Question on Google linking policy.....

Hi

Maybe I'm just too stupid to find it....

But Google's webmaster guidelines don't say much....

On backlinking, it basically says 2 things:

1. anything automated is out.

2. would you do it this way of search engines did not exist ?

which is a fat help...

because, as someone pointed out on Matt Cutt's blog....

people were paying for links before Google came along.....

now Google made it illegal.

Soooo

that leaves me with the question:

what does Google imply by "not manipulating search results ?"

does that mean i am not allowed to link to my own site from anywhere ?

what about articles ?

i asked this question earlier on google's webmaster forum....

a wise crack told me....

NOT MORE THAN ONE OR TWO A MONTH...

now why didn't i think of that....

anyway....

what about linking from social profiles ?

submitting rss feeds ?

posting in forums ?

submitting to directories ?

every link u create can be seen as an attempt to "manipulate the system"...

hell if you submit a blog to technorati you create more than 20 links instantly.....

so what i want to know....

Is there any place on the web where this information is presented in detail ?

I mean...if you want to make a law, you have to STATE the law....

not that the 900 lbs gorilla is currently held accountable for anything it does.....

I recently had a domain banned ....

and there was no links to bad places, no selling links, no bad content....

it could only be the backlinking.....

i did put some effort into it....

now altogether i put around 2000 hours into promoting it....

wasted.

and i do not want to repeat that stunt.

SOOOO

where do i read the "law"....?

please help

thanx

pj