Comments on: My promise: a 24-hour application turnaround http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/ Weblog about the Citizendium project and its Citizens. Sun, 07 Sep 2008 07:51:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: Disaffected Wikipedian http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25678 Disaffected Wikipedian Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:46:24 +0000 http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25678 I would love to see Citizendium take the place of Wikipedia as the "first choice" online encyclopedia for most people. I contributed to Wikipedia for a few months but gave up after an endless stream of vandalism and edit wars on articles I spent a lot of time on. I'm worried to see Citizendium making the same mistake as Wikipedia by putting rel="nofollow" on external links. You must be aware that many bloggers resent it deeply. There's an official WordPress plugin to automatically add rel="nofollow" to all Wikipedia links: http://wp-plugins.net/plugin/wikipedia-nofollow/#plugin_2087 Not only WordPress, but several other blogging platforms. Citizendium will need a boost from incoming links to gain a high profile in search engines. What if all these plugins are updated to do the same to Citizendium links? If you change your policy later, bloggers might forget to modify or update their plugins. I did a Google search to find out if this has been discussed on the Citizendium site or its forums. Apparently not. Don't leave it too late. Some people might get the impression that Citizendium is not confident that it's system of checks and balances is enough to thwart spammers. It's enough to put me off applying to become an author. By using rel="nofollow" on external links it looks like Citizendium wants to suck goodwill but not return it. I would love to see Citizendium take the place of Wikipedia as the “first choice” online encyclopedia for most people. I contributed to Wikipedia for a few months but gave up after an endless stream of vandalism and edit wars on articles I spent a lot of time on.

I’m worried to see Citizendium making the same mistake as Wikipedia by putting rel=”nofollow” on external links. You must be aware that many bloggers resent it deeply. There’s an official WordPress plugin to automatically add rel=”nofollow” to all Wikipedia links:

http://wp-plugins.net/plugin/wikipedia-nofollow/#plugin_2087

Not only WordPress, but several other blogging platforms. Citizendium will need a boost from incoming links to gain a high profile in search engines. What if all these plugins are updated to do the same to Citizendium links? If you change your policy later, bloggers might forget to modify or update their plugins. I did a Google search to find out if this has been discussed on the Citizendium site or its forums. Apparently not. Don’t leave it too late.

Some people might get the impression that Citizendium is not confident that it’s system of checks and balances is enough to thwart spammers. It’s enough to put me off applying to become an author. By using rel=”nofollow” on external links it looks like Citizendium wants to suck goodwill but not return it.

]]> By: Larry Sanger http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25776 Larry Sanger Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:22:00 +0000 http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25776 I always thought it was a bad idea to put "nofollow" on links, but I understood why: spammers and self-promoters are just too motivated that way. This is a perfect illustration of why CZ has the stronger model. We have all the advantages in terms of robust, open, bottom-up content development, but we also require real names and have constables who are willing to ban people for breaking the rules. For this reason, we have had virtually no vandalism, apart from the people who joined us during self-registration last Jan-Feb. So why <i>would</i> we use "nofollow"? I always thought it was a bad idea to put “nofollow” on links, but I understood why: spammers and self-promoters are just too motivated that way.

This is a perfect illustration of why CZ has the stronger model. We have all the advantages in terms of robust, open, bottom-up content development, but we also require real names and have constables who are willing to ban people for breaking the rules. For this reason, we have had virtually no vandalism, apart from the people who joined us during self-registration last Jan-Feb.

So why would we use “nofollow”?

]]> By: Disaffected Wikipedian http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25786 Disaffected Wikipedian Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:31:18 +0000 http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25786 Hi Larry, From your reply it sounds like you haven't yet noticed that rel="nofollow" is *already* attached to Citizendium external links. Maybe it's a default setting in the MediaWiki software. Here's an example. Select the browser menu option "View---Source": http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Immunology I worry about it because I'm rooting for Citizendium. See also "bug 5523" on this page: http://trac.citizendium.org/browser/REL1_8_2/phase3/HISTORY It says: "Exceptions to allow disabling rel='nofollow' in specially-selected namespaces." Hi Larry,
From your reply it sounds like you haven’t yet noticed that rel=”nofollow” is *already* attached to Citizendium external links. Maybe it’s a default setting in the MediaWiki software. Here’s an example. Select the browser menu option “View—Source”:

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Immunology

I worry about it because I’m rooting for Citizendium. See also “bug 5523″ on this page:

http://trac.citizendium.org/browser/REL1_8_2/phase3/HISTORY

It says: “Exceptions to allow disabling rel=’nofollow’ in specially-selected namespaces.”

]]> By: Larry Sanger http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25800 Larry Sanger Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:03:22 +0000 http://blog.citizendium.org/2007/07/21/my-promise-a-24-hour-application-turnaround/#comment-25800 Well, I just didn't know. Just put in a high-priority fix request. Well, I just didn’t know. Just put in a high-priority fix request.

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