How Not to Run a Directory: Link to Me or I Delete Your Listing

So a new general directory owner or manager feels all listed sites should link back to them and is willing to delete the entire database if they have to.

Bet that adds value to their site. Good way to "build" a directory, eh.

What ever happened to the old concept of building value and then extracting profits from it?

Fun email sequence in the extended entry... from Lakhya

Regarding your site listing at:
http://www.hedir.com/antiques.html
I think i can get a backlink:

from me

once you stopped accepting sites I submitted I stopped caring about your directory.

sorry if that sounds blunt

but when you arbitrarily decide to stop accepting any and all
submissions I stop trying to help you.

from Lakhya

Hedir.com management has changed. I am the webmaster now. This is one of the projects i have undertaken recently . I am restructuring hedir design and policy.
I have noticed that you have got 10 sites listed in my directory .
I do not find any history of your helping the directory either with link or any other way . Could you please enlighten me regarding this ? Coz i believe in the concept of mutual help in the webmaster
community .

me

I was helping your directory. it was in my directory of directories. it was on my list of directories that over 1,000 have, etc.

when it started screwing around with rejecting every submission I made I stopped making submissions and pulled my support for it.

I also have a theory that directories can charge for inclusion if they like but if they require reciprocal links and are general directories then generally they are a waste of time.

from Lakhya

The site is going paid this march , with basic submission still free.You are welcome to submit as many sites as you want .

Reciprocal link is a part of my policy towards existing sites as i am deleting the old base . So, i am pulling out your links from the directory .

You can resubmit your sites if you want .

On the other side of the coin I am a big fan of the Bruce Stone theory:

Give the webmasters what they need. Links, good and fast service and as many pages index by the search engines as conceivably possible. This generates traffic, something directories have been poor in delivering. You’re not doing the webmaster a favor by accepting their site. They are doing you the favor by developing the database for you. :from interview

It is a mutual thing and if you try to work hard to create something of value others will try to help you.

Sadly many directories subscribe to the Hedir philosophy.

Give me. I am greedy. Give me. Give me. Give me.

Directories list sites. Good sites do not generally list bad general directories.

The biggest problem with most sites these days is that most try to extract profit without building any value.

Sure you can do that if you are technologicaly gifted or know the right people, but deleting large portions of a database because they do not link to is probably the wrong way to "build" a directory.