Total honesty and the ability to follow directions. http://www.dmoz.org/help/become.html Check your spam filter, I believe you get an email that you have to respond to to verify your email address.
You can check status over at RZ. Be sure to first read its Forum Guidelines - READ BEFORE POSTING. Nicely succinct . I'd add 'Demonstrate the ability to read the application form' There's another good resource at FAQ and General Advice About Becoming an Editor Lastly, I suggest that you treat the form as seriously as you would a job application - because that's what it is.
1) Act stupid, they don't want smart people who can understand what happens in DMOZ and rock the boat 2) Be a total suck up, Metas and other senior editors are always right, no matter what. You should always be ready to kiss ass on demand, extra point if you do it freely as part of your nature. 3) Have no integrity, be dumb, deaf and blind when presented with evidence of wrong doings in DMOZ and pretend everything is fine and just keep repeating the official guideline. These 3 points pretty well covers what is required.
You should be a Politician gworld, you have the same sort of ability to twist the facts to suit your own purpose.
My friend: according to editors in this forum, to become an editor is piece of cake. There is a legend about a guy who became editor without even applying for it. But, all we see here is people who applied for editor without success. I wonder why does DMOZ provoke so much hate? There are others directories out there but no one is mad at them as with DMOZ. There must be an explanation for this. And, personally, I think it has to do with DMOZ editor-community.
Since it is well known and one of the few directories that still has some value if your site is listed. Also, there are no direct costs. Hate comes from the fact that despite the guidelines listed to become an editor it does seem that it impossible to happen (personal experience here), despite qualifications and even if your app if filled out properly.
That would be impossible because you need to have an editor name and verify your e-mail address. The hate comes for various reasons: 1. Because site owners expect us to be a listing service for them, which we are not. A site owner thinks that by submitting their site, they get in some sort of line, and that eventually, their site will be listed. That's false, and when what they expect doesn't happen, then they get bitter and come up with all kinds of nefarious reasons why their particular gem hasn't been listed. 2. There are also people who were former editors and got caught doing things that were against our Guidelines, and had their sites and editing permissions removed. 3. There are people who tried to become editors, and were either dishonest about their affiliations by not claiming them all, or who couldn't write titles and descriptions according to our guidelines, or who applied to edit in categories that were much too large for a new editor, and were turned down (usually with reasons given that they could correct, and reapply) 4. Site owners who have the type of sites that we will never list, and who feel bitter about it. http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#notinclude 5. People who have been banned from the Directory for either attempting to bribe an editor, or who deliberately spammed the Directory. 6. People who resent us for not giving them a service that we don't and never have provided. 7. People who hate us because we won't spill our guts and jeopardize security matters that they would like to know about, so they can try to sneak past them. 8. People resent us for not listening to their complaints and changing the Directory to make it easier for them to work the system, the way seo's work the search engines for their clients advantage over regular site owners who can't or are unwilling to pay the money. I think I covered just about everything.
For those of you who need examples in order to learn the necessary qualification, please read snooks posts as examples for point 3 and crowbar posts as examples for point 3 and specially for point 2.
lmbo, you're a funny one, gworld. Sometimes it's good to be a suckup, but you usually need to have something to suckup for, and I don't have one. You might find this hard to believe, me bein the "all that" kinda person, but I honestly don't qualify to be a meta editor, and have no desire to be one. I appreciate your style though, lol.
Items 1 to 5 are valid for just any directory out there. Item 6 is the same concept as point 1. Items 7 and 8 are just the same for any other directory. Plus, I don't think they represent a substantial portion of the people that hates DMOZ.
