Here all threads deal with "how to submit" to dmoz. I am recommending for all to look first on the following thread http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49643 The main idea - the target of DMOZ is to serve web surfers, not webmasters. And submission is intended for WEBUSERS submit interesting sites. Not to webmasters to submit their own creatures. DMOZ is a dir where users vote for goodness (that is a cause of free). Surely no user will submit to yahoo dir and pay $300 !? The most webmasters misunderstand that fact and submit their own sites. What it the most regretful they try to become editors to promote their sites.
RZ is not an official DMOZ resource so anything that is said there may or may not apply to the actual directory.
Submissions are perfectly acceptable from either source. That said, there are editors that would like them to be submitted by random unbiased websurfers. I'd like The Swedish Bikini Team to get lost in the woods and come to my house for directions. We all have our fantasies. Many areas (non-commercial categories) do not get submissions and would be empty if editors didn't hunt their own meat. That is why a large number of entries in the directory are not attributable to submissions (from webmasters or anyone else). Other more lucrative categories receive tons of submissions so spammilicious that only a fraction are usable. Feast or famine... goes with having a directory. Anyway, if you have a site feel free to submit it, their point is they may put it in they may not and it is their choice. The most illustrative posts in that thread were the ones describing the butterfly collection. Some really do think there's an inalienable right for inclusion once submitted, which isn't the case, but it is absolutely not a problem for webmasters to submit their own sites. [Somewhere right now there's a guy looking at an online translator program trying to figure out WTF "spamilicious" means.]
Nice recommendation. Interesting fact finding mission you have. Edit : I have to say more but RJ already beat me to it with the Bikini Stuff.
Virtually all my former categories belong in this group and I've spent many nights trying to keep them alive, unfortunately my attempts to keep them alive by submissions give little results.
that thread at RZ is a bit out of date, not posted on for nearly 4 months. We have debated this since on here and I have said for months that I don't collect stamps, I collect websites for certain areas in which I have an interest. Can you give me any reason that anyone can tell me which ones to collect? With stamps many people can tell you the best ones, the most valuable ones, but if someone wants to collect bright coloured stamps form anywhere, who says you can't? ODP is a volunteer project and that's how we work, editors can collect any sort of sites they like from anywhere they like, provided that the sites fit the project's guidelines and that's the framework in which we operate.
It is a partial truth. Only to that extent that every webmaster also a webuser (of its own site and he loves it). The problem that webmasters are understand DMOZ importance (to get SE traffic) and most webusers even do not know about DMOZ existence. DMOZ actually should serve as a poll among webusers, to figure out what sites they found be interesting and useful. And so they can combine efforts to build sound fundament to SE ranking. More votes site gets, more chances it will be included in DMOZ. It is the way to cut off a huge amount of useless, non-informative spamming sites flooding the internet now.
Please understand we are nopt interested in ranking of ODP or of sites we use. We have human editors who make the call and the PR or SEO of a site or its design is of no weight in if it gets a place in ODP.
The problem that quality of site is the primary target and DMOZ listing is a secondary consequence. What is a reason? it is not a milk, Please understand, the DMOZ is free not only in the sense of listing without charge, but in the sense that everybody can download and use it content for free. The pay dirs (include YAHOO one) strictly banned this usage. And every SE algorithms are based on human revising of web sites. Check how many people sit in Google revising websites!? (to qualify their algs etc)