[Pagan]

Actually, I was here when that all happened and did follow it. I didn't remove any of my links, including any of the interior ones that I had until AFTER you came back and had pretty serious scripting issues. Broken links or links that go to "dead" sites don't do anyone any good ever. When I choose to hard link to someone, it is because I believe their site is worthwhile for my visitors, not because I like them or anything else. If your site is not working month after month after month, you are no good to me at all. In fact, keeping your links up damages my reputation. I don't blame anyone here for removing links to a non-functional website. They can be restored at a later time. Who knew if you would ever come back???

Cleo, JR, and a few others removed links to mine when I didn't update regularly. I can't blame them for the exact same reason. You also forget this industry has gone through a lot of change in the last 2 years. People want instant porn and instant gratification. If your site doesn't deliver, they leave. Google also changes their rules for ranking almost as often as men change their underwear. THAT hurts a lot of us on a regular basis. (I had a PR6 shopping mall drop to 0 after I didn't have time to deal with it any more... and my joke site is slipping as well.) PC had an outstanding reputation for daily updates across his entire network. Most likely, the staleness of the site, if it was even up, hurt you just like it hurt me.

My point was, you have limited time and energy to work with your sites (I am the same way). I could spend all those precious assets crying about the dropped traffic or... I could move on. I have chosen to move on. Those that had hard links to me and chose to remove them -- that's their business. Most of those sites are dead now anyway. Others that removed reciprocated interior links -- same thing. (And I had tnose on a number of sites). I am spending my time looking forward, not back.