I'd take a link from any and every single web site on the internet.. Test me, give me a link..

They've done nothing illegal. In getting the site back in shape, re-indexed, etc. do you out that firm? To who?

I'm not convinced that what they did is NOT illegal.. If this was done as work for hire then the technically, in most jurisdictions, the client owns the work and to go back and undo all that work is a legitimate reason for legal action.. If I had a client with this issue I would certainly "out" them to the client, but wouldn't waste my time with trying to out them in public or to the search engines.. I'll leave that to the client.. They are the one with the working relationship and were harmed.. If it were me it would just look like a competitor complaigning..

What I find most interesting about the "I'd never do it" argument is that I see people all day long complaining about this brand/vendor or that on Twitter. Why should SEO be any different?

Not sure you can compare those either.. In most cases those are people reacting a specific issue with a specific one on one relationship via purchase or use, etc.. These are not people hunting for negatives across the internet, determining that those negatives violate their personal ethics, and then going on a campaign to punish..

I would be happy to out SEO companies for violating search engine guidelines.. Just as soon as the search engines put me on the payroll to help them clean up their results..

Other than that, I'm of the opinion that if you have enough time to hunt down, properly investigate, and report, an SEO that "you" think is doing something shady, then you probably don't have enough clients or work to keep you busy and you should put that energy in to building your, and your client's, businesses..

Ah, there is the issue Matt, you want a code of ethics, not a standards based process.. Got it..

Matt, your argument that other industries have "standards" falls apart when you take in to account that search engines hide so much from us and leave us to figure them out on our own.. This places every single "tactic" in doubt as what may wor, and be acceptable, in one niche may be the kiss of death in another..

This in turn makes the entire standards process a popularity contest for everyone's favorite theory.. Now, if the SEs want to step up and create a certification and standards process, I would be willing to get behind that, but until then anything we do as an industry is just a WAG..

Yup, just select the radio button that says

Yes, this business serves customers at their locations then you get all sorts of other options..

@Jill, agreed.. That particular vertical is a perfect example of a company with a far broader 'local' that Google may be willing to show.. I do know that you are capable of setting your service area in your places account.. That 'should' be enough to give that business a fair shot at appearing in a 'local' search.. Or you can choose to list the areas that you serve by city/state.. Does that make this particular tactic less palatable??

@Mike, I was hoping so.. This is a very old tactic that we were laughing and talking about a few weeks ago on the podcast.. Which, IMO, makes outting it sort of a non issue since not only is it a very old tactic, it's old enough that a lot of people thought it didn't work any more..

@Mike, you've known about this for a few years and didn't 'just' figure it out, right??

@Jill, the intention of Places, IMO, is to offer results within a reasonable service area for the searcher.. If you have a web site that serves the entire world, is it reasonable to do this in every major city because you "serve" those areas, or was this intended for 'local businesses' to have an opportunity to compete locally.. So it would be up to the individual site / business owners to decide if their business serves a service area or not..

@Danny, as I told Debra a bit ago, the one thing I complained about when it comes to sphinn is the one thing you actually kept.. So now I'm telling you to NOT send me a check for $10,000..

I understand that participation and engagement are down.. But personally I have never seen any voting site as the place to comment on stories.. If I read a story worthy of commenting, I comment there, not here.. Same goes for Digg and SU etc etc.. Posting here would either be redundant, or taking away engagement from the creator of the blog post, story, article, what have you.. And I say this as someone with a fair number of comments here.. I would wager more than most..

That said, I intend to at least stick around and see what becomes of Sphinn.. I'm hoping that it doesn't turn in to DMOZ..

CEO hired Bozo the Clown to create their internet marketing plan and got screwed.

Excellent, straight forward list of how not to screw up too badly..

@danny I fully understand the mods being able to promote content to the front.. And I understand that it has been here since day one.. I just happen to disagree with the policy.. If you look at my reg date you'll see that I have been here since nearly the beginning.. But, this has always been one of my pet peeves and it only bothers me when issues of voting, voting blocks, and who's allowed to do what comes up.. I conceede that having mods remove inadequate content is a great thing, I just don't think that they should be allowed to promote things arbitrarily.. Especially when those things tend to not get very many sphinns after they are promoted.. I would wager that if you did an average of the votes reieved mod promoted items would be at the bottom of that scale..

As for spam, fuly aware of that too.. For a long time I flagged more stuff as spam than I sphunn.. It is handeled far better now.. And I appreciate it..

This really isn't an SEO issue, it's a domaining and adsense issue.. But yes, it is quite discouraging to see friend's that have passed have their domains scopped up and turned in to MFA sites..

Absolute. Pure. Genius.

Sorry, Jill said quite clearly just a few posts above

And it does also depend on who submitted it and who it's talking about.

Certainly looks relevant to me.. Unless I'm somehow misunderstanding what she said..

I think it's weak.. In the past less popular people, Shoemoney for example, not only had their posts moved or deleted, because of who they are, we are now discussing allowing that same behavior by other people, because of who they are..

This clearly takes Sphinn out of the news niche and moves it squarely in to the clique niche.. If you are 'somone' or a friend of someone, the rules are different than if you are just a 'regular guy'.. Not really a gerat precedent to set..

I used to come to sphinn daily, I used to report spam daily, and like many, I have far more comments than submissions. But Sphinn has become less and less relevant the longer it goes.. For me, the final nail came when mods were granted to power to promote things to the front page without forcing those posts to go through the community process..

I always read this at G4TV.. Mayeb I should turn the TV off..

Super clean code will never make up for fantastic content and links.  Picking at your code seems like a waste when the time can be used towards content generation.  Don't get me wrong, a page that takes 10 seconds to load is ugly, but odds are their bounce rate is already though the roof.  These sites will surely feel the effect.  However, just because a site loads a second or two quicker won't (a lone) make enough of a difference in the SERPS.

I love you man..

We've been trying to explain ROI for a long time and you have shown a shining example of where to put limited time and budget..

That's right Edward, I do have someone coaching me. Actually a small team of people. Wouldn't you love to know who?

I'd ask for a refund.. When I said your attempt at RM was being done poorly, I wasn't kidding.. There were far better ways to handle this than your current attempts..

As Edward said, I'd still love to know who your industry veterans were.. As an SEO and marketer, you should be aware the transparency is what wins, not obfuscation..

Charles, responding is fine.. It was your method of response that doesn't help you at all..

Heh.. I think someone needs a training course in reputation management.. I doubt that this post of yours would have been a recommended solution or response..

If you had been SEMPO, or someone "anyone" had heard of, this might have gone differently, but as William noted, no one knew you and the "industry leaders" tend to all be known people..

Sidewiki comments actually have a use on their site.. I knew there would be some use for it at some point..

That's cool and all, but nothing that thousands of football fans every weekend don't do.. And how did this shot on TV convert in to traffic on our web site?? And how did that traffic convert in to sales??

Excellent idea, text file added to the post..

As for lost speed, I haven't noticed any, but the list can be, and probably should be, pruned back a bit to remove the country level TLDs that each site owner may not be interested in getting traffic from..