Are Dmoz Editors Credible? Is there any Transparency in Dmoz?

First of all, i do not want to trip over any editor, what ever i say is merely my opinion on a particular event which happened recently.

I shall not go in details and tell my URL as i fear that some editor might remove my other websites as well. Well, i started this site about 3 years ago, worked day night to make it worthy. It was published on digg several times and got featured on blogs such as lifehacker and sites like huffingpost, hundreds of thousands of natural back links as well. It was accepted in dmoz after about 8 months of its launch. The reason for telling all this is to tell you that the site i am talking about is not junk.

Okay, now coming towards the real scene. Recently i searched for my URL in dmoz and it showed two results, one of it was old one which was accepted after about 8 months of its launch and the second one was a subdomain of it, which i don't think i submitted as i don't really remember submitting it ( i might have but i don't remember ), it could be possible that some editor just added it by himself. Anyways, when i clicked on the subcategory shown under the search result of that page to see my URL, it was not there. Upon further investigation, another DP user suggested that it was added at some point and then got removed, he showed google cache of that category.

Fair enough, even though my URL was highly relevant to the category and enriched with content and definitely better than few of other listings in the category yet i have no issues with the removal of my link. But, what i suspect is that it was a competitor who removed the listing and i have issues with that as it seriously questions the credibility of dmoz and dmoz editors.

Editor did not even touch other low quality, never updated subdomain urls from the list, but he removed mine. Some of ediotrs might say that Dmoz doesn't accept multiple links into its index but that would make one a hypocrite as in that very same category most of the domains listed are subdomains with multiple links across the dmoz and one of them has as much as 4500+ links.

My question is, where is transparency and credibility in the directory and if there is any thing i can do to get my listing reinstated?

NOTE: Sorry for a long read.

 

There is no transparency or credibility...they hide behind loopholes within their rules, and when they can not find a loophole they use these two excuses "they are just guidelines" or "Editor Discretion"...which I guess would be the loop holes of all loop holes. Is there anything you can do to get your listing put back?

You can try to fill out an abuse report, but you'll need to know the editor who removed it... how do you find that out? Ya can't... that falls under the guidelines for confidentiality.

You can resubmit... but then, who knows.... it could already be in the queue due to it falling out of listing based on your server being down for 5 minutes

Just move on... you don't need the ODP, the ODP needs you...

 

I have couple of sites listed in the directory and i would not want to file an abuse report and trip over the editor as he might remove all my listings in rage, is there any amicable solution?

Btw, there is an assigned editor for that particular category, but yea, it might be him who listed it and some one else removed it.

 

You always run that risk...

Or the other way around...

Blessed is the non-transparent ways of the ODP. Divine is their wisdom in understanding that by not speaking shows the true light, where communication is the root of all evil.

 

The funniest part is that this can all be resolved by disconnecting DMOZ from Google Directory and making it so insignificant that it fades in the sunset.

 

I wait to see what editors have to say about it.

Hmm, or just fix the directory? There are too many links and too many submissions and i understand how hard it could be to go through each and every one of them to maintain the standards, but yea, it would not happen if they don't plan out a procedure.

 

I really don't think it can be fixed. Realistically, they would have to wipe the entire site and start from scratch, since so many of the submissions are favoritism & self-promotions...not to mention, old, outdated and no longer relevant in the past 10 years.

 

They don't see it that way. I tried and hoped to get a site of mine listed within a category but never could. The category was instead filled with broken and out of date links. They would have have that instead of a site that was being updated every day. They would have have single page scaped info sites over a well respected by the community site.

I knew who the editor was as they bragged about it quite often. She ran a competing site within the category. Abuse complaint was never looked into.

 

Name and shame!

As for the abuse report not being looked into, all of them are looked into... but when the person that is looking into it is the same person the report is about what do you think their friends will say? Who is to believe, you an outsider, or them, an editor in the inner circle.

