Welcome to the Escape Blog

Aaran Wall nails his colours to the mast (via a post at Threadwatch):

Let me tell you about the most common penalty Google uses. It doesn’t have a catchy name, and people generally refuse to talk about it because this particular penalty requires taking responsibility.
It’s much easier to blame the +-30 penalty, the Sandbox or the new 950
penalty than it is to accept that you’ve been nailed with the most
common penalty of all. What is it you ask?

It’s the My Site Sucks And Google Just Figured It Out penalty.