Wordpress comment markup, can I remove the junk safely?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

The most recent versions of wordpress comments look something like this in the code

<li class="comment byuser comment-author-bypostauthor odd alt thread-odd thread-alt depth-1" id="comment-4026">

That's when a "byuser" logged in member or "bypostauthor" author leaves a comment. Comments left by regular visitors don't append as much junk.

There is no way that I will ever make use of all of this class information within my template markup, nor does the default wordpress theme, so it is in fact useless to me.

My concern is that Google is using this markup to tell which comments are by the author and which are not, perhaps to spot fake comments or to gauge author involvment. It's default wordpress behavior. If I remove the junk do I face the wrath so to speak?

[tedster]

Why bother removing it? It doesn't look like much of a problem to me in this default state. It is adding a bit of extra bandwidth drain, but it's text and it will compress mighty well.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Because it allows someone to figure out which accounts belong to registered users.

Because it serves absolutely no useful purpose for me or my visitors.

Because it is repeated with each additional comment on a page.

Because search engines might be using it to gauge owner activity with visitors on a site but don't provide details of what may help, or hurt, that metric.

I'm not worried about it but it's one of the changes to wordpress that make me shrug, right up there with adding the wordpress version in the feed markup core files... right before Google announces they will monitor for outdate sites.

[tedster]

I can't see any problem from removing it, either. I do get your point.

[mhansen]

right before Google announces they will monitor for outdate sites.

I have been getting email notifies from my GWT account for the past month or two on older versions of WP.

Truly, I've not given it enough attention since I haven't used GWT since the Mayday update last year. Any of "My Own" sites have been removed from my WMT account and only ones that remain are those I manage for others.

Yet... I still got the email notifies of outdated WP versions.