 

To Jin: Editors won't show up here for a while. They need to think really hard what will they say about it. I think they will pretend they didn't see this thread. This and other forums about DMOZ are full of threads like this one. Posted by people who suffered the same unfair treatment as you. Please don't reveal your identity nor the sites you got listed there. If they find out they will punish you as hard as they can. Which means they will remove your sites from DMOZ.
I complained in res...zone.com about the status of Open source software category. Several sites out-dated by far more than six years, others not meeting guidelines or belonging to different categories. What did they do about it? They removed one URL out of twelve and then started hiding behind a bunch of loopholes.

To theapparatus: Most DMOZ categories list abandoned and out-dated sites. Or one-page sites which doesn't meet any requirement published in DMOZ public guidelines. We all ask ourselves why is that.
If you hear what a DMOZ editor says DMOZ is, you start thinking about a directory full of high-quality sites listed. But when you reach DMOZ you have a totally different view. How can what they say be so far from reality?

 

Since when should DMOZ editors be accountable to anyone other than DMOZ? What does DMOZ owe webmasters? Where do webmasters get the impression from the DMOZ owes them something?

I can do what I like on my site; I can say what I like (within legal limits) on my site; I can link to whoever I like on my site; I can remove a link to whoever I like on my site whenever I like for whatever reason I like - I do not have to explain my actions to anyone and am not accountable to anyone other that myself. Why do you expect DMOZ to be any different? Why should they be any different?

 

There is no transparency or credibility, it runs much like a mafia. Usually editors will hog all the link juice for themselves to give their own sites higher rankings and better SEO in the search engines, which is essentially equal to more money. They will usually log in very sparingly to add sites only after being bribed or when they develop an additional site of theirs that needs a heavy SEO boost with high PageRankâ„¢ juice from both DMOZ and more importantly the Google directory.

This is one reason why Google needs to ditch DMOZ so these mafia editors stop getting themselves a free ride in to the Google directory, which is actually the directory that really matters in the Google search rankings

 

I have been unable to get any response from any of the ODP category editors for a couple months now.

 

Receive money in exchange for a link. We already know that, Agent. Thank you.

 

There you go again. You have been caught in another lie. Why do you keep doing that? I do not take any money for links on my site. Never have. Why do you persist in making these thing up for?

 

No, I don't.

In the first place I never said it was a link on your site. And, I never said you were actually taking money. I completed a sentence (your writing in italics):

I can link to whoever I like on my site; I can... receive money in exchange for a link.

Let's see. I can receive doesn't implies that I actually do receive money.
FYI: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/can

 

guys don't go offtopic , Jin asked a decent thing ... let's keep it like that ... anyway ... Jin my honest advice just forget it man , if you are starting to make noise you can lose other listings .... look what happens with Ivan couple of weeks ago when he made some noise around ... take a look here before you make more info public ... It's really not worth to start an fight witch you and we all know will be lost . ODP / DMOZ officials are hiding their a$$es behind rules and guidelines , when they are caught they are claiming things like '' link rot '' , or more worst they are giving you an ironic answer similar with '' listings aren't guaranteed to be here forever '' .
So ... my two cent's man ... IF you can't win a fight better don't start it !.

 

I have no intention to make a noise or create a stir and upset any body and i mentioned this in my first post. Secondly, i have no issues if my link which i am talking about stays down, may be the editor had a legit reason which i don't know. Anyways i think the essence of this thread is kinda lost :/

 

If you feel i am challenging the editors or trying to create a stir then i request mods to close this thread and throw it in the junk as i don't want to achieve any thing by upseting anybody.

 

Jin, you created this thread, I guess, to share your experience with us. Most users here understand how you feel like. We all have suffered editors' unfair treatment in one way or another. But in the end, there is not much to do.
You said the essence of this thread is lost. I don't think so, unless you are waiting some editor to revert what happened to your site or give you a valid argument as why your site got removed. In my opinion that won't happen in this geologic eon.