Why My Site Not on DMOZ?

Can an editor PM me to update me about the status of my site? It deserves to be listed, but I don't know why it still isn't. I see the sites that are listed and they don't compare to mine. It's hard to understand how those got listed and not mine...

Thanks.

 

I also dont know how to sign up on Dmoz directory, everyone who know how to. Please describe here

 

@Eric007:
I don't do status reports. If you haven't already done so, you might like to follow the advice below.

@prhost:
Visit the most appropriate category for listing your website, click on its suggest URL link and follow your nose. If there isn't one, choose a subcategory. Some volunteer will process your listing suggestion in time but we can't predict who or when that might be. Elapsed times can range from a few days to a few years. There is no need to re-suggest your website and doing so could be counter-productive because a later suggestion overwrites any earlier one.

 

maybe because the editor of your category is a competitor

 

This is a common misconception so it deserves refuting yet again.

1. Every category has more than 200 editors who can edit there, so the chances of a particular site being excluded incorrectly and on purpose are infinitesimal. But ...

2. If anyone has evidence of editorial abuse, they can be sure of prompt attention by providing details through the official reporting channel.

 

How can we report abuses when we are not provided status reports, when we are left wondering what is going on with our site. That's the problem. All I can say is that my site is credible and yet I don't see it listed. On the other hand, I see sites that are spammy that are listed.

Until and unless there is more communication with site owners, the process won't work. Also, one suggestion is to ensure that only site owners can submit their sites, as opposed to letting anybody submit a site.

If you want to reduce the number of sites that are listed, I suggest that you put upfront more stringent criteria for submission in the first place, like minimal traffic or at least 2 year-old websites, etc. That would narrow down the number of submissions to sites that are not spammy and would reduce the timeframe for approval, but the current process clearly doesn't work and leaves people wondering as to the legitimacy of the inclusion process.

 

I so hope that you didn't dismiss my comments to you in post 3 as idle chatter. They were intended to be constructive advice and I'd rather hoped that you would follow it.

How could our listing suggestion robot know the difference?

We're more interested in useful content than traffic. Anyhow, how could we measure it? (Please don't say Alexa toolbar.)

we're more interested in useful content than age. Anyhow, how would our listing suggestion robot know the age? Even if it did, what about re-purposed domain names?

We don't.

I just took a quick tour around http://ejobforum.com/ . It certainly has plenty of traffic and a lot of interesting questions. I saw very few answers though .

Would a poster seeking help come away satisfied do you think? At the end of the day, that's how we try to evaluate a website's usefulness. (You'll no doubt be pleased to know that I don't edit in that sector.)

 

Submit and forget with Dmoz! They're slow and fussy.

 

ejobforum is not the site I'm referring to. I PM'ed you the site URL.

 

I say that to myself all the time, its been awile for me, I get great reviews on my sites content.

 

Soccer. Its a game of low score points with a lot of running.

Hi Jim (waves hand at Jim)

 

@Eric007:

My PMs are disabled here except those from mods - there was just too much spam and too many requests for personal favours.

Also, part of my role here is to educate and I'd rather discuss things in open forum so that others might learn also.

(Waves back to popo)

 

The process works just fine, because volunteers are free to spend their editing time how they choose, as long as they follow the directory guidelines.
Reviewing site suggestions is just one of many editing activities, and often not a high priority at all.
We invite people to suggest sites (whether their own or not) because it provides ONE source of sites for editors to use when building a category. That's all.
Editors are free to use any other source they like, and in many cases the collection of suggestions is the last place they would look for useful content.

The point that never seems to be understood is that the purpose of ODP/DMOZ (and therefore the main focus of its editors) is not to be a listing service for webmasters.
The goal is to provide a useful directory, and that means finding sites wherever we can. Your suggestions are appreciated, but there is absolutely no requirement for us to use them as a resource. I know that's not what you want to hear, but there are many other directories which already offer the service you require.

 

What you state makes sense in theory and I agree that there is no obligation on the part of DMOZ to list my site. That being said, if the guidelines are applied consistently throughout, I would have no problem. I however see discrepancies in the way sites are listed. I take exception to that.

Anyways, I will just have to wait and "hope" that some day an editor will find my site useful enough to list it in DMOZ, although my site has already been recognized as being a useful resource by many...

 

That actually gets brought up a lot, and generally the reply goes along something like this...

You see, it seems that as you are a webmaster and not an editor what you have to say means little to nothing to many/most editors and certainly means nothing to the ODP as a whole. The fact there is NO official communication and the fact they seem to like it that way should show you just what they think about you as a site owner.

DMOZ was created as a listing service for it's ownkind (thanks Skrenta) and that is what it still is for the better part... yeah yeah, they will come in and say otherwise, and they will come along and say that Skrenta's TEN THOUSAND deeplinks to a SINGLE site is perfectly OK and when it's not, then editors are free to remove the listings... but heh... there are still over TEN THOUSAND listings for it, so yeah...

The process works just fine ...

 

And quite rightly.
We would all prefer to see consistency throughout the directory, with every category and every listing meeting the guidelines. There's absolutely no doubt about that!

Learning to edit correctly takes time, assistance and practice, and there are always going to be areas of the directory which might not have been as well-looked after as others. So yes indeed there are certainly a great many listings which need removing, or moving, or correcting in some way, and when a volunteer chooses to work on quality control in those areas, they will be fixed.

We welcome the assistance of non-editors in finding and highlighting such problems, and there is an Update URL feature on every category page which can be used to report dead links, misplaced sites, inappropriate content etc.
So you can help us to improve the quality and consistency of the directory!

 

Hi Jim,

May i know why my website isn't getting approved?

I had submitted my website in Dmoz for best suitable category eventhough it wasn't approved.

Another Question:

There are giants website who have their multiple listings in Dmoz.
Why they have multiple submissions?

 

Yes you may.

You can readily work out for yourself whether or not your website is listable by evaluating it against our guidelines (which is what editors do).

Other than no content, under construction or excessively user hostile ones, most unlistable websites use business models that we don't want to list; There's usually not a lot you can do to fix these.

You've read the forums and are aware that not all websites are listable here and that, if they are, time scales can range from a few days to a few years.

<added>Darn. Beaten to the punch. It never occurred to me that you'd think that asking the same question in two threads. What a waste of effort . </added>

 

Is DMOZ working at all. I had heard rumors that it was effectively over

 

No - that's just wishfully bitter thinking by disgruntled webmasters who want DMOZ to be something it is not.

The directory is alive and well. Many new editors are accepted each week, and hundreds of new sites are added every day. You can find out more about current activities in the Official ODP Blog.