Directories can be quite beneficial for those trying to increase the number of backlinks. If PageRank is important, directory listings can help improve your score. Perhaps the most popular directory is DMOZ, an open directory project that employs human editors for the submission/approval procedure. The use of human editors is founded on furthering the quality of the directory content.

However, human prejudices can factor into the approval process, something that is hard to overcome if you are considering submitting to a competitive category. During the research process, I came across numerous statements about people having to wait months and even years before their site gets accepted into the DMOZ directory.

The following is an example I found on the SitePoint forums offered by Pavel Nedved:

“I know this is largely dependant on who the admin is for your particular category, but approximately how long is the average Submit -> Listing delay? I submitted in early June... should I check back at Christmas?” Pavel’s statement was a humorous look at the wait for DMOZ acceptance. But it begs the question: How long should someone have to wait before they are approved, denied, or contacted about either?

Depending on the amount of submissions a DMOZ category gets, users should expect to hear SOMETHING back from the human editors at some point. Because of the slow response times and rejections for unknown reasons, there has been an increasing amount of vocal displeasure aimed at DMOZ. Some question whether the intentions of a few editors are actually pure.

SitePoint poster Kimberly commented about her experience with DMOZ, “I submitted under a heading only to learn 3 months later that the #3 player in my market was the editor. So I picked another heading… at least I am in now. It is not a fair system.” Judging from Kimberly’s statement, it would appear that she was the victim of another’s ethical shortcomings. If editors allow personal feelings and competitiveness to affect their judgment, obviously they shouldn’t be part of the approval process.

This particular discussion led to one of the more damning posts about DMOZ I’ve read. JakeCop has had some negative experiences with the open directory and lets his frustration out on SitePoint: “Dmoz really is a corrupt system. If the editor in the category has a site in that same category, he'll simply deny any application in the interest of defeating competition… I submitted one of my major sites back in April, and don't expect to ever be listed… I even had one of my sites edited so that it went to a different URL, google bombing my main keyword to a competitor. Dmoz should be burned in the fires it was forged.”

Again, this is a case of personal prejudices and overlapping business interests interfering with a simple approval process; something that doesn’t have to be considered when an automated spider crawls your site. To be fair, every editor that volunteers to DMOZ isn’t going to mistreat your submission, although it may be awhile before it gets approved.

At the Cre8asite forums, Kensplace again gives some really good feedback concerning DMOZ and the approval process. Ken speaks about using DMOZ as a search tool and how the editor’s lack of punctuality and/or the one site - one submission standard can damage the effectiveness of DMOZ: “do you not think you would be even more satisfied if the millions of sites that didn’t make it into dmoz were available for you when you search? Think of all the bargains you are missing, think of all the information, research and technical data that is NOT available on dmoz due to its behavior.”

Granted, not every testimonial I read was negative. A thread on the Digital Point forums spoke of a DMOZ editor assisting a web site owner in the approval process. The poster had waited about 3 months and still no approval, so they decided to email the category editor. After receiving the mailing, the editor “promptly added [the] site to dmoz.” So there is still hope.

The thing I’m left wondering is if all it took was an email to get the approval going, what was going on the 3 months beforehand? Was the editor that busy? Or were they being negligent to their submission queue? Such are the risks when relying on human intervention.

__________________
Former WebProWorld Admin
IntentionalFoul.com

The way I understood the matter is that DMOZ is not a service for website owners but a service for the searching public. Think of all the sp@m you miss by searching in an edited directory! I agree it is not suitable for all purposes, but it serves well in many cases. I find I am searching more and more in directories and on globalspec for technical matters. I am fed up of being offered Viagra when I am looking for safety glass or something else!

__________________
Simon - Biogas, Rauchgasanalysator and Rauchgasanalysegerät

I've pretty much given up on DMOZ. Oh, I make the attempt to submit from time-to-time, but usually the categories I need to submit to don't have editors at all!

I've tried over a dozen times to get one of my client's sites moved to a more appropriate category or even get the description corrected with no success. (Again, no editor for that category.)

My clients are primarily industrial.

