The goal for us is to build quality directories and follow the guidelines and the rest is history. There is nothing wrong to ask for a "review fee" (what a joke) and Google understands that, but it is bad when some directories abused the system and get penalized.
nothing wrong with asking for a review fee but there alot of directories that make it too obvious that they are selling links by using words like "buy a link"
@mikey1090 - I was talking about their different articles which says that "do relevant link building" , not penalizing yahoo paid dir and so on.
"Review FEE" = "Buying Links" - There is no way around. But if you visit directories like botw for example, they are selling links but google don't have penalty for this directory and many others. So, what does that tell you? Is not so much about selling links but about choosing the right site to sell links to. Of course there are many other factors that you need to have in order to be fine with Google guidelines. But my point is that many people are way to afraid about this subject when in reality is much easier to deal with.