This was discussed on that other forum back when bid directories were just starting out ... see "Ethical Bid Directories ... Rulz of conduct!" on DP if you are interested in the history.
The consenus was that owners could add any listing to their directory as long as it was at the minimum bid allowed.
Owners usually add their own sites to new directories and minimum bids don't distort the value of the bidding directory.
The feeling was that empty directories needed to be seeded with some listings so users could understand what their link would look like and how the sorting worked.
What people did not want to see were high bids that that forced legitimate bidders to bid more or amounts that guaranteed related sites high positions. The feeling here was that related sites were not using real money and in effect had unlimited budgets since no money changed hands. |