__________________
MAWells
www.web-kare.com

I was a site editor for DMOZ for a couple of years until i got tired of the juvenile antics of the next up the ladder site editor who would circumvent my site approvals in favour of his/her own. The way the system works is the higher ups on the root directories have editor priveledges over the lower editors and even if the category editor accepts the listing the next up the ladder can refuse and remove it. DMOZ is one of the biggest jokes going as some snot nose kid who doesnt have a clue can control a whole category just because he/she was first to accept it. There is no screening process for the editors so some 10 year old can be controlling a category that they know nothing about.
As a search engine forget it unless you want totally biased useless sites that promote the site editor.

snip...
"I submitted under a heading only to learn 3 months later that the #3 player in my market was the editor."

This is actually very similar to what I encountered.

I submitted my site and waited and waited and waited. while do 1=1 {wait();} endwhile

After several months - I tried submitting the site again.

I wrote several a complaints to DMOZ - and after several months... finally received a rejection letter stating my site didn't "fit the category".

After this - I submitted another site we had - under the same categories... but one that no one (in my industry knew about yet) - and the site was accepted - in all categories - within days.

A couple months later... I found out that the Editor for the categories I requested... was the owner of the #1 position website.

I have also had this issue with Yahoo... have since found out a Yahoo Editor (I think that's what they are called in Yahoo also) was a "friend" with the owner of the website in the #1 position - the same website which was listed in the #1 position of DMOZ.

You would think dirty tactics like this could not occur.

I have given up on dmoz. I tried to get my SEO website in and after months and months of waiting I asked in their forums and it turned out that my prices were using "," in stead of "." and therefore the site was rejected.

So I changed that, and waited and waited and..... nothing. I then decided that dmoz appearently is more governed by the self proclaimed greatness of the editors rather than by any logical rules. It seems that the editors feel powerful because they can decide for a website if they are in or out.

The whole goal of dmoz was never reached. I find sites with multiple listings as there is appearently no automated check on how many times the same site exists in dmoz. Dmoz is the perfect example of why human intervention without any control doesn't work. It´s close to anarchy.

Many people think that you need to be in dmoz, but it really is just a link. That one link won't make a difference.

__________________
FREE SEO ! Really? YES! All you have to do is implement it!
Follow me on Twitter PeterIMC

I have a "competitor" who used to work for me and now makes knockoffs of my fork lift ramps. A couple days ago i noticed that DMOZ says that copyright infringement will get you removed from the directory. now since they use part of my sales brochure as the page header on almost every page in their website i figured aha gotcha. i contact dmoz and was told there was nothing i could do to "prove" copyright infringement and as such there was no chance they would remove the offending site from their directory. further they are listed in a half dozen places in dmoz also offending against the terms and conditions to be listed.
while the editor i was talking to seemed a nice enough fellow it really doesn't seem that they make any effort to enforce their own rules.
to add joy to my life while my erstwhile employee has been able to list a number of times in dmoz none of my submissions has been listed in the last year.


Brian McDonald
Export Manager
W M Manufacturing Ltd
Redramps.com

I applied for my multimedia company to be in the DMOZ over 1 1/2 years ago. You can go to a message board to see if your accepted http://resource-zone.com/ . I went to that board asnd was told I was accepted over a year ago. I still haveen't been placed into the directory. about half a year ago I applied to become an editor since the editor wasn't doing thier job. I was rejected by the editor of that area. I found it strange that the same person that's not doing the job imediatly rejected me. I have over 20 other companies that I have submitted to them, and none of them have been put in the directory, but all of them have been accepted within a week of submiting. Un fortunatly the people who are listed get much better ratings in google. I think there needs to be a closer look at what is really going on with the DMOZ. Any company who canaccept you but doesn't post you because of competion, shady practices and so on should not be recognized by a company such as google or any other search engine for that matter.

I joined http://resource-zone.com/forum/ to discuss getting a clients site listed and I was told that they received my submission and I am not to inquire again for 6 months. Now, if these editors are so busy that it will take 8 months to get one site reviewed why isn't this category accepting applications for more editors? Additionally, one of the discussions on the aforementioned forum is how they select editors - seems that not every snot-nosed 10 year old can become an editor. One guy has been rejected multiple times and they won't be specific as to why. Seems like the dmoz is quite the little clique and some of us are just not "cool" enough to join in.

I submitted, waited 6 months and then posted as to the status. A rude editor told me that I'd been denied because my site was too much like so many others and not to waste time resubmitting. When so many sites sell the same thing, we're going to have some of the same descriptions and pictures. Why is that any different than any other ecommerce site that sells a popular item???

