<![CDATA[I just had a really cursed thought.]]>I just had a really cursed thought.

When you post a link on the , it is usually shared with hundreds of instances and shows up in their global timelines.

Doesn't this mean that the Fediverse could be easily abused as an farm? I.e. increasing the search rank of websites by making them "more linked"?

Is this perhaps already happening?

Fediverse Admins, have you seen activity like this?

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/topic/a0d4593d-0434-423a-8e2d-a1ace06d338f/i-just-had-a-really-cursed-thought.RSS for NodeFri, 17 Apr 2026 06:55:54 GMTSun, 05 Apr 2026 00:07:40 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:48:07 GMT]]>@juergen_hubert @rolle Yeah, spam blog comments still happen, but as far as I know they don't work for search engine ranking.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://node.isonomia.net/users/modulux/statuses/01KNED7WJSZSMQVJ3WCW19HP4Ghttps://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://node.isonomia.net/users/modulux/statuses/01KNED7WJSZSMQVJ3WCW19HP4GSun, 05 Apr 2026 08:48:07 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:46:00 GMT]]>@modulux @rolle

...I _do_ get a lot of SEO bullshit in the comments for my blog.

Also, I have bad memories of SEO bullshit in wikis with open registration.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mementomori.social/users/juergen_hubert/statuses/116351222468636273https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mementomori.social/users/juergen_hubert/statuses/116351222468636273Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:46:00 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 08:11:12 GMT]]>@juergen_hubert @rolle Search companies generally obey it since it's in their best interest, in fact I think they proposed it in the first place. Otherwise you get a lot of vectors for bullshit SEO things like blog comments and such.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://node.isonomia.net/users/modulux/statuses/01KNEB4A2ZABEYQ4T1110J3DMHhttps://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://node.isonomia.net/users/modulux/statuses/01KNEB4A2ZABEYQ4T1110J3DMHSun, 05 Apr 2026 08:11:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 06:05:46 GMT]]>@rolle @modulux

Do search companies actually honor the "nofollow" attribute, or is this like robots.txt where LLM scrapers just circumvent it by using anonymous proxies?

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mementomori.social/users/juergen_hubert/statuses/116350592379164020https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mementomori.social/users/juergen_hubert/statuses/116350592379164020Sun, 05 Apr 2026 06:05:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:00:34 GMT]]>@ljwrites @juergen_hubert

I am also pretty sure that search engines ignore the Fediverse because it does not convert and does not produce cash...

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://friendica.myportal.social/objects/e65e1095-5069-d1d0-529d-7e8359014101https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://friendica.myportal.social/objects/e65e1095-5069-d1d0-529d-7e8359014101Sun, 05 Apr 2026 03:00:34 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:15:28 GMT]]>@juergen_hubert

Considering how virulently allergic to advertising the Fediverse is (with a few exceptions for artisans and such), I don't see how that would work. Nearly 100% of everyone who sees a commercial blocks the account (unless they are satire or hilariously funny in their own right).

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://urbanists.social/users/MissGayle/statuses/116349450848968431https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://urbanists.social/users/MissGayle/statuses/116349450848968431Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:15:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:08:01 GMT]]>@juergen_hubert I'm going to guess no, because the linking means hyperlinks and a post being archived across multiple databases doesn't mean it's linked to more. Speaking of, federation means each instance references other federated instances' posts in its own local database, so my interaction with your post here, for instance, isn't linking to or interacting with the original post in mementomori.social's database and shouldn't matter in its search rankings (if any). That's how I understand it, anyway.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://writeout.ink/users/ljwrites/statuses/116349421576725043https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://writeout.ink/users/ljwrites/statuses/116349421576725043Sun, 05 Apr 2026 01:08:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:45:47 GMT]]>@juergen_hubert

It could and I would be surprised if it hasn't.

The nofollow attribute value marks links as something to be ignored by search engines, so they don't affect their ranking and making useless for SEO purposes. Many sites put it for that purpose, Wikipedia is a good example.

So the only way putting links here can help a spammer is if people clicks in them, the same as spam emails do.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://qoto.org/users/jgg/statuses/116349334172073601https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://qoto.org/users/jgg/statuses/116349334172073601Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:45:47 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:13:43 GMT]]>@modulux @juergen_hubert All links have nofollow noopener by default: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/8fa91b4b81951f884a773d0aa56fc4f1a48da03e/app/lib/text_formatter.rb#L10

So unless all the admins of thousands of servers decide to change it, we're fine.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mementomori.social/users/rolle/statuses/116349208090778762https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://mementomori.social/users/rolle/statuses/116349208090778762Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:13:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to I just had a really cursed thought. on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:11:08 GMT]]>@juergen_hubert I think the nofollow attribute is used to avoid that from happening.

]]>https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://node.isonomia.net/users/modulux/statuses/01KNDFN8WW3FZYJPS675180133https://forum.pierobosio.it/post/https://node.isonomia.net/users/modulux/statuses/01KNDFN8WW3FZYJPS675180133Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:11:08 GMT