There are 100's of other good directories - we have a long thread here at WPW that lists most of them. Some of them are a free listing service, most follow a different "business" model to DMOZ. To get a DMOZ listing is not that important, IMHO (ohers must disgree or we would not have this thread)

I think you might have missed kricptons post:Most sites get listed well within a "year or two" - ~2000 get listed every day (what other directory does that?). I think I even listed one site in a matter of seconds (the submission arrived as I when between pages --- so I listed it!!!).

CBP

There are plenty of controls in place internally to deal with this. Are you familair with them?

There is nothing wrong with an editor listing their own site, providing it is done explicitly and within the guidelines.

I certainly listed my own site and as I said in a previous message, I also listed all my "competitor's" sites (they were not even submitted!!!).... the only advantage I go is that my site was listed for a whole day longer than my competitors :-(

The sites that I am associated with are all declared internally at DMOZ. I am not an employee of WPW or any associated companies...I am not even in the same country, but am just a voluntary mod here --- I even declared WPW on my list of affiliated sites inernally at DMOZ with a description of my involvement to keep it "above board".

Most editors are above board.

Don't jump to conclusions that all editors have sites - I know several DMOZ editors personaly - many are teachers, doctors etc, have no sites of their own, have no idea about Google rankings - they just have an interest and some knowledge in the area

CBP

Jim no hostility here to WPW as a whole... my posting style, ethics, and words of wisdom are clearly evident and seen in others each time I come back... I greatly assisted in creating WPW into what it is because I was out-spoken.

The motive of the news article and this thread concerns me greatly though... these are not demonstrations of professional conduct, not in forum etiquette and certainly not in professional reporting.

IMHO there is but one other web forum at the caliber of WPW - that's WebmasterWorld - and I believe both must strive to be leaders in knowledge sharing and allow other less credible venues to tolerate sensationalizing just to score points.

I doubt much thought was given to professional conduct in writing the WPN article and thread starter... well at least from an iEntry perspective.

The bias twist and sensationalism did what it was meant to do... invoke a response from newsletter readers and possibly get them to the forum to post. It caught my attention as well... and no where did I read an attempt to get official comments from DMOZ management... now let's twist this a bit more...

If WPW did a bias newsworthy segment "article and thread" centered around your organization and without getting your position in advance... and you learn of this "after-the-fact" once 4 million readers saw how corrupt your organization was (whether true or untrue) you would thoroughly enjoy that - correct?

Lots of good solid exposure - for a good cause!

It NEWS right!

I read WPW tag line as:

The World Forum for eBusiness Professionals

Join hundreds of eBusiness experts and your peers to exchange information, advice, tips and strategies on technology and business.

NOT

The World Forum for eBusiness Professionals

Join hundreds of eBusiness experts and your peers to share infromation of unsupported claims, half truths, one-sided reporting.

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As a previous "editor" for three different cats at Dmoz, I was quite shocked at the latest WebProWorld newsletter that arrived in my email box!

All the editors are *volunteers*; during the 18 months in which I donated some of my very limited "spare time", I - like the other volunteers - undertook a very thorough assessment of each website submitted, in order to evaluate its "quality" and the potential contribution the site might make to the global information landscape.

In a number of instances, there were times when submitted URLs were unreachable; these were not automatically deleted from the submissions list, merely shuffled down the list for accessing at a later time.

In other instances, the submission could only be described as complete crap. With the mission of the Open Directory Project clearly stating that the object was to provide links to quality material ...

Biblia, the Warrior Librarian
Warrior Librarian

It appears that being in DMOZ helps on Google only if you are listed high in the directory, which will cause Google to view you as an expert. A regional listing has some value, but not much.

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I was prompted to come here for the first time by an email - must have been the same one - as a DMOZ editall the title seemed irresistable. Glad to see cbp doing a fantastic job in defense.

Editors do abuse their position in DMOZ - or there would be no need for an abuse procedure. All editors are encouraged to be vigilent and report abuse and so can anyone else. Where allegations are proven the editor is fired. If you have a complaint about an editor's actions report them, don't whine about them where nothing can be done. I am a webmaster and have listed my own sites. After listing dozens of direct competitors at the same time. It isn't done deceptively - we declare our affiliations. All editors can list their own sites if they have the rights and the site meets the same standards as everyone elses - it seems a fair exchange to me for hundreds if not thousands of hours of unpaid work on behalf of the end users.