Another editor told me to resubmit to my local/regional section, so I did. In the nearly a year we were waiting to get listed there, our company decided to switch the PO we were using due to the congested traffic and the amount of time it took to pick up the mail each day. Doing so meant our mailing address was now a different town. We were denied because we listed a different town than the city we submitted to.

The original category I submitted to has not been, as far as I can tell, added to in all the time I've been watching. Granted, I don't have the list memorized but I do check it fairly often and I'm very familiar with the sites that are listed (they are competitors, so I "know" their sites) and I've never noticed any new names listed.

I'm told "we're only human volunteers and we do the best we can". Fine, I respect that, but if someone doesn't have the time or desire to do the job, then why do they volunteer or continue to keep the volunteer position?

__________________
~Beth

Wedding Invitations

Fan Wedding Programs

One of my domains, http://www.designingonline.com had a listing in DMOZ, (you can still see a link to it's position in the Google list of linked sites), then one day i noticed it was gone. I submitted several times over the past year and received no reply, nor has the site been added again.

The frustrating part is that there is no way to know why a change has occured and there is no way to counter what was done.

just today, I started using a thumbnail image site to add website thumbnails to certain links, but they use the DMOZ as a base and more than half of the legitimate sites I work with, aren't listed.

Those within DMOZ who do perform wonderfully are being poorly overshadowed because of many others who have let their own interests interfere with the job they freely accepted to do, but are doing more damage than good.

I agree, DMOZ is not OPEN. It can be slanted and very unclear. If there is a governing set of rules for editors, a better way is needed to see that they are adherred to.

Finally and meanwhile, I would rather that other search engines and businesses would stop using DMOZ as their base for listing sites. In that effect, one sour or tired editor could cause a website to virtually disappear from many seach engines. That's alot of power for an individual to be handed...without having anyone to answer to and without having to provide explanation of any kind...perhaps it's time for a revolution.

__________________
Web Design by David Nelmes, Webmaster - Designing Online, Inc. Home and Garden Design solutions, Online Magazine, Shopping Mall, Custom E-Cards, Home and Garden Resources and many more family oriented features. http://www.designingonline.com

I've attempted to be an editor several times. I can say as an editor that the rest of the "Community" is as harsh as a bath in barbwire. Not a single submission i made was not hammered to hell and back. I found that it was a big Egotist race to who can be the best DMOZ editor. Well being im not getting paid to deal with other peoples crap i left dmoz.

My most irritating moment was when they would not approve www.franchising.com into the directory because it was in affiliation with www.franchise-update.com. Now Franchising.com is a Franchisee focused site aimed at people looking to get into franchising. Franchise UPDATE on the other hand is a trade magazine that has been disributed for over 20 years and is aimed at Franchisors, IE. The owner of Yum Brands Food Chains. While both covered entirely different spectrums of the franchising industry it was refused. To me this is saying that PC Magazine cant be listed because Playstation Magazine is already in there. And being They are tied together by Ziff Davis only 1 can be listed.

So to make a story short. I havent had 1 single good experience with DMOZ.

B.Foley

__________________
Benjamin Foley
Web Development & Marketing
http://www.bfoleyinteractive.com/
bfoley@bfoleyinteractive.com

The DMOZ is run by the people who won't add sites to the listings that help them; so in general the DMOZ is a hoax and shouldn't be recognized as a open directory. Which brings me to my bigger question, are they giving us false information in their policies? from my experience their policies were instituted just like or constitution. Great ideas to give equality to all. unfortunatly for the DMOZ their policies are not inforced nor are they recognized by most editors of the DMOZ. You could even question if their name alone is false advertisment "open directory", that's a laugh.

I applied to become a DMOZ editor in my area of expertise.

Many of the included sites in my area didn't even exist anymore. Some listings were obviously not appropriate for a directory. The directory was organized poorly. And many of the top sites in the field were not included. (I worded my application far nicer than that :-)

I read all the requirements and studied the forum. I wrote succinct yet compelling descriptions for 3 sites (is that the # for the application? I forget) that are among the leaders in the field. I tried to convince the powers-that-be that I was not only an expert in my field, but that I love my field and wanted to make 'my' portion of the directory as useful to searchers as was humanly possible.

In less than 24 hours I was rejected as not having met their high standards...whatever those standards were.

