Proposal for banning faked 'Homepage' in 'User Profile'

[cminblues]

We all have seen, in this forum, some people using a 'Homepage' URL, in theirs 'User Profile',
only as a trick for spam-reporting Google about some competitor.

Because I think this is not the goal of this forum, I propose this, Brett:

1] If a user want some 'Homepage' URL to appear in his UserProfile,
he must insert in the HTML of the page a comment, say <!--webmasterworld tag-->.

2] The software who's running the forum, send quickly a little spider [hehe..] fetching the page.
If the comment is found, OK, the URL appear in UserProfile.

I think I can make all the [open-source and visible of course] necessary modifications in the forum 'BestBBS' code.

What you think about this?

cminblues

[dcheney]

[joke]Why not just require a Google-recognizable link to WebmasterWorld?[/joke]

[Giacomo]

Very nice idea, cminblues. Hope Brett agrees too.

[Brett_Tabke]

Interesting idea cminblues - no one had proposed quite that setup.

I've taken some action on the issue, but it's one of those issues that I can't discuss what has been done. Like the se's, the second you say what you've done, someone finds a way around it.

[andreasfriedrich]

Isnīt that called security by obscurity?;)!

[Omni]

Good suggestion but wouldn't it be odd for someone to add the tag on a company web site? Just a thought :)

[cminblues]

andreasfriedrich:

It's not 'securitybyobscurity'..

It's "If you don't own the page, the page is not listed here" ;)

<added>Silly me.. I've misunderstood..</added>

cminblues

[edited by: cminblues at 2:07 pm (utc) on Sep. 16, 2002]

[andreasfriedrich]

Sorry cminblues, I wasnīt referring to your proposal but to Brettīs measures that he wouldnīt explain.

[AkanDian rain]

My concern is on the client side. If I own the site then I can take full responsibility. But if it's my client's site, I have to get permission from them to insert extra code.

[mack]

this may work....
The domain in the profile is not listed right away.... an email is sent to [e-mail] with a validate link. explaining that someone "username" has placed this site"domain" as his/her homepage at webmasterworld.com . Please click on the link below to authorise this.

[jackofalltrades]

As much as the issue is people using their user profile to report spam, isnt the fact that google use the forum as a hunting ground as a big an issue?

Lets face, the professional that we are all in dictates that we only do things that are going to be successful (why bother having a keyword rich page if it isnt going to make any difference to your rankings?).

The only reason people report spam via their user profile is because they know google (or their ambassador/spy at WW; googleguy :)) will pick up on it and it will be actioned quicker than conventional methods.

At the end of the day, people will always use this forum for their own ends - the users will report their competitors shady practices and google will snoop.

I suggest accommodating both sides:

Have a "submit a spam URL" form within the google section - send the info straight to google (try and extort +1 PR for all WW members sites first :)) so they can weed out the rubbish - leaves the profile URLs as they should be, keeps google happy (and we all get +1 PR!).

Scott