Why are Link Farms Bad?

Come on, what is so wrong with link farms? I can't see why the search engines dislike them or disregard them. It still requires effort. Why are they considered cheating?

Anyone can relate to this? Don't know what it actually is, but as you said, its hated i beleive. And if your seen doing it, i dunno, sometihing bad will happen :p

I don't think the engines hate 'em but just don't give them any creditable value as far as outgoing link value. Since all the links on the page are none relevant to any particular topic the page has no value either. These type links don't add any value or weight to inbound links to your site. Bottom line is why waste your time when no traffic or site rankings would result. ;)

Good point. Lack of credibility would be a good new definition to use in explaining it.

By the way, the simplest definition of a link farm is:
sites created and maintained solely for the purpose of constructing links between member sites

for people who are new.

For me.I think search engine consider a link which is related.Try to look at it a Web design to Appliances.