Hi

I think most rational people would agree with you. Set aside the moral issue and consider the inevitable damage.

Those with genuine, freely given links in forums, or who offer real support in exchange for their links will lose that value. As has been said, search engines will simply clamp down more and more. The road that Google have taken recently is just a start, they wish to return to the dream of links being nothing other than a freely given editorial vote. The fact they will kill a percentage of genuine votes in trying to achieve this, will not stop their pursuit of the impossible. They believe that is best for their real business, advertising.

This particular debate over forum links may not last long anyway, wouldn't be at all surprised if the push behind nofollowing blog posts is continued into forums. If that doesn't work, they simply devalue the lot.

So we should all be concerned, although not too worried about schemes that are likely to be short lived. Bettter to concentrate on replacing what we will lose in the process.