> consider how deeply dysfunctional it is that webmasters are so afraid of Google and Matt Cutts that they are begging each other to take down links they paid f

> consider how deeply dysfunctional it is that webmasters are so afraid of Google and Matt Cutts that they are begging each other to take down links they paid for in the first place Wait, how is that dysfunctional? "should have been more thoughtful about their SEO efforts in the first place" implies at least a likelihood that they would want to rescind their earlier actions, which is what they're doing. That seems...functional. I mean, living in fear of only somewhat specified rules likely has other consequences that discourage good behavior in other ways, but the specifics you describe seems like what you'd want to happen[1]. [1] http://xkcd.com/810/ http://xkcd.com/810/