Thanks for the heads up about this thread Jel. It seems that i have got myself blacklisted, for using or rather over using templates.
I've been doing this a few years too, and also run a link list and so i know how irritating it is to get sites that break the rules submitted everyday. Going through submissions is pretty dull at the best of times, but if i don't like a site i reject it, occasionally i put a comment in the return email to say why. I don't blacklist people unless they really break the rules.
I also agree that it would be nice to be told you're blacklisted and interesting to know who by.
As for people reading the emails, i assume a lot are like me. I submit to 100 LL's, 5 sites per week and i come home to over 120 emails every day and scan through them pretty fast. My eyes will probably pick out comments from the background text but often 3 pertinent words can be hidden amongst a lot of the normal filler text and i'll miss it. this doesn't make me a bad person it just makes me a real busy person that has to do stuff quick to fit it in.
The same with submitting. When you have a list of lots of sites to submit to and 1% of them might not like a particular site that day and the rest are fine with it. it is easier to submit to the whole lot and let them list or not at their discretion.
I take the point about templates and i'll try to vary them a lot more, but a certain amount of design overlap is inevitable. I'm kind of like Picasso- just stuck in a Blue Period.
Oh, well. off to the day job now. See you all later.
Rayzor