Originally Posted by AVC

Trusted links should carry a lot of weight with Google and they do, I had a well known influential technology executive link to one of my forums and we rank for that term based on the keywords he used in his anchor text, and that is just from one quality trusted link.

It is all about the profile Google builds not only on the website linking to you, but now Google is building profiles on webmasters also, so try to keep this in mind, that all your sites and your trail on the web is quite important, your name means a lot and your history is going to determine what your name is worth down the road.

If you want to protect your name and websites integrity (reputation with Google), use no follow on links contributed by the public, and don't give an editorial link out unless you believe in it and endorse what you are writing about.

Google is making webmasters and their reputations part of the search algo's and if you want your work to show up in Google, clean up your act and follow their guidelines.