Well, I don't have or want to have an argument with anyone, all I was asking is if this network could be classified as a link farm
No, it is a barter exchange, advertising space has been traded for over 100 years, unsold air time on radio and TV stations has been traded with credits instead of cash everyday since then. There are barter exchanges set up just to accomplish this in the advertising industry. That is all the co-op does is trade equal amounts of advertising/text links for what you give to the network. For example, a TV station has unsold air time slots, they then give those slots to the local newspaper for their unsold space in the newspaper. It works for both as they are able to reach each others audiences without spending cash but trading unsold inventory, it is called barter.
My understanding of the coop links is that there is only as many links as there are adds on your site. So when the add moves on so does the link. Google only reports what is there at the time it spiders the site.....5 adds = 5 links. How long Google keeps these links in it's memory though is for someone else to answer . Cyclops.
it's about balance. If you have a strong site with great support, you can have more links on it but it still weakens how effective it is.