Ilmari Karonen wrote:
Okay, this is a request for the devs. Can one of you please apply the patch at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5523 and enable rel="nofollow" outside NS_MAIN?
We can then, having solved the uncontroversial part of the problem, continue debating the merits of nofollow in the main namespace at leisure.
Looking at the patch, it seems to me that a better solution would handle both NOINDEX *and* NOFOLLOW.
Certainly, most namespaces should be indexed, while "User" and "User talk" should probably never be indexed or followed. Meanwhile, "Wikipedia" and "Wikipedia talk" should probably always be both indexed and followed, as the problem of spam links is low, but valuable cross-wiki links is high.