I have been trying to get my website listed on dmoz.org since my website launched. I know all about how hard it is to get listed on that site, but one thing i have just noticed is, the category i want my site listed in, doesn't actually have an editor. Does that mean, my site will never be listed until they get a new editor for that category? or do editors for other categories help out with other categories with no editors?
Any category that doesn't have an editor listed can be edited by any editor higher up in the branch all the way to the top. Also, there are a few hundred editors who can edit anywhere in DMOZ, so no category is ever truly without an editor. Almost all the sites I've added have been in categories with no editor listed, it's very common.
I became a DMOZ editor a few months ago ... what an eye-opening experience. First of all, a DMOZ editor can edit any subcategory of their assigned categories. For example, take the category Business: Automotive: Motorcycles. There's no editor listed for Motorcycles, but the editors of Automotive and Business can edit Motorcycles. There are also Editalls and Meta editors, who can edit pretty much anything they want. The second (and most important, IMHO) thing about the DMOZ is that editors are not required to even look at public submissions. Most of us do, but it's not mandatory. We are encouraged to find listable websites on our own through search engines, social bookmarking, etc. And if we do look at the submissions, we don't have to review them in any particular order. So the website submitted last week might be listed, while the website submitted two years ago might be passed over. If you have some free time and the motivation, I highly encourage you to apply to be an editor of the category you're submitting to. As long as you're honest and disclose which websites you're personally pimping, they don't consider it a conflict of interest, but rather evidence of experience. You only have to log in and edit something once every four months to maintain your editorship.
Fauxpaw, please give us some more details Like many people here I am in total darkness regarding DMOZ (and this is probably the biggest criticism we all have against DMOZ) I have heard already that editors have to 'fill' their categories (say 100 spots) and that's it. If this is the case and they receive several hundreds of applications each day, we are unlikely to be selected... Going one step further, are we all wasting our time applying to DMOZ ? and if so, why is it that DMOZ does not make this information clear ?
I figured it wouldn't hurt to go apply for a category... every time I click to apply I get a 404 error. Oh well.
I'll tell you as much as I can! I just became an editor in early September, so I'm by no means an expert. That being said, I have never heard of the 100-site limit. The first thing I did when I became an editor was review all the sites that were already listed in my category. Then I deleted a bunch I thought were total crap. The editor in charge of me immediately re-listed the majority of them. I tried to argue that the sites I deleted offered no unique content, but that didn't fly. I don't want to get into the sordid details, but I came away from the experience with the feeling that the emphasis was more on quantity than quality. Maybe the experience I had only applies to the Business category. Or maybe it's up to the whims of that particular editor. I really don't know. Once I get more experience and credibility with DMOZ, I'll try applying for more categories and see what happens in other parts of the directory. Is it worth the time to submit your website to the DMOZ? Absolutely! It takes, what, 5 minutes at the most? Even if you never get in, it can't hurt to try.
yes!!! we finally have an inside man... Find ways to bring it down mwa hahaha jk, thanks for the info on their processes though.
Thanks Fauxpaw If you can continue to share this kind of information with us, you are going to become extremely popular on the forum You could even start a business. I think the result is almost guaranteed A precision on the rule of the 100. The number 100 is not magic, but I have heard that Editors are happy when they have a full page of relevant sites for a given category and there was no incentive to add more. May be it is pure speculation.
LOL, that'll be my consolation prize when they kick me out of the DMOZ for talking too much! Honestly, I don't see why all this has to be a big secret. It's an open directory run by volunteers, so why not be open about how it all works?