aristotle - 3:11 pm on Oct 8, 2012 (gmt 0)

@smithaa02
I see your point. You created the "fake" backlinks after you had already reached the #2 ranking for your targeted keyword, so removing them should return you to your previous situation. Except according to your earlier posts, Google is apparently still penalizing you for them even after they are gone.

The only real solution is for Google to scrap the penalization part of Penguin. I can understand why they would devalue un-natural backlinks, but don't see why they should penalize you for them, especially since they can't always be certain who was responsible for creating them. And as others have pointed out, it opens the way for competitors to sabotage your rankings. It's a basic flaw in their algorithm, and it is harming the web.