To anyone reading this there is absolutely no need to read the other issue linked to as it is absolutely nothing to do with nofollow on links at all. (I am not saying there is no issue about nofollow links just that the referenced issue has nothing to do with it)

For reference there are exactly TWO places where nofollow is hardcoded to external links in the core. Thats all.

To anyone reading Brian's comment, I suggest to read the code!

Chris if you did read the code then you would see you are making a mountain out of a very very tiny molehill as already stated there are TWO places with nofollow. Surely there are better things you can do with your time

Brian,
I asked you to help me understand. You chose not to. Here we are.
Now I have to ask other colleagues. That happens, when our Chris has questions and doesnt get them answered. :-)

Back to topic:

1. Where does that happen on a live site?
2. Can I see an example so I can understand in "laymen's" terms?

Chris :)
Brian: I hope that hence you will not answer, you leave the stage to colleagues who will. Feel hugged! :)

Taken from Google's Content Guidelines:

"Nofollow" provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines "Don't follow links on this page" or "Don't follow this specific link."

The two places are
https://docs.joomla.org/Help36:Content_Article_Manager_Edit#Images_and_Links
and
The new URL field type

Charlie:
"In general, we don't follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it's important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways."

Brian:
So I am looking at an article that has an image that links to something. Why would we add the nofollow attribute to that?

Where can I find info about the new URL field type?
Chris

Thats not what the link I provided says and sorry this is not the place for Joomla 101. I tried to give you the answer requested. I clearly failed to do that so I will not bother any more. There are for more important things to do

Brian,
I am happy that you attend to more important things. I would have suggested an RFC about "Brian and Chris and Chris and Brian reading their code" but since you chicken out now ...

Joomla 3.7, Protostar

• Go to
  administrator/index.php?option=com_fields&context=com_content.article
  and create a new custom field of type URL. Title "URL for articles"
• Edit an article and fill field "URL for articles". Enter an external URL.
• Go to FE and inspect the HTML-output:
  <a href="https://github.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://github.com</a>
  ==> hard-coded _blank and nofollow.
  Bad practice BUT: You can override it if you want:
  https://github.com/joomla/joomla-cms/blob/3.7.0-beta2/plugins/fields/url/tmpl/url.php#L20-L23

• In FE inspect Email and Print icons. Both use hard coded rel="nofollow" which minimizes stupid URLs in (some) search engines. Because you say you're using Joomla since version 1.5 you know that this is a good thing. Maybe you and your team will find a better solution because not only Google rules and there are search engines that still ignore this nofollow in Print and Email.

• eDIT AN article. Enter a Link A. Go to FE and inspect the anchor concerning rel="nofollow" depending on option URL target window. 2(?) cases with hard coded nofollow.

• Discuss with your team if there are any SEO, W3C, browser preferences concerning order of rel attribute values like nofollow, noorder, nowhocares ... if several of them are used

That's all.

Only 4) is slightly relevant for Brian's PR (again: that doesn't add or remove a nofollow).

1. to 3): You have to explain in a new issue each with practical testing instructions or with reliable references why this or that is bad (SEO) practice and should be changed.

(Normally these simple investigations should be done by the SEO team (practical tests).)

which are either

1. to our own site but the type of page that you would not want to be indexed (print and email)
2. to external sites where because of the type of link (advert) it should be nofollow
3. user created links which because they are untrusted links should be nofollow

Hi Bertmert,
thank you for taking the time to help me out in understanding where to go and where to look. Thank you Brian for your links as well, unfortunately this was too short for me to understand where this was happening.

Essentially, where we don't need to fear that links are "advertorial", I suggest we do not need to add a nofollow attribute. I also would like us to keep in mind that users could use the external link url to link to their own page (if there is no check from the system in place) thus killing page rank flow on the site internally.

Places like banners or mail addresses or the pint icon are logic places where adding this is reasonable, the image ABC fields and additional field sets, I find excessive.

Towards the order of attributes I have nothing to add and I would hope that the order will not matter.

Additional information:
(old but relevant information)
https://moz.com/blog/google-maybe-changes-how-the-pagerank-algorithm-handles-nofollow
https://seo-hacker.com/pagerank-sculpting/
(Google's information about when to use nofollow links: Hint to Brian, article editors are not creators of comments or foum posts or guestbook-posters - they are trusted people of the website and have a login. Login for content edition = trust indication = ability to set follow links)
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569?hl=en

If you have questions, Brian, please do let me know. I am happy to discuss with you the pro's and con's of your views.
Have a great start into the new week all!
Chris

Hi guys,
for better understanding, I would also make you aware of what Googles webmaster trends analyst said about the general issue of the nofollow use of links to other pages (in general) for your information:

https://youtu.be/GVKcMU7YNOQ?t=50m48s

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