surfin2u - 4:24 pm on Aug 20, 2005 (gmt 0)

I bought a listing in a directory that gives you a better listing if you link back to them. It's not a requirement, but that's a great incentive. It's a good directory and so I felt fine about giving them a link.

I ignore link swap requests by email because they're usually from low ranking sites looking to take advantage of a link from my high ranking site without paying for it. I don't have time to waste checking out each one in hopes of finding that 1 out of 100 that isn't garbage.

I hope that the practice of swapping links disappears. It's bad for the quality of the web because it encourages sites to link to bad sites, which makes it harder for search engines to deliver good quality results. I think it's a shame that swapping has become such a widely accepted practice.