What A thread! A regulated market place will not work but force people to seek alternatives. With Google on a MAD rampage anytime, what works today might not work tomorrow. The consumer is always the best judge of quality and I think it should stay that way. When you try to regulate common sense, people stop thinking and that's bad for everyone. I am not a linking provider, but as an avid consumer who have spent thousands of dollars over the years on this forum, my insights might help with any perceived problems in the SEO market place.
The following questions have not been answered:
What exactly is wrong with the current SEO marketplace Section?
Do management feel like too many sub-standard providers are allowed to start services?
I have searched high and low, and I am yet to find a reasonable thread listing what the current problems are. If the problems are not clearly identified, solutions are just meaningless.
My observations about providers:
1- The selling thread stickies are too many and contributes immensely to the confused look of that thread. I know the forum makes a great deal of money from those stickies, it needs to be better streamlined.
2 - The current market place is robust and competitive, and that's just the way it should be in a capitalistic society. Regulated market place only creates temporary monopolies and that my friend would not benefit anyone. Backlinking is a toxic game, and Google is determined to cut us down to size, lets not make it easy. Many providers are offering what they've tested and think might work for ranking your website. If no rankings are achieved, you only get to full me once. I'm leery of monthly packages (unless for very private blog networks) because even the provider is just trying to game the system and no one is an expert.
3 - Lately, I have seen some questionable threads approved, but hey we all have to eat and I know some people have silent alliances with influence here. The moderator that approved any thread should be more forth-coming with proper reviews, if you really want to help newbies and other buyers.
4 - Currently, some people are ranking sites and some people are making good money including the forum owners with the current setup, why then do you need a monthly pre-defined monthly SEO section? Backlinking is no more a "legal" sport according to the monster we helped create (Google), so why is everyone pretending to know the holy grail formula to permanent ranking.
5- We need ways to reduce false reviews that only promotes questionable sellers. After many years here, I can spot the fake reviews and questionable posting. That I think is a bigger problem, as unsatisfied customers might just stop logging-in. How do you regulate questionable promotion of a sales thread is a problem management needs to figure out.
A robust market place guarantees innovation, and that my friends is the best thing we need in this evolving game of hide and seek! We currently do have some fine sellers and I hope they do not get lost in the shuffle.
As this debate rages on, don't forget to consider the opinions of the consumers, the buyers of these services. Contrary to what many here think, most of these services are bought by people in the game for a while with some knowledge about SEO. We have an idea what brings good results and some of the mandated link types are now very toxic in Google eyes.