Bidding Directories - WTF?

Directories are a quick and dirty way to get a few backlinks to your website. Their importance is going down, and I suspect the next Google update will limit their effectiveness even more. I'll probably still submit to directories, especially the ones with higher pagerank (giving them more "authority" in the Google algorithm). Unless the directory is doing something extremely egregious to violate Google guidelines, the extra link can't hurt. I even get a small amount of traffic from directories.

But bidding directories? I've never used them, and with Google's promise to crack down on the buying and selling of links, bidding directories have become completely useless. There isn't a more open or blatant violation of the new prohibition against buying and selling links. It's fairly easy to identify them, and Google may go as far as completely banning them from the index.

Webmasters, however, are still out there bidding for high placement in these directories, even with all the warnings signs. Why risk having Google label you as being part of a "bad neighborhood" for a single link that doesn't provide any traffic and soon won't even be sending any link juice? If you're a webmaster and you're still purchasing links in bidding directories, you are a SUCKER. And an idiot. And your clients should fire you.