Stop DMOZ!!

[lowster11]

I feel that DMOZ should stop and look at themselves and either re-format or stop. They have become very biased in my opinion and the only thing really backing them so far is :goog: . Please add your comments!

[Mitel]

What do you mean by biased? How?
What are you basing that on?

[lowster11]

Well, I am basing that on my own opinion and the opinion of others. It seems the only way to get a site listed is to be an editor or to know one. But, once again, this is based on the opinion of others and myself, which means it is not based on fact.

[Mitel]

sites get listed daily...how many I don't know, but a lot do. It has to do with the category...some of them have over 500 sitting in the review section. I know I won't even look at em. My computer takes too long to load that many. The reason there's so many is because of Spamming popular categories.
I still think the major problem is submitters, not all of them but the ones who spam, spam and then spam again by using different urls, titles all going to the same site. They tend to ruine it for others. Is there a site your having trouble getting in..Is this why your saying this?

[lowster11]

I will agree, spammers have ruined it for people who have sites that should get listed and don't. And there are sites that do get listed fast that are not related to the editors. I have had trouble getting lowster11.com in, which now will probably never get in due to stupidity on my part, for example, submitting more than once (same url though) to different catagories, the content and title of my site has changed, and trying to become a editor more than once.

[jfodale]

Well, just like any free service, its bound to be exploited somehow. I really don't see much of a way around it.

If you were in charge of DMOZ, what would you do to change it? You can't just fire the current editors. Reading new editor applications would take forever with such a limited staff. Not to mention you'd undoubtedly end up with a higher percentage of corrupt editors than what is currently there!

There are many corrupt editors there, yes, but there are also many editors there that actually try to honestly edit their respective category. I think we sometimes lose sight of that. I know I do from time to time.

I still believe that the best way to deal with DMOZ is to submit once and forget about it. If you're submitting to an honest editor, you'll be added some weeks/months later if your site is worthwhile. If you're submitting to a corrupt editor, well, you're not getting in period and its not worth banging your head against the wall for (maybe it was 5 years ago, but certainly not now).

But yea, I can definitely feel the frustration at times. I know its hard, but I think the best course of action is to just try and move on.

[Mitel]

There's always going to be corrupt editors, but the majority are not. I think the way to fix it is get rid of all the sites waiting to get included ( or clean out the back log) and charge for the listings, which will stop the spam. But then they have a problem with it not being free and editors who volunteer. So it's a no win situation.

http://www.lowster11.com is still waiting for review in Regional/Sacremento, so you still in the game. :)
The additional copies have been deleted but there's still one a waiting. I can't give you a time frame on it, it's not my area. Good luck tho.

[lowster11]

Very good points jfodale !! If I were in charge of DMOZ, what I would do to change it is have someone in charge of overseeing the editors submissions compared to the sites submitted to their category and see if the editor is in fact being bias or not. Then I would also get rid of the editors who do not submit or even check for submissions.

Some editors volunteer just to get their sites listed and then vacate the category, which in turn gives the DMOZ a bad name. While there are many volunteer's who do an excellent job there, there are also some bad seeds.
I'll be first to admit that I tried to be an editor so my site could be listed, but that was not my main motive, I felt I would have been a fair editor as I was with ZEAL. When I was a editor of ZEAL, if a site was submitted to my category, I would look at it's content as well as it's age, and if the submitter made a mistake, I would fix it so the site could be submitted.

[lowster11]

You both have made some real good points here, so I gave some rep !!

[jfodale]

Well I gave some rep back, haha. You also have very good points. Perhaps they are consistently bogged down with legal matters or w/e, but the staff should stop in and investigate a category at least once every three months... check in and see how active the editor is and what sites they've added recently. Wouldn't take more than a couple seconds.

And I agree again, they need to crack down on editors signing up, adding their site, and abandoning the category. It seems to me, at least, that this is the most common type of abuse at DMOZ and the easiest to detect and stop.

[bigdoug]

www.bransoncritic.org/ still waiting to be reviewed for its 23 month...lol

Dmoz won't let me be an editor so that I can include this site,

I finnaly resubmitted to a new catagorie after all these years, and still no one is reviewing it.


Yipeeee.....what a directory!


D

[clasione]

I really can't believe you are not in there yet..... You have been talking about getting in there for as long as I know you and that feels like a good while....

[lowster11]

I just spoke with a member of my blogger group, his site was submitted within 17 days!!

[lowster11]

By the way, just for fun, go to Google search and type in "Stop DMOZ" !!

Yeah baby!!

[jfodale]

By the way, just for fun, go to Google search and type in "Stop DMOZ" !!

Yeah baby!!

haha - nice find

[Sal Collaziano]

I've heard it can take up to 4 years to get included now. Only submit your front page once - and that's it. More than that, they're just going to consider you a spammer...

[lowster11]

It's just so damn frustrating, and the DMOZ has lost some rankings.

[Mitel]

and the DMOZ has lost some rankings.
What do you mean by that?...you mean Page Rank?