directory submission is very important. it is help to get log time better website ranking. so do directory submission everyday but in limit.
Link farms are just that; link farms. There is a huge difference between a good directory and a link farm. I'd say the "future" has nothing to do with the equation. What is, was and will be a link farm, always was, is and will be seen that way. The best way to determine what is a link farm and what is not is to spend some time looking at the listings/content in a given directory. If there are a lot of dead links, URL's/sites that have nothing to do with a given category, or a large number of landing pages than it's pretty easy to spots the ones that are just link farms. Good clean directories are updated regularly, lack a lot of dead links and generally are well organized.
directories are good for make your site crawl fast and getting good links..........if they have good pr.
some new adult sites listed into 140 new adult directories list i have got PR1-3. So directory submissions are effective. And only relevant or niche directory submissions will be more effective.