We seem to hear a lot of complaints about how long sites take to be listed. But no-one ever comes to forums like this to say their site was listed in a day, or a week, or a couple of weeks. As many sites are listed within hours or days of submission as are hanging about for months and years. It all depends on the category, how much spam is in the way, how easy the site is to list - it is properly titled and described and do the title and description actually match the site, for instance. When you consider the sheer scale of the submissions received these complaints are few and far between by comparison. Four million sites listed? Not bad considering it is entirely the work of volunteers using their spare time.

When it comes to editor applications, and receiving no reply there was a bug a while back. There is nothing to stop anyone trying again - some editors have taken several attempts to get in. But if your primary aim is to list your site then run, forget it.

Like many others a large proportion of my work these days is running through categories clearing out junk, spam, and duplicate submissions. People submit their site a dozen times wasting an editors time that could have been spent listing the first one. As far as I'm concerned that puts them in the low priority bracket and others will get looked at first - fair's fair, if the others follow the rules and submit once, why should they be penalized because some idiot wastes an editor's time.

Yep, we're different. We're unique and there is no point in having yet another pay directory. We're also free - what do you want for nothing!

Keep up the good work cbp :-)

I submitted my site to DMOZ last year and am still not "in there." In fact, I just tried to check again and it came back with "check your search in..." and it listed all the major search engines. Guess what? My site is in all of them, so what's the benefit of getting into DMOZ? I don't understand. Should I worry about this? Thanks.

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DMOZ - biggest joke on this earth. I was an editor for them at one time myself. They removed my editing rights because I was inactive for awhile. I wrote them and explained that there was a death in the family and a serious heart attack to boot. Alot of things went undone during this time period. Never even got an email back from them after several attempts.

I also have been trying to get one of our sites listed with them and it has now been almost 2-1/2 years. During the first year I was resubmitting the site until I realized this just moves you back to the bottom of the pile. So I left it alone. Everytime I checked on status, I was told it was waiting. The next time I would check it was somehow deleted, so I would resubmit and send it back to the bottom. It has been almost another year - still not listed and editors are awful snotty when you try to check status.

What a big joke. They definitely need to change their system.

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I'm so thrilled to see this topic! As a web developer/marketer it is my responsibility to get my clients listed in DMOZ. DMOZ has done nothing short of deny my clients' rights to be listed in the directory. Client after client is left with months of no response and therefore no listing. It is time for DMOZ to pull the plug. There are very very very few editors remaining with any of the altruistic motives with which DMOZ was originally created. www.villagetraditions.com, www.orsracksdirect.com. www.pennwaste.com, www.pranastudio.com, www.worldcupsupply.com ...and on and on. I dutifully resubmit every 5 weeks or so with no response whatsoever. I am an editor at skaffe.com and get back to questions within 48 hours, there is no excuse for this negligence. Virtually all editors at DMOZ are in it for their own personal website rewards...don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Don't be such a fool trying to twist my words. I didn't say that dmoz doesn't reach its goals because my site wasn't listed.

If a directory is full (that´s what you´re saying) then the editors should simply say that it is full and not come up with some lame excuse.

In this page: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

it says: "submitting the same URL more than once is not permitted" however, there are many sites with multiple listings. Obviously something is wrong here. (tip of the iceberg?)

Doesn't anybody at dmoz realise their directory is always about a year behind schedule? In other words,. if a user searches for something, he won't find anything that is newer than a year. Great service people!


Oh well, I don't see the purpose of even trying to submit to dmoz. If you want to give it a shot, go ahead, but it´s obvious that you´re totally at the mercy of the editors.[/quote]

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There are 1000's of sites with mutiple DMOZ listngs. What is wrong with that? It is within the guidelines. Editors will list a site in more than one category if they think the quality of the content is worth it.

Why is there no point? It only takes a matter of minutes to do so. It costs nothing. Submit and forget. Yes you are at the mercy of an editor - its a human edited directory!!! If yo do not want to be at the mercy of a human editor, go to another directory. If you have a really good site thats adds value to the category and are lucky, it may get listed even if you do not submit. I list more sites from searching google than from the pool of submitted sites

ewhitaker
I don't quite follow your logic either. How is it a big joke if your site is not listed? Surely it can't be the biggest joke on this earth - I know some really funny jokes - would you like to hear them?

