indyank - 4:41 pm on May 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

I think its pretty clear that there is only one reason for having forum signature links, surely?

So true. All forum signature links that are keyword oriented should be penalized. This is on the same lines as theme or plugin links that have keywords as anchor text. The only reason why a linkback with site name is not being penalized is because it is something that is allowed by the forum admin or the theme or plugin user to credit the author's contribution.This is a more genuine credit given by the user than a keyword based anchor text which is done to manipulate and rank on search engines for that keyword.

[edited by: indyank at 4:55 pm (utc) on May 8, 2012]