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In a more innocent age, much earlier in this decade, bloggers traded links out of a sense of camaraderie. Over time, it turned into more of a quid pro quo: You scratch my back, I boost your pageviews. Now, blogs routinely auction off space in their blogroll. CollegeHumor, the IAC-owned juvenile-jokes site, has refined this business model even further. A come-on from CollegeHumor's marketing department encourages Valleywag to participate in its Linkswap program. Every link to CollegeHumor, it promises, will be returned one for one with a link to Valleywag. Thanks, but I think we'll pass.

CollegeHumor's clips are occasionally brilliant; they can earn their links through merit, not pageview payola. I'd hope they'd apply the same principle to us. We may be leaving money off the table, but something about this scheme's method of keeping score rubs me the wrong way. I'll hold onto the hope that this is CollegeHumor's most elaborate prank yet, and I've been taken in.

Update: The joke really is on me. CollegeHumor's Josh Abrahamson writes to inform me that through our publisher, Gawker Media, Valleywag's been participating in this program since last summer. I'm going to go take a bath now.