Another feature of this nifty plugin is that it creates a list of "Top Commentors" which are featured in a widget. I got this idea from Blog Pay Dirt where I am one of the top commentors this month. This free link is also non-nofollow, and is linked from the widget which appears on every page on the whole blog.

In case you didn't know, Google recently implemented a convention of not counting any link labeled "nofollow" towards their rankings. The good news is that this reduces the chance that spammers will be able to get higher ranking from posting millions of nonsensical comments to blogs, which they often do through automated means and by hiring cheap labor. Who wants their blog to be promoting off-brand viagra for some cheapskate who thinks it's okay to spam?

The bad news is that it keeps legitimate commenters from being able to tell others about their site as effectively. Each time they post a comment, however insightful, they are not affecting their google rankings at all. Instead they have to rely on people clicking the link after reading their comment.

The only reason I can think of to not install this plugin would be if you were clueless about spam. (Arguably, the newbie blog user almost always is -- which gives the spammers a window of opportunity.) Fortunately, I installed Spam Karma last week, so this kind of spam problem has been accounted for. It has variable settings, so all I have to do is ratchet the settings to be more strict if any spam gets through. If worst comes to worst, I can always enable comment moderation, which means a slight delay for my users, but calls it curtains for spammers.

It feels good to assist others in having a better chance with their blog. I highly recommend this plugin.

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