Not at all. Transparency and accountability should unquestionably be the cornerstones of this industry. What would you like to know? Are we building a network of sites to sell our services? Yes. Is it a link farm? Yes. Do the links in our directories have long term value. I believe so and I am doing everything I can to prove me wrong. But to answer your first question I don't know where you got the impression that I expect any explanations from anyone. Have I asked you a question you are not comfortable answering. Is there not perhaps a skeleton or two rattling around in a cupboard? Has something I have said hit a raw nerve?
I understand what you are trying to do and believe me, I hope you succeed. Like I mentioned your business is your business But I have to ask about calling yourself a link farm and if that term is a wise choice. I think most will agree that is a less that desirable term in many corners. Link Farming The process of exchanging reciprocal links with Web sites in order to increase search engine optimization. The idea behind link farming is to increase the number of sites that link to yours because search engines such as Google rank sites according to, among other things, the quality and quantity of sites that link to yours. In theory, the more sites that link to yours, the higher your ranking in the search engine results will be because the more links indicate a higher level of popularity among users of the Internet. However, search engines such as Google consider link farming as a form of spam and have been implementing procedures to banish sites that participate in link farming, so the term link farming has garnered negative connotations across the internet. Ok, here's the deal. Many, many of your post are accusing people of hiding, not answering questions or offering an explaination about this or that. Since you use terms like "they ,them those" I have to assume you are referring to me as well. Skeletons, man I have a whole family of them around here somewhere. No really, I have nothing to hide and I have been up front and honest when asked about something. This how i see it with you.You storm in here saying just about everyone here is a screw up and you have the answers and a better way. Who knows perhaps you do but you are sorely lacking in tack and instead of trying to get along in a civil way you want to attack folks. I honestly believe if you would get down off your "high horse" and treat people with more dignity and respect you would make lots more friends and allies. Wither you want to admit it or not, there are plenty of smart, successful people here that know a thing or two. Building alliances and friendships will certainly help more that creating a room full of enemies. You may not think so right now but there will come a time when you will need some of these very people's help or support and to be frank, because of your condesending attitude, that may be hard to find right now. I'm all the time asking questions, needing help or just someone to listen to me rant. That doesn't mean I'm kissing ass or a cheerleader for this person or that person. I may not always agree with some of their practices nor they with mine but I have learned it's better to agree to disagree and work together with mutual respect of our differences.
I cant argue with anything you say except when you accuse me of a condescending attitude. I have nothing to be condescending about. But I do believe that if we don't face up to and address the issues before us Google will have no option other than to devalue the listings we are all spending so much time building. I don't believe Google has a problem with our directories. The ones that have directory masters are the sort of sites Google wants and the ones that aren't soon will be. Yes we are building a farm, a network of people driven web sites which will hopefully be a little more interesting than what we currently have.
You said Google doesn't have a problem with directories which I think is correct. Here we all focus on directories and there is lots of finger pointing to go around. If we stop and look what's been happening, it not just directories but sites all across the spectrum. Blogs, forums, ecommerce sites, directories....you name it have been affected. Sites like Forbes, Washingtonpost.com, statcounter and many more appear to have lost pr. The Google section is full of comments from all kinds of sites saying the same thing. Some of them "claim" to never have sold or bought a link yet their sites have been penalized and PR dropped. The notion this is all due to directories or certain directory just don't add up when you look at the "big picture". I have read comments stating this is all due to the emergence of bidding directories and one person even went so far as to blame a single directory owner. My opinion is Google has been working and thinking about this for a long, long time and decided now was the time to act.
Maybe and then again maybe not but what I do know is that if a directory master builds a site slowly and with integrity it serves Googles interests and affords a value to the listings. Thats exciting.