jsherloc - 2:34 am on Apr 12, 2012 (gmt 0)

No problem Fathom, agree to disagree is fine.

Just letting folks know what we have been witnessing first-hand INCREASINGLY the past few months.

We don't know what goes on under the hood, but when people are crashing and burning all around you on the most popular freeways after cruising along just fine for a long time, and upon investigating backlink portfolio's across thousands of sites and comparing data with other major companies and webmasters that all seems to point to the same thing: "sabotage possibilities" IMO.

I completely disagree on the "rarity" of this issue, after corresponding with folks across the globe the past few months this seems pretty widespread and seems to effecting SOLID websites, not simply your "weak affiliate warrior forum" variety website either.

Also, if Google was as powerful as you suggest, why are these IM forums repeatedly having to take down these case studies regarding negative SEO?

Is it just because it is unethical?

I agree it is unethical, but that's interesting because even the blackhat forums had to erase several threads recently after people reported their results of tanking websites they do not own with a variety of specific backlinking methods.

OR

Is it because it is unethical AND there really is a problem with negative SEO in terms of how easy it is right now to "harm" a solid chunk of websites on the Internet?