They still don't have an editor. I guess nothing is better than something.

__________________
The best resellers membership site also has the best monthly newsletter. No ads. No pitches. Just great articles and free resale rights products! Reselling4Profit.com ...where YOUR profit is our product

I have try for year get sites into dmoz.
WE have no problems any other places
DMOZ always declined or listings and for no good reason.
It very easy see the editors are favoring there own sites.
DMOZ IS TOTAL UNFAIR!

DMOZ is a travesty. I have some very high profile sites that do terrific business as well as provide lots of information about specific topics. I've now had THREE sites rejected simply because either the "editor" deemed our domain name too advantageous (not mine, but think Cars.com or CreditCard.com) or the "editor" owned a site in the same category we applied for and simply blocked us.[/img]

I tried for quite some time to get one of our sites listed on DMOZ. Finally, I got tired of waiting and became the editor for the category we were trying to get listed in. I remained an editor for awhile, but finally dropped out when time became a factor.

From my experience with DMOZ, it has a wide range of personalities as editors. Most of the ones I worked with were serious about their work, were very helpful, and generally good people to work with. On the other hand, well, let's just say it takes all kinds.

Now we have several sites we have been trying to get listed on DMOZ again, but it's not happening. Anyone want to volunteer to be an editor?

DMOZ is a nonsense. As a directory it is useless and badly structured, as a search tool it is bug-ridden and ineffective. One of my sites has been waiting 17 months for review, another 6 months. Many of the sites that are actually in there are appalling, both in content and in presentation. I have no interest in having my sites in the directory, it's simply the link from the associated PR6/7 pages that I want. I have no idea what the editors actually do, but whatever it is it clearly isn't reviewing sites.

Here we go again - typical DMOZ bashing.

CRich - you need to first go to DMOZ and understand what the OPEN in Open Direcory Project actually means - bad title for article and bad journalism to misrepresent the "Open" - it has nothing to do with being open to accept listing, submissions etc

CRich wrote:This is based on the typical misuderstanding that DMOZ is some sort of listing service for webmasters. It is not.

Processing submissions is only a small part of the job of a DMOZ editor - its is the most inefficient and time wasting way an editor has to build category. I usualy prefer to initially ignore the submitted sites when I go in to work on a category. The sooner DMOZ turns off the <submit a site> function the better.

mawells wrote:
Where do peple get this stuff from? Every category has over 200 editors that can edit in it !!!!

Having no editor has nothing to do with it. Maybe the reason is not good enough for a move. Have you done the right think and checked for the reason at the DMOZ forum for it not being moved? Why come and bash DMOZ here - you are doing your client a diservice by spamming DMOZ with over a dozen requests.

PDemester
If you think that you have been disadvantaged by the editor being what you think is a competitor, there are polices and procedures in place to deal with this. What did they say when you went through these proper chanals? .... or are you just bashing DMOZ without having done this?

Thats called spam... you are putting yourself at a disadvantage.

peter(IMC)
I don't quite follow the logic here... your site is not listed and the goal of DMOZ was never reached.

The goal of DMOZ is being reached, its just your service expectations are not being met. DMOZ is not there to service webmasters.

What increase in value is there to DMOZ to list your SEO site? There are alredy a 1000 listed .... what is the point in having 1001 - the editor is better of going to other categories.

....and the problem with that is?

Huh? But, DMOZ is a human edited directory. If you wat automation, go to Google. Why would DMOZ want to automate? - we already have plenty of them

brian mcdonald
Which is right. How is DMOZ supposed to know which is the copy? Your competitor could be saying the same thing about you. I am sure the site will get dumped if there is some sort of legal proof. You need to pursue other avenues re the copyright and not blame DMOZ.

peakstudios
What were you told? Your site has not yet been "acecpted" ... you have been keeping the editors busy with all your spam duplicate submissions (if you are talking about the site in your signature).

Not true.

Absolute rubbish. That editor would have had nothing to do with it.

yellek228
I am getting a little tired of repling to factual errors - again is is just plain wrong.
Who said it will take another 6 months to get listed? Please get your facts right. You were told you can ask again in 6 months about the status if you were not listed - that has absolutly notng to do with when you wil get listed. If editors did not tell those over at resource zone to check back in 6 months, they will be spending all there time responding to status submission requests.

