DMOZ, can it be fixed?

**PortProphecy** · 08:35 PM

DMOZ is seriously sick and I am not sure if there is a cure for it. DMOZ is a good service, but as a business it fails miserably. They should keep the category entries free, but maybe introduce a paid option for quicker listing.

I submitted my site (in my sig) to DMOZ last year not really expecting to get listed without waiting a reasonable amount of time. In March of this year I post on the Resource Zone to check if it is still awaiting review or has been rejected. Still awaiting review. They say please post back in six months. Well, now the Resource Zone no longer allows you to inquire about your submissions. And DON'T resubmit to the directory or you go to the bottom of the pile. I have given up being listed in DMOZ. My site has since been listed in most of the other major directories.

I figured I ought to apply to become an editor to speed things up. Denied. Twice. No reason stated. I certainly am knowledgable about the for which category I applied, and the category had no editor. I am also well educated (Ph.D.) and spend time as an editor for other directories. DMOZ must deny almost every application they get!

And recently I stumble across this site: http://www.corruptdmozeditor.com/ . Oh boy is that site disturbing. Every conspiracy theory you have ever dreamt up is on that page. Accepting bribes, deleting large numbers of submissions for NO REASON, sabatoging the competition, spamming DMOZ with your sites, etc. How can something that has so much money behind it and makes a ton of money be so broken?

**monkey** · 08-21-2005, 02:40 AM

took me about a month to 2 months to get a listing recently. i dont know any editors or know any sneaky tricks. maybe they just dont want your website in the directory? i've built many sites, and some get listed, others dont, some sites get good google rankings where others don't. that's just the nature of the web, and i think its just important to look at the service dmoz provides and live with it. no one claims its perfect.

**chrishirst** · 08-21-2005, 03:58 AM

Your question assumes that the ODP is broken from the ODPs point of view and it simply isn't.

The ODP exists for it's own purpose, not to list your site or my site or the sites of any webmaster or seo etc.
Simple as that.

**PortProphecy** · 08-21-2005, 11:33 AM

To further the argument of DMOZcorruption take a look at this idiot's page:
http://dmoz.bravehost.com/

There a quite a few people out there openly accepting bribes for DMOZ placement. It really turns DMOZ, a classy organization with lofty goals, into a laughing stock. Of course, the ones taking bribes are a small minority, and most would never even consider such an action. But I think the problem is getting bigger.

With the backlog of submissions growing to enormous proportions and the wait to get in usually very long (Monkey, you got in only 2 months? Wow. I'd start playing the lottery if I were you), I am sure this is only fueling this, and other, ethical problems.

This problem could even be squashed by simply reviewing sites in order of their submissions so everyone ends up waiting roughly the same amount of time for review. It always makes me a little angry when I see posts by DMOZ editors brag about, "Yea, today I reviewed a site from 2001, one only 5 minutes old, and another submitted way back in 1998." If a site can remained unreviewed for 7 years, then the system is broken.

Another interesting read is this interview with Rick Skrenta, a co-founder of DMOZ. He suggests that DMOZ isn't all that important anymore.

http://www.searchengineblog.com/rich...-interview.htm

**cbp** · 08-22-2005, 05:17 AM

Funny how you believe the ranting of bitter ex-editors who got the boot for corruption or being bad editors. If you beleive there is such coruption at DMOZ, you are free to offer a bribe, but don't come back here and complain if your site and every site you are associated with is permanenly banned. Its your choice.... believe what an editor says for believe the trash talkers in forum or anonymous blogs.

Also funny how the only people who think DMOZ is broken and needs fixing who are those who have the mistaken belief that DMOZ exists to serve webmasters by providing listings

You have a major misunderstanding of what DMOZ is and you are critiscing DMOZ for being something that it is not and never will be.

Funny how no one at DMOZ sees the "backlog" of sites as a real problem - only webmasters do that!

For eg;

Quote:

This problem could even be squashed by simply reviewing sites in order of their submissions so everyone ends up waiting roughly the same amount of time for review

DMOZ editors are not there to process submissions, so what you are suggesting is not going to happen (other directories provide that service)

A DMOZ editors "job" is to build a category of useful sites and only add sites that add value to the category - to do that the editor has a number of sources - personal knowledge, searching Google, following links on other sites - the submitted sites are the worst source of new sites. I add a lot more sites from just going out and looking for them than wading through the crap that gets submitted. By submitting a site, you are doing nothing more than adding it to a pool of sites that the editor can use, if they want to, to build a category ---- as such, there is no backlog --- just a pool of sites sitting there to be considered. Sites that have not been submitted are also just as likely to be reviewed and added.

Please understand what DMOZ is before you criticise.

The service you want DMOZ to provide is provied by a lot of other directories.

Quote:

I submitted my site (in my sig) to DMOZ last year not really expecting to get listed without waiting a reasonable amount of time

Why would DMOZ want to list that site for? Where is the "unique content"?

BTW - for every webmaster that complains about the "wait" there are probably 100's of sites listed within days of being suggested who never post in forums.

**siggy** · 08-22-2005, 08:06 PM

Although I am not happy with Dmoz (they rejected my website... and my application to be an editor) I have not had these time problems everyone else is talking about. It took them 2 or 3 days to reject me on both counts

**cbp** · 08-22-2005, 09:47 PM

siggy

neither of the sites in your signature have been rejected.

**mworld** · 08-23-2005, 11:05 AM

Well I would disagree DMOZ isn't a service for webmasters. Of course it isn't intended to be but that's the way it worked out. My real critism of DMOZ, is the amount of editors they reject though. Every page is trying to ask you "have you thought about becoming an editor?" Yet just looking down the topic, loads of people who have applied have been rejected, I have too and every friend I know who has applied has been rejected. I know these people, they would make good editors. It's not even like they bother to give most of us a reason for the rejection.

