100 link "rule" - does nofollow matter?

[phoenix06007]

So there's an unofficial "rule" that the engines don't follow links on a page after the first 100 or so they find.

Not sure how real it is, but for the sake of this conversation, let's assume it's real.

The question is:

If you have 175 links on a page, and you nofollow the first 125, for example, does the crawler skip them and follow your other 50 links as if they were the ONLY 50 links on the page (outbound, of course)?

Mostly a theory question, but one I found intriguing and didn't have an immediate answer for.

Please discuss.

[Dani]

The reason not to have so many links is because it comes off as unnatural to the search engines ... If a link is supposed to be a "vote" for that page, and you vote for half the Internet, there's just way too much dilution to make any of your votes count.

Plus, it's really sketchy just how the search engines respond to nofollow. I've played around and solidly found beyond a doubt that I actually do pass massive amounts of PR with DaniWeb's nofollow links (so you might want to consider adding a forum signature even though it's nofollowed!).

[seotogo]

The reason not to have so many links is because it comes off as unnatural to the search engines ... If a link is supposed to be a "vote" for that page, and you vote for half the Internet, there's just way too much dilution to make any of your votes count.

Plus, it's really sketchy just how the search engines respond to nofollow. I've played around and solidly found beyond a doubt that I actually do pass massive amounts of PR with DaniWeb's nofollow links (so you might want to consider adding a forum signature even though it's nofollowed!).

So, not to be disrespectful since you can do what you want with your own website, if there is no difference between nofollow and dofollow then why not make your forum dofollow again like it used to be?

[jay 11]

So, not to be disrespectful since you can do what you want with your own website, if there is no difference between nofollow and dofollow then why not make your forum dofollow again like it used to be?

Because otherwise DaniWeb would be linking to a ton of spam. Unfortunately, such is the way with social networks. Same reason why respectable bloggers nofollow their comments. It's the most effective way to combat spam while staying in the good graces of the search engines.