What was the response that you got from the DMOZ abuse reporting process to you complaint?

miss_beth
Which is correct. DMOZ is not a free listing service. DMOZ is trying to build categories of valuable rsources. What is the point in listing serveral sites in the same category that have pretty much the same content or offer pretty much the same product. What is the value to the DMOZ user?
So we come back to this one again ... if I volunteer at a soup kitchen one day a month, am I being lazy if I do not do 2 days a months. Is a volunteer editor being lazy if hey only add one site a month instead of 2? - they still have added value to the directory.

damarzee
Your site is not was removd and will not listed as it is just a collection of links - has no content of its own.

peakstudios
Back again for more. What false infrmation? You are the one above not being truthful.

Also you need to go and look up what the "open" in Open Directory Project means - get YOUR facts right.
_________________________________________________

Is not anyone getting tired to of DMOZ bashng? - espcially when its based on so many factual errors that have come out in this thread and none of tskis actually constructive.

Anyone also notice that it is only webmasters that whinge about DMOZ? I have never ever seen a single complaint from a DMOZ user.

To sum up:
1) Webmasters want a free listing from volunteer editors
2) DMOZ wants to build categories of valuable resources for the DMOZ user

These two are not compatible.

At the end of the day:
DMOZ is the largest direcory and no other directory comes close (almost 4.5 million sites)
DMOZ is the fastest growing directory and no ther directory comes close (2000 sites a day).

It is also free ... if you are unhapy about the service you get try asking for a refund.

CBP

I've been trying (irregularly) for over a year to get two totally different sites listed (one a collector's site the other my business). Totally different categories, one very specialised and the other quite competitive. Both categories have editors but no success with either, or even the courtesy of a rejection. Just nothing.
Total waste of space, just frustrating that quite a few other (mainly minor) search engines do seem to concentrate on their results.

Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but...

We've submitted over 30 client sites to DMoZ in the past 2+ years. All of the sites are very well designed sites with quality content. All of the sites have been under review for at least 1 year and many for more than 2 years.

None of the sites has been listed with the directory or even reviewed. I've posted threads for each site on the DMOZ editor forums and followed up ever 3 months (now every 6 months) on each and every site. Still nothing has happened.

The way that DMOZ is run is mind-numbingly stupid. I can't believe that an organization like this is allowed to have such a signficant impact on the search results for the largest search engine in the world. Doesn't Google recognize that something must be done about DMOZ or web professionals will eventually turn against them?

One thing I'm interested in -- how do you learn who the category editor is for your categories or whether or not one exists?

__________________
David Etheredge
SavvyDog Design
http://www.savvydog.com

I signed up as an editor at Dmoz the first day you could apply. It was early in 2000 I believe. First site I added to the category was my own. Did my best for years to keep the competition to a minimum, but had 10 of my own sites in that category. I also edited the fortune 500 company site for the company I work for. Want to find out why your sites are not listed. Sign-up as an editor in a very small obscure category,10 sites on it or less in the category,they won't accept it for a category with more sites listed on it. Editors has to give a reason why they rejected your site,with every edit they do on it,it will take you some time to sign up,because you have to find 3 sites that are not listed yet,then edit them. After becoming an editor,you can log in and check any category edits since day 1,or any editors edits he or she has ever made. Are they cooked? Big time!!!! The higher up you go in the DMOZ ladder the more cooked they are. One of the biggest is in charge of gambling http://dmoz.org/profiles/arkoid.html their profiles don't mean a thing,I used my wife's name and a e-mail address just for editing. One thing you can look for as an editor is what IP submitted a site and what IP edited the site. As a cheating editor, using dial up helps, different every time you dial up.
Yahoo editors,different story. They would lose their income if caught cheating. They have certain categories they edit,but sometimes are moved around a bit. I have 25 sites listed on Yahoo. 11 in one category. Want more then one site in a category on Yahoo. It's very hard now, with the recurring fee every year. YOU HAVE TO USE A DIFFERENT CREDIT CARD FOR EACH SITE SUBMITTED TO YAHOO IN THE SAME CATEGORY!!!! Use the same credit card for 2 sites in the same category and they will delete them both, bye bye $600 (ouch). Does it help to have your site on Dmoz or Yahoo? YES! I have dummy sites on Dmoz just to have links to my affiliate sites, which gets them into Googles listings, plus it tends to increase their page rank on Googles by 1, if listed on Dmoz. Every time a site is edited,rejected or not,the previous edits show up when the next edited is done on a site,Plus the editor can see if it is listed in any other categories.
Got to go
Bill

__________________
http://www.prepaid-phone-card.ws/
http://www.airplane.us/

I do, and also suggest to my clients, submit to dmoz - it can't hurt; but don't hold your breath or even waste time checking to see if you've been listed. If you do get in great; if not it's unfortunate but certainly not a site-killing experience.