crowbar says: The hate comes for various reasons: 1. Because site owners expect us to be a listing service for them, which we are not. A site owner thinks that by submitting their site, they get in some sort of line, and that eventually, their site will be listed. That's false, and when what they expect doesn't happen, then they get bitter and come up with all kinds of nefarious reasons why their particular gem hasn't been listed. 1.5 Most DMOZ editors assume all submissions are from webmasters 2. There are also people who were former editors and got caught doing things that were against our Guidelines, and had their sites and editing permissions removed. 2.5 There are also those former editors that claim they did nothing wrong, which their edit history seems to support, yet the meta teams provides NOTHING in the way of proof to not even the editor let go... 3. There are people who tried to become editors, and were either dishonest about their affiliations by not claiming them all, or who couldn't write titles and descriptions according to our guidelines, or who applied to edit in categories that were much too large for a new editor, and were turned down (usually with reasons given that they could correct, and reapply) 3.5 And then there are editors that are allowed to list thousands upon thousands of affiliated sites, most of which offer nothing in the way of unique content. 4. Site owners who have the type of sites that we will never list, and who feel bitter about it. http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html#notinclude 4.5 And then there are site owners that have thousands of deep link listings even though those deel linked listings fall under the DO NOT INCLUDE list. (See 3.5 for more details) 5. People who have been banned from the Directory for either attempting to bribe an editor, or who deliberately spammed the Directory. 5.5 And then there are those COMPLETED transactions with POSITIVE feedback on sites like scriptlance which seemingly indicate that paid links in the ODP are somehow OK. 6. People who resent us for not giving them a service that we don't and never have provided. 6.5 never mind that bit in the documentation claiming that the ODP *IS* a service. 7. People who hate us because we won't spill our guts and jeopardize security matters that they would like to know about, so they can try to sneak past them. 7.5 Which leads back to NO PROOF or outright LIES in the name of "confidentiality" 8. People resent us for not listening to their complaints and changing the Directory to make it easier for them to work the system, the way seo's work the search engines for their clients advantage over regular site owners who can't or are unwilling to pay the money. 8.5 Oh, like how no one listened for WEEKS when I complained about how CNN had thousands upon thousands of 404ed pages, as those being listed somehow benefited the end user No all webmaster suggestions are simply for the benefit of the webmaster's site, as ANYTHING that makes one site better makes them all better (keywords and description changes aside). I think I covered just about everything. No, you completely neglected to mention how... 9 most editors seemingly hate webmasters...
Ya know, if I owned the Directory, I would read all these ridiculous things you guys spout, and say, "Even if one thing you said was true, what business is it of yours?" You don't do any of the work, and you don't pay any of the bills, sooo, what is your interest, what business is it of yours? You don't like something? Tough, go away then. If somebody came into my business and started bitching about how they don't like this and that, I'd tell them not to let the door slam them in the ass on the way out. lol
DMOZ is the biggest and best due to the "hype" generated by the nay sayers at this point, well, then and the 'old school' mindset of when the ODP actually was the best thing on the net... Take away all the bloggers saying the ODP is the best and submit to it that ONLY say that because they read it on a blog by a guy who read it on a blog by a guy that read it on some page written 10 years ago. What do you have left? .... heh, you linking to the ODP to counter Gworlds arguments ACTUALLY, we do MOSTof the work. Without the webmaster how many listings do you think the ODP would have? Skrenta's 10K++ listings maybe? A handful of AOL pages? Other affiliated sites? Oh wait, heh... those editors are webmasters too, they must hate themselves, lol. You need us MUCH more then we need you... so heh. Once you stop listing webmaster sites, ONLY then will you stop getting webmaster complaints. That's likely why you have so much time to edit and play WOW... your business == FAIL due to not listening to your end user.
The same thing can be said by members of Mafia or drug dealers. If you don't pay any protection money or buy drugs, what business is it of yours to try to fight us. I wonder why societies have police force or different concern citizens who try to fight what is wrong. On the positive side, unconsciously you have finally admitted that DMOZ is a BUSINESS for senior editors, slip of a tongue may be.
Gworld.....you come out with the most ridiculous statements. Everyone can see that no matter what comments are made by Editors, you will try and twist, defame, insult, slur or degrade DMOZ in some way. I'm assuming your Counsellors have urged you to express your feelings so that you dont keep the hate botteled up inside you? I hope it's helping
The counselling sessions must be helping Gworld, that post wasn't as insulting as normal. I'm very happy for you