Matt Cutts, Spam King at Google, had a blog post a few days ago about a new “trick” for reciprocal linking.
Matt is kinder than I am. This person is just an idiot. For one, reciprocal linking in the old, traditional way just isn’t effective anymore … and who would have thought? I mean, shouldn’t Google continue to give my site a boost when it is listed on a poorly formatted page with 500 other links and my site is sandwiched between links to sites for Discount Viagra, Free Casino Chips, SEO Experts in India, etc.
When will they ever learn?
The main reason I started the SEO Revolution was out of frustration. Frustration at all of the lies and misconceptions that are posted in forums, given as advice in teleconferences, and even taught in live workshops. "So why didn't all of this work?" " Why wasn't my site successful?" " Why am I still stuck in a rut?" 
relevant reciprocal linking is alive and well among niche and hobby sites. what does not work any more is link exchange with any junk site.
Sarah,
That is pretty much stating the obvious.
Hi Jerry, I did a double-take when I read this post, specifically when I read “Matt Cutts, Spam King”. I think of a “Spam King” as the top spammer, or the one that does the most spamming around. I couldn’t understand why you were accusing Matt of being a spammer until I realized that I think you meant Spam Fighting King or something like that. Nice blog by the way. ~ Steve