The backend of DMOZ does pretty much suck -

I have tried several times to become an editor, only to be declined for non-valid reasons - I 'selected a category that was too broad' or the 'already had an editor' neither of these being valid or true.

How about this wait...

I submitted my hosting business over two and a half years ago... It was added to DMOZ roughly 2 months ago!!
Now I know that our site could be considered a medium sized site, or large by some standards, after all it does have about 35-40 pages to it and so I'm guessing that the editor very slowly and oh so carefully reviewed each and every page of the site - this being in addition to the standard 6 month or so wait of course; but we made it!!

I suggest to submit and forget about it!

I have been trying to get my model building community site listed there for almost 3 YEARS! No replies to any of my submissions.

I applied to be an editor twice. No reply.

A german editor added the german language version of the site about 6 months ago, but I noted recently it has been removed.

All in all I would say that Netscape/AOL's guardianship of DMOZ has been a VERY bad thing.

Thankfully I think Google is no longer weighing DMOZ inclusion so highly in PR.

Jim

__________________
Jim Starkweather
Webmaster - Armorama.com

Everyime you submit, you usually overwite the previous one with the new date - you keep moving your site to teh back ofthe pool if the editor sorts the unreviewed by date.

I have checked - your site is waiting and an editor has had to spend time deleting the duplicate submissons. DON't submit again.

It never used t.

CBP

cbp:

Right from DMOZ's own FAQ pages:

There's no editor for my category - will my submission ever get reviewed?
What you are seeing at the bottom of the category is that there is no editor named. This does not mean that a category gets no editor attention. Any editor "higher-up" the category tree can edit in a category lower down. In addition to this, there are two categories of editor, called Editalls and Metas who can edit any category in the directory. So yes, someone will eventually review every submission.

How long should I wait before I resubmit?
The simple answer is "forever".
The ODP submission guidelines used to say to do it every month, but this has been rendered unnecessary by changes in how the ODP works. Once a submission has been received, it will never go away. It will sit in that category, awaiting review. Submissions do not expire.

So the preferred method is now to suggest the site to the category and wait at least a month. If, after a month, the site has not appeared, then come to Resource Zone and check that the site submission was successful (some do get lost). If an editor tells you to resubmit, then please do. Once an editor has confirmed that the submission is awaiting editorial review, then submitting again will do no good.

In fact, a new submission to the same category overwrites the previous one. Editors have many ways of sorting the pool of unreviewed sites in a category and one of them is by submission date. If this is the case, then a resubmission will show up further down the list and may end up taking longer to get reviewed.

How long until my site will be reviewed?
The time between submission and an editorial review ranges anywhere from two minutes to over two years. This is due to the voluntary nature of the ODP - editors volunteer their time free of charge to do what they can to build the directory. Reviewing submitted sites is only one of many tasks which editors need to perform, and for many editors, not the top priority.

Submission to the directory by users is just one source of content for the ODP - editors are encouraged to go out on their own and find sites which could be listed.

No one is making anything up. These are our experiences. I also applied to be an editor in a category that claimed it needed an editor and was turned down.

And, frankly, we wouldn't care what DMOZ did if other search engines like Google didn't give any credence to them.

__________________
MAWells
www.web-kare.com

This is like the people that complained about GMail reading their mail. If you don't see the value of a free system, don't use it.

If you see problems with a system and want to see it improved, then do what you can to get things changed, and keep your ego out of it.

Not all of our client sites have been accepted, but we always submit to the correct category and are careful to follow the guidelines. We then re-submit about every 30 days until the site is listed or we give up on it.

If you think it's easy to run a site like that, or you can do better, then go start one yourself!!

Our small directory is tiny and we already have a submission backlog of about 6 months full of submissions from China, India, Europe and Russia, not the mention all the red, white, and blue spam submissions from people who should be able to read our posted rules, but either don't or they do and submit anyway, or use a submission program.

