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Annual Report

Discussion in 'ODP / DMOZ' started by lmocr, Jan 23, 2006.

  1. #1
    Just in case anyone here might be interested - an annual report has been published by some of the editors at DMOZ. The announcement about the report can be found here and the link to the report is on the same page. An additional thread has been set up for questions about the report here
     
    lmocr, Jan 23, 2006 IP
    krumel likes this.
  2. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #2
    Was there a point to linking to The Resourceless Zone instead of directly to the report? :confused:

    Number of editors who left or were ejected during 2005 = 5032.

    Estimated average number of new listings added per editor in 2005 = 28.6 per year or 2.4 per month.

    Are the DMOZ editors proud of this record? :eek:
     
    minstrel, Jan 23, 2006 IP
  3. EveryQuery

    EveryQuery Well-Known Member

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    #3
    One of the DMOZ editors was proudly quoting that 4,776 new editors accepted number in another thread. I think they have "selective" vision reading that report because the first thing I noticed reading the report was more people are leaving DMOZ editorship positions than are being accepted. And of course DMOZ submissions keep piling, while they refuse to bring in enough editors to make dent in their backlog. These kind of figures just reinforce my opinion that 90% of those sites awaiting review will never EVER get reviewed.
     
    EveryQuery, Jan 23, 2006 IP
  4. fryman

    fryman Kiss my rep

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    #4
    And then you have the HUGE amount of junk that is already listed there. Dead sites, sites changed their content, etc.
     
    fryman, Jan 23, 2006 IP
  5. EveryQuery

    EveryQuery Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Are you talking about how all the scraper sites and MLM scam sites get listed to the index? What's funny is I was browsing around DMOZ just an hour ago. I picked a category at random to see how well it was maintained. I found alot of junk in the category I chose, including one site that was not even close to being on topic, nothing on it but some AdSense and the Google search box. LOL! (an editor's site?).
     
    EveryQuery, Jan 23, 2006 IP
  6. gworld

    gworld Prominent Member

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    #6
    Don't knock it. That is the reason I could pick up 4 DMOZ listed sites for $200. :D
     
    gworld, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  7. krumel

    krumel Peon

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    #7
    Use this report abuse link.
    You could help...
     
    krumel, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  8. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #8
    Help what? Increase the average number of links added to 2.5 per month? :rolleyes:
     
    minstrel, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  9. krumel

    krumel Peon

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    #9
    minstrel link is about reporting an abuse and helping DMOZ not to be "corrupt".
    If you want, you could help. If not...then "ODP is corrupt". All of them.
    :rolleyes:

    But i guess it`s easy to blame..
     
    krumel, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  10. minstrel

    minstrel Illustrious Member

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    #10
    gworld's post notwithstanding, this thread was about the rather pathetic stats in the "2005 annual report" - hence my comment.
     
    minstrel, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  11. EveryQuery

    EveryQuery Well-Known Member

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    #11
    Why would I help? My editor applications simply get rejected. You're an editor. You fix it.
     
    EveryQuery, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  12. shadow575

    shadow575 Peon

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    #12
    Send me the category you were looking at and I will take care of it or at least report it to someone who can if I cannot.
     
    shadow575, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  13. EveryQuery

    EveryQuery Well-Known Member

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    #13
    Sorry. I purposely didn't mention the category or site names. It's not my place to help DMOZ out in anyway. The editor of that category will just have to clean it up when he finds, many moons from now.
     
    EveryQuery, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  14. shadow575

    shadow575 Peon

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    #14
    Fair enough. The door is open, if you ever want to point out a particularly problematic category, feel free to send it to me. If it is with in Regional/ I will be glad to work on it, if it is elsewhere I will be glad to report it internally so someone who can look into will be pointed towards it.
     
    shadow575, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  15. Las Vegas Homes

    Las Vegas Homes Guest

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    #15
    This is a little off topic but Shadow can you tell me who the Cool site is for this category HERE

    Back on topic

    I was reading through the dmoz guidelines today as Shawn suggested in another thread. I find this interesting, a quote from dmoz guidelines.

    Did you noticed whether this might apply to any of the sites? Another quote from dmoz guidelines.

