Hello Bruno,

I am really sorry but unfortunately it's not possible to do that currently but by default, EasyDiscuss uses the rel="nofollow" when it replaces hyperlinks.

I know this post is a bit old but I am finding that links entered into discussion (using the link tool like this are actually follow links. How can I make them unfollow and open in a new window? Is there a file that I should modify to achieve this?

Hello David,

By default we don't actually add nofollow to it but you can edit the file /components/com_easydiscuss/helpers/parser.php and at line 216, locate the codes below,

$text			= str_ireplace( $urlTags[ $i ] , '<a href="' . $url . '"' . $targetBlank . '>' . $titles[ $i ] . '</a>' , $text );

Change it to,

$text			= str_ireplace( $urlTags[ $i ] , '<a href="' . $url . '"' . $targetBlank . ' rel="nofollow">' . $titles[ $i ] . '</a>' , $text );

Thanks Mark - ridiculously fast response as usual.

I noticed in the line that there is already a reference to $targetBlank however clicking on links opens all of them in the same window currently. What change would be needed to force them to open in a new tab/window? I am trying to prevent users leaving the site when they click on links in discussions.

Along the same lines, is there a second line or a change to the existing line that I could add to make internal links "follow" - that is some type of parameter that would detect a section of the URL and set behaviour based on that?

I am probably being over cautious but the penalties that Google has enforced on guest blogs and their contributors recently are something that I would like to avoid from the start if possible.

Hello David,

Hm, if it's not opening on a new window, then probably your EasyDiscuss settings isn't configured to open links in a new window. Go to the back end settings of EasyDiscuss and under General > Workflow, you should see an option called "Open links in new window".

To have links with follow, I guess in the bbcode editor itself, when you insert the link, you need to explicitly tell it to use follow instead of nofollow but again, if the user is able to tell the system to use follow, then it's a little pointless to actually slap a rel="nofollow" in the link eh? Since they could override the behavior.

Good point Mark. Thanks as always - I don't know how I missed the General > Workflow setting but I did.

You are most welcome David