I wonder what the color of oil would be from a squashed green dinosaur. Would take millions of years to make, but at least it would be worth the wait.
I agree with you it is bloody hilarious, but thats the way it is. I am not sure exactly what you expect the volunteer admins and metas do. Break into AOL corporate headquarters in the middle of the night and rewrite the programs on the ODP server perhaps?
Be civilized atleast if you cannot break into AOL headquaters, and stop trying to abuse powers for a change ? And stop being selfish also would help, and try to help out others instead of trying to take everyone down cause you got personal issues in life. Enjoy lifes too short to make enemies and friends are hard to come by.
Why are there still admin listed with root access if there is no one with root access? I thought I recalled a thread or two internally that dealt with a someone from AOL...that seemingly never posts. Don't any of those volunteer admin have a valid email address or know of a valid chain of command? Maybe the editor list should be cleaned up to see just where everyone stands? I mean, some of those listed had not had an edit in 3 years. It's not really changes on a code level though, most of the malfunction revolves around people.... ...kinda like what Paidposting said. Though, it would be nice if the ODP could keep up with the times server side as well.
*cough cough, why does everyone gets my name wrong, its paidhosting not paidposting cause i do the A1 Web Hosting (Batteries not Included) , that rimed kinda ..
The problem is not the programs. If that's what you think, you have totally missed the point. The problem is the hierarchy. The infrastructure. The boneheaded, shortsighted, blindingly navel-gazing policies. You don't need AOL to change those. You need vision. And what you have instead is protectionist-hang-on-to-the-status-quo-in-quiet-desperation-while-the-entire-structure-of-DMOZ-crumbles-around-your-ears. Everyone on the outside of the inner sanctum can clearly see this. But like the last days of the Third Reich, you are holed up in your bunker pretending there's a way to salvage it without changing anything significant.
Where do think the hierarchy, infrastructure, and boneheaded, shortsighted, blindingly navel-gazing policies come from? The hierarchy, infrastructure and guidelines are part are firmly embedded in AOL servers. I am not sure at this point even if admins have the ability to change policy AKA guidelines. Personally I believe that the ODP should be rebuilt as follows: 1) The ODP should move more towards being search engine orientated with tags and geocoding. The public interface should be brought into the 21st century with a decent search feature, and perhaps a few portal type features. AOL should be talking to users of the RDF data file and finding out what the actually want. I am sure none of them will say they want a 1998 style directory. 2) The admin/meta system as a means of management of a resource and community like the ODP is a failure. Fire all of the current metas if need be. More direct AOL involvement is required or real authority should be given to the editors with an sensible management and decision make process. 3) More transparency. Submitters should be able to track submissions, there is limited need for secret forums, the process around dealing with editors who do not follow the rules should be open. Just shutting them out and not telling them anything is counter productive. Now I and other editors can shout and scream in the ODP forums as much as we want but unless AOL decides to implement them noting can happen. Surely you can see that.
Good piece of BS to try to limit the negative publicity but when did you or other "senior" editors screamed about anything? AOL doesn't give a damn about DMOZ which has made it possible for a group of assholes and corrupts to effectively control everything either for the benefit of their ego or pocket.
You make an erroneous assumption, it is that people within the ODP care what is said here. AOL staff have even pointed out the futility of posting at forums such at this. You have got to understand that (rightly or wrongly) the ODP has a very polarized way of looking at things. For example you are viewed as lying multiple removed editor who is hostile because the ODP will not list your porn sites. Anything you say is tarnished by this.
So then you don't need to be worried about what is said in these forums, do you? For your information, one of my accounts has access to multiple categories including adult, so I can list anything that I want but I never edit in adult. I have no moral objection to porn but that area is so corrupt that I don't want that even look like that I am interested in that. If I wanted to list anything, I would also could have taken multiple offers of bribes in the form of DMOZ listings that I received many years ago when first I started to post in WPW and DMOZ "senior" editors were not aware that I am an editor. It is quite obvious what kind of people are involved in DMOZ as "senior" editors when corrupt editors can continue year after year despite all the proof of their corruption. Why is it that supposedly "middle" aged women from middle America who supposedly are not even involved with any commercial web sites, are such a supporter of illegal and underground porn?
