Everyone talks about quality inbound links from directories. What exactly is a quality link. The only two criteria I know of to judge them by is Theme and PR. Second part: Does it make a difference rather the directory is of the theme of the site you have ie) For example, does a one way inbound dating site directory of PR3 give you the same power (in PR and in SE wieght) that a general directory of PR3 does?

A quality link to me, is a link that delivers users who are actually interested in what my site's about. I think you're viewing links from a search engine point of view, but if you're getting well targetted traffic from your links, who cares what they think (banning shenanigans aside)?

A quality link needs to be on a page of related sites, with related content. It also needs good anchor text (preferably your targetted search phrase)

Visible PR is generally outdated by the time we see it but it is a reasonable indication of what Google thinks about a site.

I would say the most important thing is to have your link on a relevant page surrounded by relevant text (eg a gardening link embedded in a paragraph about gardening on a gardening page). Don't get too hung up on PR - by the time your link gets processed by Google, the PR will have changed...

Thanks... good reply and very helpful.