In this age of SEO Google has become an important part of that reason, and I do feel it’s a blanket method of just sweeping the problem under the rug. That said, Google know more than I do about their methods and if they feel it’s needed and helpful, I suppose they ought to know.

I am enjoying the points you continue to raise and I hope you aren’t taking my disagreement with some of them personally.

Not at all — I enjoy a good, robust debate. And in that spirit…

Still, because this is a blog, and not MSNBC or CNN, the link is discounted.

This is not true. The link is discounted because it was contributed by a third party, not because this is a blog. If bloggers put links in their posts (as opposed to comments), nofollow is generally not applied. If CNN.com allowed readers to submit comments with links, they would most likely apply nofollow to them. As I said above and previously, “Nofollow does not apply only to blogs. Forums and many other sites that allow reader contributions also use nofollow.”

Just because nofollow is used on other websites that aren’t blogs doesn’t make it right. There is still discrimination against blogs based solely on their nature as blogs.

To discriminate against something is to (unfairly) treat it differently to other things. Since nofollow applies to blogs and non-blogs, by definition it does not discriminate against blogs. But as you point out, this still doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

(I don’t understand why Google would want to discriminate against blogs anyway. People like blogs, and expect to find blogs when they use search engines. Why would Google want to cripple their own search results by marginalising blogs?)

While bloggers can choose to control every aspect of their website (its true!), many do not exercise their power. This is bad.

It’s not bad; it’s life. Most bloggers (me included) have far too much else to do in their lives to care about trivial matters like whether their blog commenters are distributing PageRank.

NoFollow is a good thing for delinquent website owners…

That terminology seems harsh. Is my Aunt Agatha “delinquent” because she doesn’t know how to control spam comments on her Parrot Photo Blog? She’s not delinquent; she’s just not a propellerhead. As you say, nofollow is good for her because it prevents her lack of competence from affecting others (via spammy search engine results).

Surely, if people can be given the options of controlling commenting on their blog (on or off) they should also be given control of whether or not nofollow should be on or off too.

Perhaps, but it’s pretty obvious why blog platforms don’t generally give you this option. Let’s face it: nofollow is a techie feature that most people would neither care about nor understand. Most bloggers (probably the vast majority) would never turn off nofollow even if it were really easy, because most bloggers have no idea what nofollow is. A minority (including me) understand nofollow and are happy with it. Some savvy users (including you) understand nofollow, disagree with it, and have the expertise to disable it. (For example, by installing their own copy of WordPress and using a nofollow-disabling plugin).

This leaves the relatively small number of bloggers who understand nofollow and disagree with it. but lack the wherewithal to turn it off. These are the bloggers who need to lobby their blog vendors for change. I’m not one of these people and neither are you. I wonder how many there really are?

- I agree with your comment regarding genuine links. Regardless of the adjective used to describe a legitimate link that brings utility to the topic on a webpage (and to the Internet as a whole), that link deserves to be counted on par with all other links. Still, because this is a blog, and not MSNBC or CNN, the link is discounted. I believe we agree on this.

- Just because nofollow is used on other websites that aren’t blogs doesn’t make it right. There is still discrimination against blogs based solely on their nature as blogs.

- Amazon doesn’t allow links at all because it is their site, to do as they please, they control every aspect of it, as any responsible website should do. This is fair. They set the terms, you follow them or leave.

- While bloggers can choose to control every aspect of their website (its true!), many do not exercise their power. This is bad. This is how spamming works. NoFollow is a good thing for delinquent website owners, those who aren’t responsible to police their own site, because it takes some of their power away — all links created by visitors are labeled as not peer reviewed.

I happen to be a responsible website administrator. No spam links on maxpower, all links are peer reviewed. I should not have nofollow and I don’t.

My objection to nofollow is not in its nature, but in its blanket use. I think it is ok to treat blogs as irresponsible from the get go and implement nofollow on all links. I do not think it is ok to have no option to turn nofollow off in a default installion of a blog. This is the case with all popular blogging platforms that I am aware of.

Surely, if people can be given the options of controlling commenting on their blog (on or off) they should also be given control of whether or not nofollow should be on or off too.