mark_roach - 5:21 pm on Feb 4, 2002 (gmt 0)

I look at it this way; if the content can stand alone [my guideline is will it get in Dmoz] then why bother with a sub domain, get a "real" one. If the content will not stand alone then put it in a sub directory of the site.

I tend to agree with what NFFC has said, however I think that cost can play a big part in the equation. The cost of a free subdomain against the registration and hosting fees for a new domain can be significant especially if multiplied a number of times. Finding the appropriate domain names can also be a problem if you are trying to build a brand.

NFFC do you think that you got banned purely because of your sub-domains or because of the way that you were using them. If you had used seperate domains in the same way might you also have been red-flagged ?

ridiculous notion that any search engine would be dumb enough to do an across the board ban of canonicals because some folks may have used them for spam

History is littered which examples and hearsay of SEs using a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

I would not worry if I currently had a spam free network of sub-domains, but I would make double sure that they were sqeaky clean.

Incidently BT has also said recently that he believes that keyword domains (a viable alternative to sub-domains) are on the way out - That's me snookered then :)