Where do DMOZ editors find sites?

I sometimes struggle to find good sites for very niche categories, I use Google and links from related sites. Are their any tips or resources you could provide to help? Also it could be helpful to submitters to know where editors actually source their content.
TIA

 

Same as you.

Search engines (which is maybe why quite a few top ranked Google URLs are said to be in ODP. Chicken and egg huh?)

Mining other websites for links.

From store fronts , trucks, magazines and other media.

Wherever you might see a URL, we see them too .

 

They sure as heck don't look at the submissions, that's for sure.

6 months or more to get listed means the editors have no idea what they're doing. No offense, of course.

 

Thats quite true. But i would change the word "submissions", to "suggestions", because thats all they are They are one of many places that editors may look for sites, not the only place and probably not the best place. 99% of the best sites are found surfing, or through general day to day activities in real life. The ones in the suggestion queues are from webmasters and need so much work in removing hype, stuffing, cat placement etc. You can normally find 2 good sites elsewhere in the time it takes to fix a "suggestion".

....and no offense taken You are welcome to express your incorrect opinion.

 

The problem is, we can all see some of the spammy, garbage sites that have gotten accepted, and see plenty of quality sites that have not. We can draw our own conclusions from that...

 

Are you sure about that Jim or should I whisper it to you (the URL) ?

Look at it this way, in the beautiful City of Detroit, not all houses are built in the same year. You have some built in the 50's, 60's 70's, 80's, 90's and 00's so structures vary with appearances. In neighborhoods one can view the beauty from afar or in pictures but coming to a closer look there are litters like cigarette butts or any litters. So its not different from the real world.

 

Often, the sorts of Regional category that I'm interested in building don't have many listings suggestions - or none at all if I'm creating a locality category from scratch.

I'm not the slightest bit interested in editing in a Reference/Education category - which is why I don't .

You might have misunderstood our objectives and how we operate here. ODP is a volunteer organisation building a directory as a hobby. Editors edit where they wish, when they wish and as much as they wish within the constraints of their permissions. We have no schedules or systems to force people to do work that they don't volunteer to do. ODP is not primarily a free listing service for website owners and it does not attempt to process their listing suggestions within the time scales desired by them.

 

Short answer: they don't

 

Of course. Each of us is free to believe whatever we choose on any subject, regardless of the information available.
In fact, many volunteers spend a lot of their editing time weeding out sites which do not meet the Selection Criteria, but like all editing activities, this depends on the level of interest and the time available.

Finding and choosing good sites is a skill which develops with practice like any other, and new editors receive plenty of encouragement and assistance, but there will always be some sites listed inappropriately through error or ignorance, and which are not discovered for some time. So if you notice such listings please let us know by posting in the Quality Control thread in the public forum, and they will be attended to.
Thanks.

 

It's hard for me to take the time to make DMOZ better, when the editors won't do the same. After having MyNextCollege.com get rejected for the last 2 years, I've come to the conclusion that the directory doesn't warrant any more of my time.

The fact that one is rejected without cause or explanation reeks of elitism, and the time frames involved make one feel as if you're dealing with the slowest, most bureaucratic government agency known to man. The very laissez-faire nature of the editing process at the ODP which editors hang their hat on with pride, is the very reason many webmasters have begun to question the legitimacy of the process.

The fact that Google begins their indexing of the Internet there, which editors deem as the ultimate approval from the hand of God, is what seems to drive this elitism. So when you hear comments such as mine, don't take it as a frustrated webmaster who just doesn't get it, understand it as the natural reaction that people have towards elitist, out of touch individuals that many of you know oh so well.

 

Kinda makes one wonder why you hang around DP's Dmoz forum griping about 'em then (one third of the posts in this thread are yours).

Hey, just a thought.

 

Good point. If anybody spends 30 minutes here reading a few threads they can easily deduce:

Editors are under no obligation to review suggested sites.

The purpose of the directory is to build a useful resource for visitors not site owners.

Once you've suggested your site, cross fingers and forget it.

 

Way to ignore the points of the post, as usual. It's always the same handful of people that are apologists from DMOZ, I see nothing has changed.

 

The least used resource used by dmoz editors are the submissions...

 

LOL. Hey... I dont volunteer there any more, so I don't really care one way or the other about your sour grapes tale.
Just noticed that for someone that didnt find 'em worth wasting time on you sure seem to be doing it a lot.

Rep applied... thank you for playing.

 

For someone that only has a hosted wordpress blog, I suppose you wouldn't get it. DMOZ should at least have real webmasters as editors.

Rep returned.

 

Yeah yeah... I know nothing about the web. Bought my first PC last night.



btw - In July you boasted about corrupt Dmoz editors that "did a lot of favors for you".

Now you admit you've been unable to get the "mynextcollege" site in for a few years.

So how does it feel to have zero credibility cause you got caught in a whopper?
That's about the nature of most such "corruption" claims... just some kid trying to dredge up excuses.

 

Well I'm not from DMOZ, nothing to do with them.

 

The editor in question can't get a site listed outside of the category they edit. You must not understand how DMOZ works. I have, and have had many sites in many different niches. Any sites that I've had in a particular niche, I can get listed for a fee. That's the way DMOZ works. It just so happens that I don't know anyone that edits the applicable categories for educational sites.

 

Well that's a bit silly, when sites are listed completely free by volunteers every day, and those who offer payment to editors are likely to have their sites permanently banned.
But I guess maybe you didn't appreciate the subtlety of robjones's remarks.