If they were undone, maybe they weren't done right (ie guideline compliant) in the first place? Maybe when you reapplied, your previus edits were checked?Maybe that is why you never got reinstated or never heard back? (I have no inside info on this one)

When will the DMOZ whingers have some constructive to say?

CBP

A third or so the sites I have listed were never submitted - don't recall any of them saying thank you as they never had to wait.

They all added real value to the category.

CBP

qoute:

"Its is obvious from your post, that your whinge is based on you not understanding DMOZ and DMOZ not meeting YOUR service expectations - in that case, I suggest to request arefund .... oh, hang on a minute, its free!!! "

why don't you explain to them what thir not understing?

Just remember you said it was free!

qoute from DMOZ:

http://dmoz.org/about.html
"The Open Directory was founded in the spirit of the Open Source movement, and is the only major directory that is 100% free."

Here's what their about.

Remeber they said it TOO.

quote:

"Obviously you are looking for a free listing service from DMOZ. As
DMOZ does not provide this service, can I suggest you go elsewhere."

Then why does DMOZ and you say it's free?

Oh yeah you just contradicted yourself and the DMOZ.

Quote:

"Other direcories have a free and paid listing service. An editors job is not to review sites. An editors job is to build a category of resources ..."

Don't you think we submit our sites to help the editors? If the category isn't the I request for it and ask to help, but nothing is ever done.

I know their are some spammers out their, but they put them at the end of the line every time they resubmit. So how come the editors aren't putting us in for years?

we should be moving up in line when we wait so long, and the spammers always stay at the back. Was I spamming when I waited 6 months and asked about my site?

If you waited six months for a response and asked again you wouldn't be spamming, you would be courious and caring about what is going on. Also many people here have tried to help and been rejected.

qoute:

"Why are you bothering to monitor it. The standard advice is submit and forget ... move on."

I can notice it on goolge search.
do a dmoz search on anything you want. find a web site. Now type in that company name at google. In the top of google's first page(Not always, but more often than not). You can also type in the directory name, at google if they have any SEO they will be on the top of those pages too.

So when you know that don't ya think we should care. I know I care about what I'm doing. And it sounds to me almost everyone else here does too, or else they wouldn't be so worried about this.

how many people our editors at DMOZ and also work in the SEO world?

Quote:

"Maybe because we have to deal with so many who expect something for nothing and have a major misuderstanding about what DMOZ is about."

I thought it was free and I aslo tried to help, but it's not open.

Why don't u explain what the DMOZ is about rather than skiping over it. what is this "...major misunderstanding..." we have?

Quote:

"I don't see you coming here correcting factual errors. Have you counted how many not true statements have been posted in this thread."

By who?

Qoute:

"You are showing your misunderstadings. DMOZ (like any other "business") does listen to its users ("customers") ... webmasters trying to get a listing are just not the user/customer. The users of DMOZ data are the user/customer."

Customer = Google, and other search engines using their database.

How can sites for example like carpet cleaning companies, Archetecture firms, Reastraunts in local areas and other sites like this haven't been listed?

and don't blame it on developers, because we submit it, we are doing it for are client who might not be very web savy or just doesn't want to do it. When you see the same person registering more than 1 site maybe it's because they have made more than 1 web site each for a different company. I only submit a site when it's finished (or shall I say at completion of version 1.0).

Submitit and forget it!

I think they mean if you submit it then forget it!
Because we all know if you submit it nothing ever happens.

Okay, lets try and address your misunderstandings, but this is getting tiresome...
I did not contradict myself, but probably should have made myself clearer - by free listing service, I mean the mentality that exists that DMOZ should list every site submitted, that it somehow owes webmasters something. I should have left the word free out - and said something like DMOZ is not a listing service there for the benefit of webmasters - other directories provide that service for free and paid.

Yes you do and we know that, but the pool of submited sites is just one of many resources an editor can use to build a category. The point I have made several times is that it is the worst source and an inefficient use of the limited time a volunteer editor has.

kricpton answered that with the reasons above - there is already to much repitition in this thread.

