Leave the door open and look who comes in from the bushes... hehehehehe. Heya David, feel free to pass through more often. Tip jar is by the door.
I tended to agree with you then, still do, that by "making your point" through related phrases, concepts, and ideas, (sounds "natural" to me), rather than by repeating yourself over and over again (density?) you'll stand a far better chance of being considered more important.
And while I agree that link spam is a primary concern, if not
the primary concern, I'm not so sure Google is going to drift away from their reliance on links that don't get
classified as such. Actually, I tend to believe that much of the "hub-bub" of late about certain pages getting deindexed has much to do with this.
Dave