On 19/11/13 03:19, Nathan Larson wrote:
On Mon, Nov 18, 2013 at 7:27 AM, Daniel Friesen
<daniel(a)nadir-seen-fire.com>wrote;wrote:
The first link has you download an executable file that prompts Windows to
ask whether it's okay to make system configuration changes. If I had a
computer with a hard drive I didn't mind exposing to malware infections, I
might see what that installation would do. (These are black hats we're
dealing with, after all.) The second link asks you to endorse them on
social media to unlock the content, and the third link doesn't seem to
actually lead eventually to the promised content (it says it's down). It
did, however, feel pretty ironic to have to pass a CAPTCHA to register to
get a file allegedly useful in spamming.
That's a pretty normal user experience for this sort of thing, but it
doesn't mean that the lists don't exist. There is a similar list for
forums which can easily be verified:
http://www.techmaish.com/700-dofollow-forums-list/
It is quite old (2010), but it demonstrates the principle. The
comments leave you in no doubt as to what the list was used for, e.g.:
"really good list. yes i m agree with you. if we work hard and post 50
per forum then its easy get 35000 back link. thank you very much for
sharing this huge list"
My point is, it's difficult to answer the question "will setting
$wgNoFollowLinks=false on my wiki cause it to be spammed more?" but
easier to answer the question "are spammers particularly interested in
finding and spamming dofollow websites?"
Look at this site, which dates from 2012:
http://how2getbacklinks.com/wikibacklinks/
It talks about how important it is to get dofollow links, and offers
to spam "12,000 wiki sites + 400 dofollow links" for $45.
-- Tim Starling