freejung - 3:44 am on Oct 13, 2010 (gmt 0)

I feel the same way some times -- that something I implement with the honest intent of improving usability will get me penalized because some idiot used the same technique for spammy purposes -- and I try to remind myself that in the vast majority of cases, many webmasters have gotten away with doing things far more shady than what I'm doing.

In your case, what you're doing is not remotely shady and is in fact recommended.