**CAL** · 08-24-2005, 02:46 AM

I have been rejected as a DMOZ editor on numerous occassions too.

Yet, I am a ChefMOZ editor. Not too exciting but still a ChefMOZ editor!

**fwnow** · 02-06-2006, 05:10 PM

To be an editor at DMOZ you need a PHD in Science or the category that you'd like to edit. that's why DMOZ does not have many editors and its taking now up to 3 years for a website to be approved or disapproved from the directory.

**cbp** · 02-07-2006, 08:59 PM

Quote:

its taking now up to 3 years for a website to be approved or disapproved from the directory

Absolute rubbish. Where are you getting your information from?

DMOZ lists 1000-2000 new sites every day.
Of those suggested, only 75% are listable. Of the 25% that are listable, about a half are listed within 3 months.
Greater than 50% of the new sites listed were never submitted in teh first place and are added on editors initiatives.

**john546** · 02-08-2006, 09:09 PM

Don't worry to much. I wouldn't bother with Dmoz,. You are quite right about it being sick. It is show sick that I don't think they have found a cure for it yet and it may die soon.

I have submitted over 5 sites to it and have had none of them listed as of yet. They were still waiting review when I last checked. I had even submitted one to it over 3 years ago and am still waiting.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PortProphecy

DMOZ is seriously sick and I am not sure if there is a cure for it. DMOZ is a good service, but as a business it fails miserably. They should keep the category entries free, but maybe introduce a paid option for quicker listing.

I submitted my site (in my sig) to DMOZ last year not really expecting to get listed without waiting a reasonable amount of time. In March of this year I post on the Resource Zone to check if it is still awaiting review or has been rejected. Still awaiting review. They say please post back in six months. Well, now the Resource Zone no longer allows you to inquire about your submissions. And DON'T resubmit to the directory or you go to the bottom of the pile. I have given up being listed in DMOZ. My site has since been listed in most of the other major directories.

I figured I ought to apply to become an editor to speed things up. Denied. Twice. No reason stated. I certainly am knowledgable about the for which category I applied, and the category had no editor. I am also well educated (Ph.D.) and spend time as an editor for other directories. DMOZ must deny almost every application they get!

And recently I stumble across this site: http://www.corruptdmozeditor.com/ . Oh boy is that site disturbing. Every conspiracy theory you have ever dreamt up is on that page. Accepting bribes, deleting large numbers of submissions for NO REASON, sabatoging the competition, spamming DMOZ with your sites, etc. How can something that has so much money behind it and makes a ton of money be so broken?

**Johnney1929** · 04:08 AM

I done the same thing you know trying to become a editor and I thought with my experience I could become a editor and that was the first time I got insulted and they said this:

They were saying stuff like they complained about my grammer and I thought my grammer was fine. Also they also said DMOZ is not for promotion.

I still think they should be for promotion because there are only 2 Huge ranking directories in the whole world.

I think thats scary that theres only too which means DMOZ is in control of us because Yahoo charges $299.00 plus recurring fees and DMOZ is the only way to get sucessfull for free. Thats why im struggling to get in DMOZ because Google, Yahoo, and MSN have us to where we all have to pay tons of money unless you get a High page rank which I dought because of Jagger, and Bigdaddy.

Thats why they can treat people terrible and insult anytime they feel like it is because there are only 1 that does not charge (I could be wrong about the charging part). I am really scared that DMOZ is powerful and I am really trying hard to compete with them by getting my directories ranking up so they have to act nice to still be operational.

**chrishirst** · 04-26-2006, 08:17 AM

that will be "grammar" then?

Quote:

I still think they should be for promotion because there are only 2 Huge ranking directories in the whole world

Why ?? and only 2 ranking directories ?? where have you been looking!

no disrespect but you are talking rubbish.

**vangogh** · 04-26-2006, 04:44 PM

Johhney no offense intended, but you you have many grammar and spelling mistakes in your post, including the word grammar itself. It might seem fine to you, but the DMOZ sets the level at their site and I don't blame them.

The DMOZ doesn not owe any site a listing. And your site doesn't need to be listed to be successful

I'm just curious but is my site broken and corrupt because I don't give a link to anyone who asks? In all honestly you'll probably have an easier time getting listed at DMOZ. I won't give links out to friends if I don't think it appropriate for my site. Why should DMOZ?

The DMOZ is one directory among many, many directories. I use it all the time as one way to find information. Is DMOZ perfect? No. Can it be improved? Yes. But I'd hardly call it broken and while there are probably some corrupt editors there it doesn't mean all the editors are corrupt.

**tantantin** · 04-27-2006, 07:39 AM

No offense johnney but as an ex-slave there are really a lot of improvements to be done with your application.

Also, there are a lot of ways to improve your site rankings. Though DMOZ has a high page rank its subpages does not have that. Its up to you how you can achieve a good pr and ranking.

**sylwester** · 07-24-2006, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

Your question assumes that the ODP is broken from the ODPs point of view and it simply isn't.

The ODP exists for it's own purpose, not to list your site or my site or the sites of any webmaster or seo etc.
Simple as that.

So maybe purpose of DMOZ is unknown. Anyway dmoz listing millions of links, why they need more links? One day could be a farm of links.

**chrishirst** · 07-30-2006, 04:21 AM

Of course the original purpose of DMOZ is known, very well known in fact About the Open Directory Project

That is the ODP's raison dêtre.