Posted by Fox on August 16, 2007 at 10:40 PM

I'm happy for comments on my blogs to be DOFOLLOW. So I've ignored all of this NOFOLLOW stuff because I use TypePad and I've never set up the nofollow option in my accounts settings, so surely it doesn't effect me?

WRONG! I only discovered today that TypePad has comments set to NOFOLLOW by default, and there is no account setting to disable it. Bastards!

If your unfamiliar with "NOFOLLOW" and the growing campaign against it (called "NO NOFOLLOW"), check out my introduction: What is NO NOFOLLOW?

TYPEPAD THEMES USERS

Now, back to TypePad. If you're using standard templates/themes on your TypePad account you're screwed. No ifs and no buts, you're just screwed. There is no box you can tick in your account settings to disable NOFOLLOW.

TYPEPAD ADVANCED TEMPLATE USERS

If you're using Advanced Templates, you're still kind of screwed, but there is a work around. I've used Mike Sansone's Typepad Hack over at www.converstations.com/2007/04/how_to_remove_n.html

But this only removes the NOFOLLOW attribute from the authorsname link. Any URL's submitted within the body of the actual comment STILL use the NOFOLLOW attribute (again... Bastards!)

So in addition to using Mike's TypePad hack, the only way I could to get around the NOFOLLOW attribute being used in the actual comments was feature a submitted URL below each user comment (check out the comment I added to this post, below). Note that all URLS used in the actual comments are still NOFOLLOW.

MY NOFOLLOW WORK AROUND FOR TYPEPAD

My comments form contains 4 boxes. One for the commentators name, their email address, a URL and their comment. My work around simply displays the URL from box 3 under their comment (without the NOFOLLOW attribute).

In your 'Individual Archive Template' look for <$MTCommentBody$> and change it to this:

<$MTCommentBody$><br>URL: <a href="<$MTCommentURL$>"><$MTCommentURL$></a>

This makes no change to actual comments, but adds a link below. I know it's not ideal, but until there is an option to disable NOFOLLOW in your TypePad Account Settings, it'll have to do.

Take a look at the comment form for this post and you'll note that I have also make it clear to commentators that they need to include the URL in the 3rd box.

I also snagged a "U Comment, I Follow" button from the NO NOFOLLOW Community on Bumpzee for use on this blog.

THE FINAL STEP IN THIS NOFOLLOW HACK
The final step in this TypePad Hack is to take a few minutes to submit a support ticket to TypePad requesting that they make use of the NOFOLLOW attribute an on/off setting in your account. If enough TypePad users request it, they'll have to consider making it available.

See Also : Andy Beard's blogging on NO NOFOLLOW