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I think it was Ben Franklin who once said:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

In the Google Webmaster Help Group we’ve been pleading for quite a while for them to make changes, here are two most recent examples, though there are many much older.

Here

And Here

Well, I’m going to stop my insane behavior and we’ll wait and see if they do improve the groups atmosphere. I’m not going to completely abandon the group, I’ll still help pull some honest folks out of the dulldrums (mostly behind the scenes) and I’ll throw in a post or two but until I see a sign that its going to improve, I’m chagning my patterns.

My Biggest Gripes are:

1. No way to cull the immense amount of daily repeat questions such as, “why doesn’t link: work?”, “where did my PageRank go?”, “How can I remove a page from Google?”
2. No method to sticky or at least keep official googler answers in one organized spot.
3. No method to dispel completely wrong statement.
4. No full time moderation or even moderator comments, for heaven’s sake all lesser webmastering forums at least have some volunteer’s that have been bestowed the name of moderator to at least add some sort of credence to their definitive statements.
5. Official googler involvement is dwindling to unacceptable proportions when you consider the vast resources a company like Google has when compared to the other forums. You would think they could afford one full time person to moderate, answer the simple repetitive questions, and of course step in and answer the tough questions.
6. And finally no charter with any teeth in it. “Where did my site go?” , “Am I banned?”, or “How can I contact Google?” will never be answered officially and should not be allowed to clutter up the boards.

Many other much more valuable suggestions have been made by much more valuable long time posters who are equally unappreciated as the free customer service support mechanism, and I suggest you feel free to read them.

Meanwhile, me and a few well intentioned others will continue our progress at the Google Webmaster’s FAQ site, and as always look forward to continued contributions from others.

In other news, Matt Cutts finally broke the veil of secrecy and gave us all some timely information that we could use. Contrary to his speculation, though the A-list SEO bloggers** didn’t pick up on the trend, it was noticed by several people in the Webmaster Help Group.

**Now Aaron has been referred to as an A-list SEO Blogger