DMOZ sucks all the way. They even don't list all of the bestest sites. Only the sites of the people who are moderator are listed.
Then what purpose do they serve? I'm always impressed on how people crave for positions of power like admin, meta, moderator even though after they do very little work or no work at all, I'm mean if your volunteering for something then it is because you want to do that WORK! Imagine if charity volunteers did work as DMOZ editors, death toll in Africa would turn in genocide. This means community has failed, so DMOZ is not Open it is not Community it is only directory. If it needs big daddy like Jimbo Wales to keep things running then you might as well send petition to Jimbo to somehow merge ODP and Wikipedia because Godot is more likely to arrive before AOL decides to do something. Using AOL as excuse for not doing anything will hardly get any sympathies from outside, AOL doesn't care about DMOZ because nobody else cares what happens to DMOZ, now if community decides to implement all these changes and starts with those it has control over like revealing editor removal reasons and evidence, website listing status, editor notes aren't very big secret since any editor can read then only editor who wrote it should remain anonymous. Giving average editor much more editing rights in non-spammy, non-commercial categories instead of forcing that crazy not enough edit counts policy etc. What can AOL do? Remove all remaining editors for daring to change guidelines??? I somehow doubt they would want to become scapegoat for everything that is wrong with DMOZ. I doubt AOL would even notice changes for next few years until DMOZ would start getting its long lost popularity back... Now you know why Wikipedia requires senior admins to reveal their true identity, there must have been a lot of "middle" aged women from middle America who kept listing porn as educational material.
Listen buddy, your name is what I say it is, and disagree with me again and I'll have you banned permanently! Ok, ok...joking, sorry for the typo, I guess I just like the alliteration. Thank you for your input. Now we all know another DP member that does not bother to research (or even read a thread) before posting. Personally I found your post offensive, as I was an editor that listed my own site, but also listed many other, others which I can promise, did not belong to an editor (of any category). Why is it you can not even hazard a guess? Why is it that so many editors step outside of the DMOZ internal forums for defend it, yet won't say word one about anything? In many ways your post I quoted is a perfect example of why I started this thread. So thank you too for your input.
Had this idea been implemented in 1998, it would have been visionary. You're a whole decade too late. Search engines already do all that, and far, far more, at the speed of light. It's kind of like trying to recreate AltaVista, powered by coal.
Patent nonsense of course, but it isn't an uncommon perspective amongst the uninitiated. ODP could change that of course by opening up the processes to scrutiny. And you made some good points there Neb But there is a way. People power. Stand up and be counted and resign if that is the only remaining option. If, and only if, enough of the good honest people at Editall and Meta level who believe in the project, do that and do it publicly, then management, up to and including AOL, cannot do anything but listen. Or use it as an opportunity to dump ODP altogether. At which point it can be reinvented by those with a conscience and a backbone and common sense. The problem is that most editors of all levels are, frankly, sheep and will ultimately defer to authority or they are ostriches and bury their heads. The reasons are to do with pain threshholds. For the vast majority of senior editors, editing at the ODP is more addictive than nicotine and putting up with the corruption in Adult, and Admin cabal, is less painful than giving up the habit. Revolutions happen, and can be made to happen if the will is there. Maybe the pain has to get a little bit worse yet for most - assuredly it will.
I would have said "less painful than giving up the perceived power or prestige" rather than "the habit", but otherwise an excellent synopsis of the problem.
Minstrel, you're a shrink, I am not, but hey. I think that the personality profile of people that find approving website listings for a link farm no one ever uses is probably not associated with traits such as "innovative," "progressive," "socially apt," "succesful" or "creative." Moreso with those that like repetitive, tedious tasks to the point of obsession and "make it" to meta. Change is not gonna happen. Besides, it's way too late. Change should have started 10 years ago, as in, "keeping up with the times." They cannot possibly catch up. They have been dog-paddling backwards for 10 years.