[WikiEN-l] Just what *is* Jimbo's role anyway? - "nofollow" decision

[Jeff Raymond]

David Gerard wrote:
> On 22/03/07, Jeff Raymond <jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com>
> wrote:
>
> Are those as normal hyperlinks (which should have a nofollow on) or as
> interwiki links? The latter may well not. Because spammers are very
> unlikely to be spamming for sites in the interwiki site list.

I'm glad I double checked this, it appears to have been turned on since
last check.  Applause to the programmers on this one.
>
> It did its job of dealing with an immediate spammer problem, which is
> why Brion was so keen to switch it on.

That is, if there was *really* an immediate spammer problem to be had.  I
recall Brad Patrick's breathless essay about how inundated we're getting
with spam, and then the G11 abomination occurred, but the actual necessity
of such a reaction was never really introduced - we seem to be extremely
trusting of those in the home office, don't we?

>
> He like anyone has acknowledged that the present situation is far from
> ideal, but has suggested what coding people need to do to make it a
> bit finer-grained. So the answer is ... get coding.

I can barely make a piped link most days, let alone code.  Not that I'm
sure there's really a problem to be fixed...

-Jeff