DMOZ editor wants $300 to list my site

[strum4life]

A DMOZ editor is soliciting me for money. Check out the email I received from Daniel Kotarski, editor for the http://dmoz.org/Sports/Fantasy/Footb...ssioner_Tools/ category. His DMOZ username is dankotarski. If you feel he should be reported for abuse after reading this topic, please do it here:

http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/

I am the editor of the DMOZ category to which your site was submitted. Despite what everyone says, you DO get your site listed faster (and everyone knows how important it is to be listed in DMOZ) by throwing an editor a few bucks (no-one on DMOZ will ever admint to that though). The key is, you need to find the right editor.....

Thanks,
Dan

MyFantasyZone.com

I responded with, "How much does the dmoz listing cost?" and got this response:

REMEMBER: THIS IS A ONE-TIME OFFER!!!

Although it is not something the ODP (dmoz) does on an open basis, it's
editors do. You won't read about it anywhere and you can talk to dmoz's
"meta" editors about it - they will only tell you that they "dont condone
such activity and that the culprit will be stripped of his dmoz editorship
rights." (Of course, that's not what really happens). There are no prices
set in stone, it's just whatever you feel it's worth. The more you offer,
the sooner it gets listed. I listed a chart below to give you a general idea
about how much will get you what.

I know how this sounds. But believe me, it's worth it - especially if you
plan to make money from your site. I know because i did the same thing. The
bottom line is, Dmoz editor's are so busy keeping sites updated (and listing
new ones) that they don't have time to review very many sites. It takes alot
of time to review a site and theres alot of editor BS that needs to be done
afterwards. Typically, it takes about an hour to review a site and even
longer to finish the whole process. After it has been approved, no matter
when that is, it takes a few days to be able to search your site on dmoz's
main page and anywhere from 1 day to 60 days to finally get listed in the
Google directory (which is really DMOZ's data).

If you plan on having a popular website, especially if you plan on making
money from it through membership fees or paid advertisements, you absolutely
MUST be listed in dmoz. Being in DMOZ will take your pagerank from 0/10 to
3/10 overnight. Unless you're listed in the ODP, you're site will not be
found very easily, even if you parttake in the Pay-Per-Click campaign such
as google, yahoo or msn. In short, if you're not listed in DMOZ, you're
nobody. That's not just me talking, thats a fact.

Everyone who has suggested a site to dmoz knows that you may wait a VERY
long time to get listed. My site took 2 years to get listed - and that's
typical. I have read posts in google groups where people waited as long as 3
years! Its true, go here to read them:

http://groups.google.com/groups/sear...22&qt_s=Search

The work-around is getting in touch with a dmoz editor (me) and suggesting
that they review your site...and making it worth while. Typically, in the
past, people have paid:

To get reviewed:
Within a year: $50.00
Within 6 Months: $75.00
Within 3 Months: $90.00
Within 1 Month: $125.00
Within 2 Weeks: $180.00
Within 1 Week: $225.00
Within 3 Days: $275.00
Within 24 hours: $300.00
ASAP: $350.00


Personally, i believe this to be an incredible deal since Yahoo directory
charges 300.00/yr for a listing and it takes 7 days for them to review your
site.......even then there is no guarantee that you'll get listed and they
STILL keep you $300.00. DMOZ is much more important to be listed in than
yahoo.


If you are interested, you can pay by check or credit card via PayPal. If
you decide you want to get reviewed ASAP, I will start reviewing as soon as
i see the payment go through.

Again, THIS IS A ONE-TIME OFFER so let me know what you want to do (in other
words, dont wait too long).

Thanks,
Dan

[Webnauts]

Dan I have reported that! :)

[Webnauts]

Attention!

As I mentioned above, I reported him to DMOZ and I just got a mail from them:

We received your abuse report at the Open Directory Project, http://dmoz.org.

As you'll see if you look at the category page http://dmoz.org/Sports/Fantasy/Footb...ssioner_Tools/ dankotarski is no longer an editor. (It would show his name on the page bottom if he were still an editor.)

We appreciate your report and please do feel free to use the reporting system if you ever come across similar issues...which I hope won't happen! We take editor abuse very seriously and appreciate it when the general public helps uncover any 'bad guys'.

[khurramali]

What if we start reporting these cases when they appear, this will hoepfully lead to the editors cleaning up their act, or just not being so open about it.

[Webnauts]

I suspect that more editors do that, as many fake SEO companies promote DMOZ submissions.

