John Lee wrote:
Having said that, I still don't understand
why the MediaWiki patch was
rejected. Why is it not sensible to allow MediaWiki installations to
nofollow interwiki links? It's a feature someone out there might conceivably
want.
It's conceivable, but probably fairly unlikely. Interwiki links, by
their nature, are incredibly unlikely to be spam (although there are a
lot of prefixes in the default table that are, in my opinion, utter
crap). Still, the patch is available if a user is genuinely concerned
about it.
I still don't understand the resistance to making all non-Foundation
sites no-follow. The fact that people disagree with the idea, but are
providing no rational reason, only encourages the perception that there
*is* conflict of interest in the current situation.
Let me emphasize: perception is important in this issue.
-Rich