I personally like DMOZ, and use it frequently for finding new sites and information when doing research. Occasionally I'll end up going to a site that is no longer there or is useless, but usually I find what I'm looking for.

The opinions in this thread are naturally going to be nearly all from those who don't like DMOZ, because most of the people reading or posting here are either in the SEO business, or have a website that needs more traffic.

If your web site is a really good, useful site, it is probably already listed in DMOZ, or gets plenty of links from other sites, so the site owner is not here doing research on getting more traffic, and they have no need to hire an SEO firm.

On the other hand, if you've built a new site and you're trying to make money off of it, you've probably hired an SEO firm or you are here doing research trying to figure out how to get more traffic.

Well it seems that DMOZ wants the good sites in their directory, and could care less about the sites that are trying to get in. And as a DMOZ user, I think that's the way it should be.

In fact it would seem that the fact that someone is trying so hard to get into DMOZ means their site isn't all that great, since they aren't getting enough traffic from other sources.

I really don't think it's all that bad if it takes a few years to get into DMOZ. So many companies start up and go out of business, and so many sites come up for a while and then disappear. If getting into DMOZ takes a few years for some categories, that will just weed out all the sites and businesses that weren't even capable of staying alive that long.

Sure, SEO firms don't like it because they need to get immediate results for their clients. But as a DMOZ user, I am almost always satisfied with the results DMOZ gives me. And if I don't find what I'm looking for, I go to a search engine and try my luck with them.

It could be argued that the more SEO firms and webmasters hate DMOZ, the better job it is doing at keeping their garbage out of their directory. Sure, a few really useful sites get left out and some crap gets in. But in the end is it useful for users? To me it is.