    I did not see these sites you mentioned but if they are what you say they are than it would seem to me dmoz isnt following their own guidelines.

    Maybe this could be because they dont have enough editors to handle the volume they are getting in. This would lead me to suggest stop trying to offer fluffed numbers and get to bring on more editors. I think dmoz might be surprised if they start to hire editors who have sites they control for those categories, not all of us who apply are spammers or only applying to get our sites in dmoz.
     
    Las Vegas Homes, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  16. shadow575

    shadow575 Peon

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    #16
    Sorry, not sure I am following you on this one? I don't see any sites "Cooled" there if that is what you are asking. Sites receiving a "Cooling" are usually (and should only be) official sites in Regional. Cooling of one Agent over another is never acceptable and if I see those, they are immedietly removed.
     
    shadow575, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  17. Las Vegas Homes

    Las Vegas Homes Guest

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    #17
    No According to the editor guidelines I read for dmoz, it says that one site may be listed as the cool site for the category.

     
    Las Vegas Homes, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  18. lmocr

    lmocr Peon

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    #18
    The key is "may" - cooling is an issue that has been much discussed. It is generally inappropriate to designate as cool as site in business or shopping. DMOZ does not "recommend" one business/shopping site over another - that is why cooling in those areas are frowned upon. Unless there are special circumstances - for example you have a Business category where all the sites are about one company, so the company "official" site is cooled to bring it to the top of the rest of the listings.
     
    lmocr, Jan 24, 2006 IP
  19. shadow575

    shadow575 Peon

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    #19
    To add to lmocr's excellent explaination:
    The same applies in Regional to the extent that one business, agent, or personal site should not be "cooled" over another. I have "uncooled" more sites than I have "cooled". Only official sites-usually for the city/state/country government would be considered (if any at all) in Regional. Never one agent over the others.

    The designation "cool" is a little misleading in that it has nothing to do with the look of the site-a common error made by new editors who feel obligated to "cool" something :) It is for a site that stands out above all others because its content offers the best/widest range of information to visitors of the category and usually encompasses the information beyond on all the other sites.
     
    shadow575, Jan 25, 2006 IP
  20. brizzie

    brizzie Peon

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    #20
    If you ever see any real estate site "cooled" report it straight away, it is totally wrong and at the very least an editor needs educating.

    Back on topic - you have to give credit - the statistics given are honest and their publication does open up some serious issues of editor retention and declining productivity with minimal analysis. The publication was a big risk so credit again. Administrators must address the first of those issues, editor retention, to address the second, and increasing quality control problems which are not highlighted in the report but are evidenced by cursory examination of many categories. If these issues are not given the priority they deserve then the future is not bright. But one fault in the DMOZ system is that the culture does not encourage strident criticism of management. Nor should it, the Administrators are all volunteers too with day jobs, doing a thankless job and ill-supported by AOL in terms of providing training and expert management in running a major organisation. It may well be that Administrators are paying a great deal of attention to these issues but a second fault in the DMOZ system is a tendency to keep such matters under wraps, frustrating the hell out of ordinary editors for no real reason.

    If this report is to be meaningful in the future, and not just encourage idle speculation with raw statistics unaccompanied by objective analysis, then it should start to explain what they mean. I look at the stats, I see a problem, it does not encourage me to return because I have no sense anyone even takes it seriously. New potential editors looking at those stats are also likely to come to the conclusion they might be joining a diminishing force. Many good ideas have been put forward in the past internally. They need to be revisited. Try polling former editors and find out why they left and what would entice them to return. Admit in the next report that the stats don't look good and explain what is being done to reverse that. A tough bullet to bite but it would be better than something that is at best bland and at worse counterproductive.

    This report will be new to editors too, though drafts will have been seen for presentational reasons as opposed to debating the content. I can't see the debate nor comment on the report internally any more but I do hope the next report will show the trend reversing and some evidence of attention to the negative indicators. Attracting 4700 new editors would be impressive if you could retain the 5000 that left. Even retaining half of them would result in a 20% increase in editor numbers over the next 12 months and would start to make major inroads into regaining quality control and boosting new additions.
     
    brizzie, Jan 25, 2006 IP