Unfortunately its not the one who tried to extort him, its the one trying to find out why shoe was removed. http://www.joostdevalk.nl/the-dmoz-mob-strikes-again/
dmoz is yesterday's news. It failed at what it was designed to do. I don't think anyone under twenty even knows what dmoz is.
I guess because its the only 'large' free directory out there, and google has positioned itself against paid links so that cant really use a paid directory, unless of course they change their policy on paid links
They say paid directories are OK as long as you are paying for an editorial review rather than inclusion.
Welcome to removed editors club! There is plenty of us here... After Compostannie scandal it seems DMOZ hardliners have decided to go down in flames and are simply executing any editor that dares to question anything. There is no trial, there is no defense, only thing that happens in nazi state of DMOZ is that once somebody thinks you are guilty of anything you are removed, Sieg Heil!
I guess google is using the DMOZ directory as a way of helping it to determine SERPs. It is a question only google can answer
What does Google use it FOR? It's not even that easy to find from Google's site. Do you think that's accidental? They rarely bother to update it from the DMOZ dump. Do you think that's accidental? I see little or no evidence to support that. I think the history of the Google Directory is that early on they targeted Yahoo as their main competition and since Yahoo had a directory the Google guys felt they should have one too. However, they long ago outstripped Yahoo search, demoted Yahoo as a serious competitor, and lost interest in the Google Directory. Then they targeted Microsoft and now you can see them partnering with alternate browsers and office suites. If they get to the point where they no longer worry about Microsoft as a competitor (highly unlikey), they'd lose interest in Firefox and OpenOffice too.
If Google doesn't use it or trust it enough to give it a prominent listing then they should remove it totally.
It could do with a lot of transparency, if it got more transparent and stopped being so secretive, I see a lot of chances for it...
i dont understand why they dont just make it a PAID Directory?, personally i don't mind paying a $300 review fee to be listed in DMOZ, its always better than paying a corrupted editor..
You are forgetting that unlike wikipedia where you have Jimbo on top and all users on the bottom with admins voted by users at DMOZ you have ruling meta elite which has full power who will advance and who will not or just be removed, editors have zero power hence DMOZ community is non-existent. Secrecy is vital for keeping power since if we had a look at the crap that is going on in meta forum both AOL and Google (and everyone else) would wash there hands off DMOZ.