I have no idea, but of the editors I know none are SEO's. I assume there are some.

There are about ~4000 sites using DMOZ data (not just search engines - none of them are complaining!!

Have you read the thead - I have done that several times....

I guess you have not read the thread - if you have, you will see all the factual errors being corrected!!!

Another factual error. ~2000 sites a day get listed. Thats nothing ever happening?? ... that makes DMOZ the fastest growing directory out there - nothing else comes close to this number.

CBP

I submitted to DMOZ each of my 3 sites, starting about 2 years ago. After about 6 months, I sent an email to the editors at DMOZ, no reply. Of course there are other similar sites to mine already listed in DMOZ. I dont know why they got listed. I keep my expectations low for ever getting listed into DMOZ.

Editors are encouraged not to reply to emails.

The site in your profile has been not been accepted for a listing.

CBP

I'll just point out two things about your post.

1. You (nor your clients) have any right to have their site listed on DMOZ.

2. Resubmitting your sites is about 180 degrees from what you should be doing.

I'll be the first to admit that DMOZ has its issues. Being seemingly slower than molasses is one of them; it appears to be one of the drawbacks from attempting a directory of this size.

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I have submitted my site to a category in which editor is our competitor I tried many time but he never approve our site. This kind of biased opinion of editor is also effecting goodwill of DMOZ

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A general comment:

All things being equal for growth of DMOZ over the years in website submissions, listing inclusions, editor applications, editor acceptance, following the guidlines provided (or ignoring them) and the ability to act on abuse... this organization is thus far, by far, the best available.

If in doubt: establish a non-profit directory and we can review your successes and failures each year and do an on par comparison.

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If this is because you have proof of abuse... report it.

If this is because your website is pretty much a re-harsh of currently listed websites - in all fairness to the editor, they are likely following the guidelines provided.

Being superior to existing listings, offering a unique perspective, or possibly using technology to take text information to an interactive level... will almost guarantee inclusion.

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megri

Which site(s) are you talking about. 2 of the 3 sites in your signature have 3 listings in DMOZ.

CBP

Objectives achieved... increase in posts & new members ;-)

I thought the same way as many of you, that it was impossible to get listed with Dmoz.

When cpb became a Mod here and I found out he was an editor with Dmoz, I thought I would take the initiative and ask him about getting listed. He gave me some good advice & also directed me to the Dmoz forum. Since then I havent had a problem with any sites I submit being listed.

I'm not going to preach its virtues, to me its jsut another privately edited directory, one that is maybe a bit tighter than most, but entirely their perogative to do so.

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Thanks for all who shared (blasted) their valuable experience on DMOZ. I just had an online store all setup. Submitted to DMOZ directory for a month and once hoped to be listed. Looks like I have to give up the hope on it. You guys save me lots of time, energy to keep checking back.

But then, how do we know whether there is an editor on a category?

On the other hand, I wonder why the editor would like to do the voluntary work of approving the listing? After all, it looks like tons of work if there is no tools helping them to detect whether a site is dead or a submission is repeated. Don't you think it is a HEAVY work?

deluxar

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I hope you are giving your clients a refund. Thats why they are not listed. You have really messed things up for them!!!

CBP

I brought up this point months ago - if dmoz is 'slow' then they have made it so. I object to the thinking. 'oh, it's free, so stop complaining.' IT IS NOT FREE! There are many free directories out there BUT dmoz seems to be quite crucial to google rank and listings - otherwise people would not bother. Waitng perhaps years for any entrepeneur is NOT FREE. It is time consuming and time wasted.

Good results? Baulderdash! If it takes a year to get listed, then how does this help the serious user find up to date information in their field?

There are no excuses for delays. I applied as an editor for 'desktop wallpapers' due to the long waiting time. I've won numerous awards for graphics, but yet was told this category had too many editors! Too many? Then why the endless wait (6 months so far) if there are so many?

Dmoz needs to change to the pay per inclusion program. Even if it were a few dollars it would clean the system up. Useless sites would not get submitted. Editors could be paid and, being paid, have to deliver results.

Download.com instituted a pay per inclusion for software on their site. Previously it was a free for all. By asking $70 per submission, all they did was to remove the crap, enhance the site considerably and make it possible for us serious software vendors to get noticed.

