signor_john - 10:04 pm on Jul 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

So why is there no Google rep who will say, yes we don't use GWT for penalties?

First of all, Google reps don't hang out here as often as they did a few years ago.

Second, do you really expect Google to respond to every conspiracy theory that gets trotted out in a Web forum?

They don't deny it, my opinion is they will probably punish your sites if you use GWT.

If they were going to be that illogical and arbitrary, it would make more sense for them to punish sites that don't use the Webmaster tools, on the theory that such sites have something to hide.