I hope others will report such cases to DMOZ, and if they do not want, they can add them here and I will take care of that. :)

[cz]

I've got my $350 and heading over to "probe" DMOZ editors - I'm willing to ante up for sure! As mentioned - it beats the heck out of a $300 Y! review promise.

[khurramali]

Originally Posted by cz

I've got my $350 and heading over to "probe" DMOZ editors - I'm willing to ante up for sure! As mentioned - it beats the heck out of a $300 Y! review promise.

We should resist the urge to exploit the dark side of People, I know it is tempting, but such practices should be avoided as much as possible.

I do not apprive of paying Dmoz editors under the table.

[jimnoble]

What if we start reporting these cases when they appear

Please do; how else would we know about them :)?

[khurramali]

Welcome Jim,

On behalf of everyone here at the Web Pro World, I welcome you to our Forum.

I am sure that you will meet like minded people here.

[scot184]

How do we know that e-mail is legitimate? If one of you guys reported this editor, how was it verified by ODP? What if someone came on here and said this about another editor, even though it couldn't be verified?

Based on what I'm seeing in this post, anyone could say hey, "x" editor sent this email and should be banned. Where is the proof?

I definitely do not agree with charging for inclusion, but I am concerned that it doesn't seem to be verified.

[khurramali]

OPD might have their own checks and balances, I do not know. maybe Jim can shed some light over the issue.

I would like to know his experience in ODP and what they are doing to combat this bad publicity.

[aaron2005]

I would shell out 300 to get in. :)

[jimnoble]

Originally Posted by khurramali

OPD might have their own checks and balances

Well of course it does but, beyond pointing to the editor abuse section of our publicly available Meta Editor Guidelines, I'm not going to discuss them for obvious reasons.

Originally Posted by khurramali

what they are doing to combat this bad publicity.

I'd have thought that promptly, and in this case fairly publicly, removing an abusive editor was good publicity :).

Oh, and my experience within ODP has been and still is excellent. It's a very satisfying hobby and it's great to work within such a supportive team.

[incrediblehelp]

This guys was fired/removed.

[scanmonkey]

Originally Posted by strum4life

The work-around is getting in touch with a dmoz editor (me) and suggesting
that they review your site...and making it worth while. Typically, in the
past, people have paid:

To get reviewed:
Within a year: $50.00
Within 6 Months: $75.00
Within 3 Months: $90.00
Within 1 Month: $125.00
Within 2 Weeks: $180.00
Within 1 Week: $225.00
Within 3 Days: $275.00
Within 24 hours: $300.00
ASAP: $350.00

The prices are much too cheap. Yahoo charges $300 per year.

I would suspect that this is just a nigerian scam.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by cz

I've got my $350 and heading over to "probe" DMOZ editors - I'm willing to ante up for sure! As mentioned - it beats the heck out of a $300 Y! review promise.

Lol

It's worth the backlinks to get in. $350.00 is not bad.

I wonder if we can get a list of editors that are willing to work with us. (-:

[rugs]

I wonder if we can get a list of editors that are willing to work with us.

Please do, and send us the list via http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/ ?

Perhaps you may also want to read http://dmoz.org/guidelines/conflict.html , especially

"Additionally, we discourage submitters from soliciting or bribing editors in exchange for listings in the directory."

[janeth]

Originally Posted by rugs

Please do, and send us the list via http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/ ?

Perhaps you may also want to read http://dmoz.org/guidelines/conflict.html , especially

It’s says that any editor caught taking brides will be removed. I could care less about some guy willing to take a position with his only thought being how can I cheat and make some money.

But it says nothing about the sites that are doing the bribing; as a matter of fact it appears they get in ahead of all the other sites.

It seems if you were really trying to stop the problem you would review the sites that had been added by the editor and sites that had been submitted one day and added the next would be moved to the back of the line where they belong.

Otherwise it appears to me that you’re not really trying to stop the problem.

If I bribe someone one and they accept and enter my site then I get in, if they get caught it’s no big deal I’m still in.

If they say no, it’s no big deal, I just keep looking until I find the right person.

[dogluver]

Look who's inquiring about his revoked editor account.

Originally Posted by janeth

But it says nothing about the sites that are doing the bribing; as a matter of fact it appears they get in ahead of all the other sites.

It seems if you were really trying to stop the problem you would review the sites that had been added by the editor and sites that had been submitted one day and added the next would be moved to the back of the line where they belong.

Otherwise it appears to me that you’re not really trying to stop the proble