If google insists on relying heavily on the open directory well it is relying on a very inefficient and corrupt system.

To me criticising a system for it's obvious and outrageous flaws is not 'Dmoz bashing'. It's like those who object to Iraqi children getting bombed being accused by MSNBC, Fox news, LA Times, NY Times etc. et al. as being 'unpatriotic'. It shows a jigoistic and parochial mindset that has little to do with day to day reality. Just because Dmoz is free doesnt make it a no-criticism zone - simply because so many businesses rely on it, it must be prepared to take the criticsim that is an inherent part and process of any serious business. As a public media outlet there is no reason they should be a sacred cow and not held to scrutiny, even if it is uncomfortable.

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CBP wrote: True, but to give credit to the other school of thought, in what venue would users complain? Forums? Users that would be in a forum that facilitates those type of topics are generally webmasters and such, ie in WPW. Doubtfully anyone looking through directories would rarely write an email to complain it wasn't "thorough" enough. They would just keep surfing to the next directory.

The problem, whatever it may be, isn't visible to users. They see sites in the directory, but they don't know/care how it got there. They don't know if they are missing out on quality because of alleged preferential treatment or editors asleep at the wheel. (whatever the case may be)

My point, and I'll say it again, to anyone frazzled over not getting listed in DMOZ, is just go on to the next directory. There can still be success in getting traffic in other directories and SE's, without DMOZ. Yes it can help, but so can much more.

I will say I was a bit surprised to read a moderator making a statement about wpw's administration's choice of this topic/article being 'unprofessional'. It seemed sort of undermining, maybe it's just me. My thoughts were, this isn't CBS (thank heavens), this topic is in keeping with the purpose, to inform and discuss what's happening in the community, including opinions -- from what appears to be the consensus in this case. Discussion and sharing opinions/frustrations may lead to a solution, or perhaps not. It's worth a try!

With that said, I also commend taking the time to edit 40 categories, and striving to be efficient for DMOZ. I really respect that! Like you said, time may better be spent doing that than the activity here, in light of the fact that the massive opinion in these forums won't go away without some type of action or review on ODP's side. I can't see an alternative...

_____________
You down with ODP -- yeah you know me.

Unfortunately, DMOZ is based on the "Open Source" philosophy and as such "free".

It is administrated by Netscape Communications Corporation http://dmoz.org/socialcontract.html

...talk to them about how open source is wrong! :-)

BTW Yahoo has a ton of "useless and dead links" in their archive... paid for isn't a better answer - just a different one.

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Thank you for some intelligent comments in the context of all the unconstrictive ones.

Don't forget that bashing is the tradition in forums (eg my rankings droped and its Googels fault) - positive comments and posts just do not happen (someone above mentioned there are no thanks from those that get listed in a few days)

I have yet to see anything constructive and practical in this thread that DMOZ could take on board to consider - its all bashing and whinging. Most of the whinges and bashing stem from problems that is not of DMOZ's making.

CBP

I think the point of frustration for these posts is derived from this quote from CBP:

"go in to work on a category"

this just simply seems not to happen as much as it used to in the past and many webmasters are "disappointed" by this. I agree with all the posters that I wish our submissions were taken into consideration more often, but CBP is correct it is TOTALLY up to the editor to make that category what it is.

CBP you should understand that is a category is obviously under developed or even worse not even maintained anymore all we can really do as webmasters is complain that it could be better. I don't think it is "bashing" by any means.

I also agree that there are PLENTY of DMOZ editors that still utilize the site for their own gains and I don think that is right.

By the way CBP are you a DMOZ editor? NEVERMIND, I see that you are CBP.

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DMOZ did no make it slow - all the crapy submissions, poorly written submissions that need rewriting, submission to wrong category's, multiple submissions made it slow.

It is free

You obviously have missed all the threads we have had here at WPW on how unimportant DMOZ is to a Google ranking. DMOZ does not give a damn about search engines ranking for a site.

CBP

I have been explicit in that I am since I first posted here at WPW. Its no secret.

CBP

I know this now, I honestly posted it to early before reading the whole thread, duh sorry.

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OK CBP I agree that no one has a right to be in DMOZ and the editor (if they are abusing policy or not) has total control of who they want to add, how often they add web sites and how they will add them.

