Dofollow did not attract as many quality comments and conversation as it did spammers and people just trying to use my blog to boost their own page rank.

My spamkiller does a pretty great job, and my moderating of first-time commenters assures that readers don’t have to wade through some pretty ugly stuff. I however, have to wade through it just to make sure I’m not missing any real comments and that takes valuable time.

For every one comment on this blog there have been 5 spam attempts. When I discontinued the dofollow links, I was getting hit with a ridiculous amount of comment spam. That has dropped off considerably, so I’m happy with the decision.

I of course hate to lose readers, and I knew I was taking that risk when I turned off the link love. I have to balance that against my time and my sanity though, and this is the best I can do.

UPrinting, it’s easy to forget that I can have that same kind of impact on my own kid. I have to do better at keeping my own lesson in mind.

Vicki, great idea about leaving them messages on the cell phone! Love it!

Rachel thanks. Nice site!

Resumes, awwwww, thanks.

Wendy what a great idea! And so cool that it meant so much to them.

A few years ago I got my teens pens and pencils that had “I’m so proud of you!” stamped on the side of them for Christmas. I wrapped them up with a note, telling each of them why I was proud of them (they were each trying new things outside of their comfort zones). My son still uses those pens when writing rough drafts of college essays. I saw the note I wrote to my daughter in her treasure box the other day.