incrediBILL - 1:45 am on Oct 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

I think branded links are perfectly valid because the quantity of people using that brand is a clear signal of popularity.

They also call out optimized forum sig links LOL

Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example: Thanks, that’s great info! - Paul paul’s pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego

I'd say I hoped that would spell the end of forum spammers but I seriously doubt it because they aren't even smart enough to leave WebmasterWorld alone which is known to be spam free as we delete spam with extreme prejudice often mere minutes after it's posted.

I never paid that much attention to the Link Scheme page previously so I'm not sure what the changes were but it looks pretty draconian in it's current version.

Low-quality directory or bookmark site links

OK, who defines which directories are quality, by who's standards, Google?