One thing I don't understand is for those that have been already added into DMOZ through a submission or from the editor picking out the site online his/herself is the lack of UPDATES that DMOZ editors address. If your site is already in DMOZ then why can't the webmasters suggest changes under the DMOZ policy and expect some sort of response? Wouldn't this just be helping the editor out?

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Almost all of the update requests I get, are not accepted as they are outside the guidelines - most want more marketing hype added to the description. I do usually treat these with priority.

If the proper update request is made via the <update url> function, then I suggest you go to www.reource-zone.com to ask the satus. This is the way to communicate with DMOZ ediors.

Do you want to drop a hint as to the site (or PM me) and I can check?

CBP

CBP,

It was happening to me 2 years ago, for two separate clients, but lately I have not been worrying or concentrating much on DMOZ anymore. Achieving rankings within the three major engines is possible (believe it or not) without a listing within DMOZ. I still try to make an effort to submit a client within the DMOZ directory if they are not already in, but it is way, way, way down my list of initial list of tasks when I first sign a client for my services.

Thanks for asking to help though :) Who knows what DMOZ could be if every editor was as capable as CBP.

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I think the major problem is on DMOZ programmers, not on editors.
I was editor for 2 years on the beginning and it was nice job to approve or not approve sites, manage a directories etc.
The BIG PROBLEM was when I made a modify, approve, deny, USER (Site Owner) was not notified about what I have done, no comments for SiteOwner.
I tried to ask why, why is so hard to make some templates based on different situations and if needed EDITOR to ad some words and that words go to submitter email address. After all, DMOZ ask for email, but where it use it? I don't thnik on SPAM, just I wonder where it use it? Who benefits from this email address if DMOZ not use it.

To keep spammers at bay, this is very unlikely to happen.

CBP

You're missing some points in all these debates.

1. Each ODP category has a "report abuse/spam" link on top of it, where any visitor/site owner can go and send is observations to ODP staff.

2. Each ODP editor has a special link in his editor's menu pointing to a special ODP section where he can go and declare his affiliations to any site that he works with/has a business relationship.

Do consider that if a site has at least one section that is still under construction, his submission will get rejected (kept in unreviewed).

...and ODP editors are not encouraged to send e-mails to the submitter's address nor is it recommended to reply to any messages coming from the public side.

The basic rule is that you can not be an editor for a category that has one or more sites affiliated with you, but you can greenbust any category that needs help with its unreviewed queue.

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We first tried submitting to this organisation some 3 years ago. We have never spamed them but have given them a gentle reminder every six months, and just over a year ago we got quite heavy with them owing to the fact that being in business, we were getting a little annoyed that the equal size companies in our category ie our opposition, had somehow or another managed to get placements. From our point of view it certainly looks like favouratism. We had the nerve to point this out to them and all we really ended up with was a lot of e-mails backwards and forwards from what appears to be a bunch of somewhat childish individuals who seem to have nothing better to do than make all types of accusations. For these reasons we do not believe that any of our 6 sites will ever be listed because it is quite obvious that somebody in their organisation has to be somehow or another also involved in our line of business, and as we are small independent companies, they are doing their best to keep us out. Having had a winge, are we not correct in saying that this little organisation DMOZ is funded by Netscape, who in turn is part of AOL? If this is the case, there has to be someone amongst those that reads this that has enough clout to get to these organisations and make a responsible person aware of what a bunch of total amateaurs are attempting to run this organisation ie DMOZ.

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Hate to break the trend here, but as a 'user', I simply don't like ODP - not it's quality of content OR it's overall ease of finding what you are truly after. This Brahman concept that human editors have made this a better directory may have been true earlier on in it's development, but in the last couple of years I would have to disagree. I simply don't bother, and don't see any signs indicating that I will in the future.

Regarding search engine rankings; you certainly don't need ODP inclusion to consistently rank in the top 1-5 of the major engines; you need a niche market. ;)

You really don't want to be listed do you? if you made threats, there is no point hoping that someone from AOL management read this thread, the threats were probably refered to them anyway.

Another factual error in this thread. How about ~250 submissions of one of your sites. That is called spam.

CBP

Ive tried twice this year to get listed on DMOZ with absolutely no luck. My site is No 3 in Google for my search terms and as such is a very prominent and nicely designed site in my field.