I know they are not perfect, but only someone that has been involved with them as a staff member really has a right to complain, in my opinion.

If you don't like it, go apply to be and editor if you think you have what it takes in ability and patience. Good Luck!

__________________
http://www.EbayAuctionAds.com
http://www.Mesothelioma-Search-Engine.com

Best advice in this thread....

How to get listed in DMOZ:
1) Have a site that would really add value to the category and has lots of unique content.
2) Write a pefect guieline compliant description and title (I list them quicker and initially ignore the spammy ones as they require more work)
3) Submit once to the one best category
4) Check at resource zone after a month to see if waiting (tech problems do happen)
5) NEVER resubmit, unless told to by an editor
6) Forget about it. There is othing more you can do. Move on. Promote your site elsewhere. Get overit.

CBP

cbp:

Thanks for the advice - I will adjust my tatics to match your advice.

__________________
http://www.EbayAuctionAds.com
http://www.Mesothelioma-Search-Engine.com

umm...well isn't that kind of a bad system? In other words if I was malicious all I would need to do it submit a URL regularly and thus make sure a site stays buried in the backlog.

Also how do I stop my 5000+ registered users from submitting the site when they see it's not listed?

Thanks for checking on it though. Much appriciated.

I have gone almost a year between submissions, so there would still appear to be a huge backlog.

Jim

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Jim Starkweather
Webmaster - Armorama.com

After you submit a site to DMOZ, where does it tell you to go to http://resource-zone.com/ to check on the status of your listing?

That alone might have been helpful for some of the submitters who are frustrated.

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MAWells
www.web-kare.com

Thank you for posting those. Its a shame a lot of the posters in this thread do not take the time to read these before they come here and post factual errors.


I never said anyone is making it up.
Most of the bashing here so far have been based on factual errora and claims and service expectations not being met, when DMOZ is not there to provide a service to webmasters.

If DMOZ was not so important why are people getting so upset?

CBP

In theory, that should be the case about directories, in general. Unfortunately I'm hearing an awful lot that makes DMOZ sound like a service for editors who are webmasters, and to heck with submitters or searchers. A directory can't be much use when ethics and negligence are issues.

I won't bash DMOZ though, because its not an 'important' site to me. My sites do well without them in SE's. Sure I've submitted plenty of sites to DMOZ to no avail. I can't speculate why, (but I can guess based on 99% of what I'm hearing). But I move on, because there are plenty of quality directories out there that are efficient and worthwhile, that are truly "open".

I must admit that reading some of your stories comforted me :) , so here is my horror story with DMOZ. I will leave the conclusion for you to make.

My site originally submitted in November 2002 (yes, two years ago!!!). For a number of months (about 3-4) I was re-submiting it once per month (following the instructions of DMOZ). Then I found a site made from DMOZ editors, where they advise me that I should stop submitting, because the result was that my site was going at the bottom of the list every time I submit. OK, I've stopped submitting, and since then I visit this editors' site, every 2-3 months,to ask for the status of my site. Well, the answer is always the same

"YOUR SITE IS PENDING TO PREVIEW AND YOU MUST WAIT"

Until when must I wait? Until I die? I'm a reasonable person and I would understand a rejecting reply. At least this would be a definite answer.

And some facts now:
a. Soon after the above site, I submitted another couple of similar minor sites at the same DMOZ category. They where ALL accepted within a reasonable month time.
b. My original site is standing at #1 from all the sites in the same category (at least according Alexa's ranking, it is by far #1)
c. The actual field of the site (yacht charters) is very antagonistic and there is competition and a lot of money involved.

So my question is: Why does somebody leaves on purpose the #1 site (in its DMOZ category) out of DMOZ listings?
As I started, I finish this post saying that I leave the conclusions for you to make. For me 1+1=2

Thank you for your time

People are getting upset because, for a time (I don't think that's the case any more) DMOZ listings were given quite a boost at Google. The site that I have been trying to get corrected, for example, had their competitor's DMOZ listing in second place at Google SERPs only because it was listed in DMOZ.

They are now gone and Google appears to have come to its senses.

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MAWells
www.web-kare.com

Not a problem. IP addresses are recrded.

CBP

my big problem is that the google directory is DMOZ so the DMOZ by all regards is part of google and people who have DMOZ listing also get another link at google and on the google search because of that.

