Looks like Wordpress.com has gone pro-spam

I just checked about 20-25 of the links and they all appear to be down. Either listed as pulled to TOS violations or listed as inactive. It appears that this post got the attention of the correct people.

I want to clarify though and said that I have never claimed WordPress.com to be perfect. I don't think any free blogging host can be. I've just said that, when compared to BlogSpot and other free services, that they are much better.

They have several fundamental differences, including the banning of Adsense and other advertisements, that greatly reduce the amount of spam and they have, in my experience, been responsive to these issues.

I am, however, disturbed that your spam complaints went unchecked until they were posted. I will definitely raise this shortly with some contacts I have at the site.

It is also worth noting though that most of what I've written on the subject of WP and spam blogs is fairly old and likely in need of an update. A project for another day perhaps.

Thank you very much for drawing attention to this (though I really am not comfortable with any linking to spam). Keep fighting the good fight and let me know if I can help.

I really am not comfortable with any linking to spam

In this case I don't think it does any harm, because a) the links are no-followed and b) the sites are on wordpress.com so presumably malware-free. You can't really write this sort of post without linking to the blogs in question as proof of what you're claiming.

I wonder whether the replacement of the 'archived or suspended' page with a non-specific, thrown-together-in-five-seconds 'This blog is inactive' page is down to not wanting to get into the question of whether the offending blog has actually violated the ToS? If you were accused in public of ToS violations, and it then turned out that your suspension was a technical glitch or human error, would you have a case for defamation?

I have the same opinion as yours on this. What you said is true.