I still wait for inclusion in the directory.

I also applied to be an editor in my chosen directory but was rejected for two reasons. Firstly i did reach their high editorial standards (for a whole three sentences) and secondly the category i chosse ws a spam magnet and unsuitable for newbies.

The second point is ridiculous as they market is unbeleviably competetive and as such will attract huge numbers of applications. Besides if it is a sapm magnet would it not make sense to appoint an editor. Its not like im some spotty 12 year old who couldnt cope ;)

All in all i've kinda given up on DMOZ almost as much as ive giving up on ever turbing up in Yahoo! searches.

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If its the site in your signature, then it is waiting for review.

No new editor is going to be let anywhere near a category that is a "spam magnet"

CBP

Shouldn't that be number 1? =)

As you say, Dmoz's search is pooh, so who's going to go through a 650,000 category directory.... Dmoz was the daddy of directories at the start, now it's just another along with many others.

Then most say, "A category has enough quality sites listed, so there's no benefit to add/accept anymore". As I said, if this is the case, why don't they remove the Add URL link in big categories to stop submissions? As Doctor Spock said - "That would be quite logical".

And for resubmissions to a category, why dont they add a facility to check the url submitted within a said category against the pending list, then say "The URL submitted is currently in the pending list for this category..... blah blah"....... Again, logical.

To add: This resubmission thing, who is to say that competitors are the ones not resubmitting sites just to stop those sites getting listed....
Just like Google doesn't count links from dodgy sites, thus competitors can not get sites banned...... if you see what I'm getting at.

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Regards, Peter
UK Web Hosting | Website Directory

CBP you are a fox in a hen house, you can certainly hold your own.

If only people would take their time and submit their sites PROPERLY then we wouldn't have to spend hours re-writing their descriptions, and correcting their title from "The Best Jewelry on The Net!" to "Abc Jewelry".

Just my 3,485,673 cents!

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IML Networks

I just got an update request from a site that asked if their keywords could be added several times into the description so they can rank higher in Google!!!! --- deleted.

CBP

That would be a heads up to the spammers so is unlikely to happen.

As I said several times, don't blame DMOZ for the lack of these types of things - blame the spammers who need to be kept at bay (several of which have already posted in this thread ;-)

CBP

I'm webmaster for a site that sells natural building stone. We've had a website since 1996. We were listed in DMOZ for years with no problem. But we were listed in a category that essentially excluded all but a couple of our stone products, landscape and flagstone was where we were. I filled in the change request and was ignored. I filled it in again a couple of months later and was ignored. I finally wrote to the editor and explained why I wanted to be moved to a more comprehensive category.
The next time I checked to see where my listing was, my website had been removed from the directory entirely!
After all these years we are no longer listed in DMOZ. And our site has not changed except to be improved and enlarged.
I never received a response to my requests, nor any notice that I was being removed or why. I went to their forum and found I could write to someone about an editor rejecting a site. I wrote, no response there either.
All I wanted was a more comprehensive listing. Now, for who knows why, I have been blackballed.
I agree with those who say DMOZ is definitely not open.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Sorry if this is too long.
Barbara O'Neill
www.nativerock.com

DMOZ does not give out this kind of information ---- as as been said upteen times in this thread .... its because the spamers need to be kept at bay. It has been said several times in this thread that editors are encouraged NOT to respond to emails from submitters.

Have you read this thread? - like the first post, you have got it wrong about what the open in ODP means.

BTW - your site was listed and the listing removed for why most sites are not listed ... insufficient unique content to add value to the category. All your duplicate submissions have created work for editors to remove. One submission has been left and is awaiting review. Has the content improved since it was first listed?

CBP

CBP
"BTW - your site was listed and the listing removed for why most sites are not listed .... Has the content improved since it was first listed?"

I assume you are replying to me, Barbara O'Neill, bongems, since you quoted me.
As I said, our site was listed for years by DMOZ. Apparently there was unique content during all that time. In fact, nativerock has the most information, pictures, descriptions, etc. of any of the sites which are our competitors, ie; Montana stone sellers.
And, yes, as I said in my first note, the only way the site has changed is to be improved and enlarged. Why was it removed after all these years, after I asked to be changed, when it was quite good enough to be listed up until that time?
Don't you see what I am saying?