who’s comments I look forward to and respect, and once I know them, besides occasionally having to check out their site to remember how to spell their name properly, it all goes well. So this isn’t really a problem in real life, just in the theoretical blog palace that is my brain.

I’m sure, therefore, that all this is largely a comment on my naivety, but I can’t help wondering if I am the only one that feels this way? Have I fallen for the ideal and missed the reality of life as a blogger?