For sure - I've seen eCommerce sites intentionally bloat category pages with tons of written content for the sake of not appearing thin. That's definitely not the experience that users want. I will say though that I've tended to see a little bit more of objectivity specifically on eComm sites with the algorithm being more forgiving on sheer volume of content (though not in this case).
It's definitely hard and algorithms will get better with time as Google understands more and more of the web, but in the meantime, give us a heads up so we can fix it :)
Definitely not every detail. Even a simple - "Penalty for duplicate content," "Penalty for thin content," or "Penalty for low quality content," would provide some context. Was it manual or automatic? These are all "best practices" that most spammers know but since Panda is a broad algorithm we have no context on which portion is hurting us. And I would say most Panda clients we've worked with have unintentionally been caught up by duplicate content, etc.
I agree there Kalium...Google is a company of scale and they think in broad strokes (part of why they are so successful). I don't think I'm asking them to tell us everything about how it works but they managed to create a messaging system with Penguin penalties so what is it about Panda that makes that a harder task? I'm definitely more attached to this than most so I know it might be an anomaly but as someone who is encouraging clients and sites to create the type of content Google wants and values, it's hard to see a site trying to do it right, potentially making mis-steps and being completely lost on what to do next.
Thanks John! Appreciate the support...I'm not saying we didn't miss anything but after banging our heads against a wall for 9 months, at least a small confirmation of where we stand would help. These are real people making tough decisions about their business because of it and it's not the case of them spamming or trying to manipulate Google in this instance.
It's definitely hard and algorithms will get better with time as Google understands more and more of the web, but in the meantime, give us a heads up so we can fix it :)