Actually I should also retract one comment I made. I guess the listings fluctuate a bit as now I am seeing my site in the German AND Russian listings. :)

cbp,
I think Google was weighing DMOZ categorization (which they use for Google Groups) as a cross-reference point for the search term. So if you were in Clothing/Military/Shoes then you might score better for "Military Shoes".

They stopped showing directory info about 6-12 months ago so I don't know if they are still factoring that in.

Jim

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Jim Starkweather
Webmaster - Armorama.com

Google, as A DMOZ user, obviously think DMOZ adds value.

CBP

Well good because that last submission was from my "new" work IP. Thus there should not be any overwrite correct? And I think my prior submission before that would have been 6+ months ago.

Thanks,
Jim

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Jim Starkweather
Webmaster - Armorama.com

I just went back to the DMOZ message board and searched for my posts they have all been deleted. Thats a good way to create false information for us and blame it on bashing DMOZ. please go ahead an d copy my posts to the editors at DMOZ over here since you know so much about the issue. How many areas do you edit and how many of them have your site at the top?

NONE - are you fishing for somehing?

I edit in ~40 categories - only one of them is related to any of my sites (and I listed all my competitors in the category and they did not even submit them)

CBP

I checked and my prior post was still there (from April 2004). I replied to ask for an update. :)

Thanks cbp...I know there are plenty of good volunteers like you on the job. I just wish they were working in my section. hehe

Jim

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Jim Starkweather
Webmaster - Armorama.com

I was a DMOZ editor for awhile of just one category and I went through and cleaned up all outstanding requests and then went through the previous sites in the category and found a lot of abuse. It turned out my "mentor" was adding sites and manipulating DMOZ data for his own gain. I reported him and was told to wait before doing anything else. There were no new sites added and the next thing I knew I had lost my editorship due to not doing anything...huh??? I was told not to do anything, I had no new sites to work on, I had nothing to do. I emailed my former mentor (who shouldn't have known about being ratted on) and I wrote the person I had been in correspondence with about the problem and I reapplied for editor rights and never got so much as a reply from anyone.

I have tried to add many sites as a user of the system and they never seem to get added to the directory. It seems there are some "power" people in charge who exclude the troublemakers like me and continue to let those known to be cheating to continue on as editors and supereditors or whatever title they give those in power.

I had hoped that by volunteering I was giving something back to the net and would have been happy to take on more categories so more of you would get service in a more timely manner.

Lew

You only need to read the FAQ's and you will see the factual error in your message.

I can only assume you mis understood to reply you were given by an editor. They do say to check back with another submission status request after 6 months if not listed. They do not say your site will be listed in 6 months.

CBP

I got disgusted with the trash in DMOZ and volunteered to edit a category without editor. Never heard from anyone. Intended to filter a lot of nil content, ad collector sites, but never got the chance.

I have been thinking of applying for a new category totally unrelated to the ones I am in now ... you do ge tired dealing with all the same crappy submission - I was havong touble deciding where to go... You have given me the moivation to go and apply over in your category :-) .... that does not mean I will get accepted :-) ... or even if i list your site :-)


CBP

Good to see someone wanting to become part of the solution.

When you applied, did you get the automated response that needs to be replied to before an application can be processed? These can get caught in spam filters.

CBP

I am a realtor and I have been trying to get listed for over a year - with no luck. I can't find anyone to contact to find out anything. When I post a message on their board - I always get some smart unfrendly response. My web site is full of information for real estate sales in Delaware and when I look at the other sites that are listed - they have no content - can some please help me?

DMOZ is funny. I have two main web sites for my company, one which focuses on web hosting, the other which focuses on web design. Each site has 25+ pages of content (think we're closing in on 50+ pages in the redesign/new content for the design site), unique content *not shared* between the 2 sites.

At one point I had a link for "web hosting" on the design site, which (logically) linked to my hosting site (go figure).

The design site is listed, the hosting site is not. After repeated attempts at getting my hosting site listed I finally asked on the forums, apparently the "corporate" site is my design site and they "will not list multiple sites from the same company". And they won't move my design site into the Full Service Web Design category either. Argh!

The editors do not have enough guidelines, which imho, all listing guidelines should be available to the public. As mentioned here, there are dirty editors and children managing rather large categories and getting off on the "power trip".

-Diana

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