Pagan, that's not a bad idea and I'm actually trying that on some other sites.
SheepGuy, I'm a bit disappointed in you trying to start a witch hunt here. I'm trying to get alot of traffic to my site which is what everyone wants for their sites. Please read on for more info:
In June, Google re-valued old backlinks and Debauchery went up to right at 200,000 unique visitors per day from Google. With that kind of traffic, even links on a second page would get alot more traffic (traffic is what people submit to LL's for, right?) than what current model Link Lists can produce. Google got what info they wanted from their experiment that time, it lasted about 2 weeks, and de-valued those links again.
Since then, Google has tried at least 2 other experiments with de-valued backlinks that I know of. You probably noticed some threads by Plateman and Jay, that GG also commented on, regarding getting traffic like the old days, while those experiments were going on. IMHO LL's, and lots of folks on boards, got caught by Google linking for the purpose of improving their position in the serps. Lots of our sites fell because Google de-valued those links.
My job is to do whitehat SEO where everyone wins, Google gets good content, the surfer gets what they are looking for, I get a site with a lot of traffic, that traffic flows to make me and the webmasters that submit/trade with my sites money. That is what I am trying to do with the new layout.
Pclit, no trades are gone...they are in the exact same spots on each page. The layout of the page has changed a bit, however if you traded for PR there are currently less outgoing links on those pages and you are getting more PR, if you traded for traffic you should be getting about the same and if my SEO experiment works, then you come out like a bandit. When Debauchery went up to 200k per day, I had some folks that had traded with me on the thread that you mentioned, hit me up to tell me how well they were doing. Pclit, if you don't want your links there fine, I'll pull them, but for now they are still up and there is potential for them to do very well for you.
Bottom line, I'm not gonna put my head in a hole in the sand and hope everything goes back to the way that it was 3.5 years ago. I will try new things, experiment, hopefully find what works. I have not pulled anyones links. If your link on my site is now on page 2 of a category instead of page one, it's not that different from the LL's that have multiple category pages...only difference I have short, legal tube videos on page 1 now instead of links. There are LL's that created a 2nd, 3rd, and more category pages without asking the permission of the submitters.
I am trying to make positive changes that will create what everyone wants, more traffic from the search engines. Over the years, I have done my best to get traffic to my site and that has certainly benefited everyone that has submitted to it. Now, my site has fallen along with most of the other LL's out there, and I'm trying to get more SE traffic. I am not trying to screw anyone and if I am successful, then some of you will certainly win from my efforts.
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