Here's something we rarely see discussed in anything even approaching an adult manner: How effective are so called "black hat" techniques for long term sites?

Generally these topics devolve into name calling and silliness from the vociferous "play by the rules" crowd but it's an interesting question if you can rise above any moral/ethical debate and look at it from a clinical point of view.

The whole thread is pretty interesting even though young as yet, here's a snippet from speedle who started the thread:

Google algos to stop blackhat technques are a myth. I have proved this over the last three years.
Google relies on their army of unoffical seo investigators to report blackhats.
The only site I have ever had banned was when I mentioned the url here.
Say no more it speaks for itself.

So, are high risk seo sites sustainable?