How to became an editor of DMOZ? I am serious. Can anyone please let me know benefits of being editor of DMOZ (other then fraud).
There are none, it's like volunteer work. I guess that's why there are so few and some out to serve their own interests.
Other than usual abuse and corruption, if you are psychopath and advance enough in ranks, you will have plenty of opportunity to be rude and harass the junior editors and webmasters.
That Matt believes that there is no benefit in doing something for altruistic reasons comes as no surprise. Matt, for those who might have forgotten is the how-to-bribe-an-editor whiz who got probably got his (and some of his clients) sites banned. If there isn’t a buck in it Matt can't see why you would be interested. Matt reminds me of a joke. Last time I told it at a SEO forum I got banned, SEOs are not known for their sense of humor. Anyhow the joke goes: Did you hear that they are now using SEOs for lab experiments. The reason is that they have similar behavioral patterns as rodents, the lab assistants don't get as attached to them, and there are some things that even a rat won't do.
LOL, did someone get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning? I was actually go into the real benefits of being able to list your own sites, make easy money for paid listings etc etc, but thought I'd bite my tounge
Editors are bad for not communicating with webmasters. Editors are bad for coming to external forums and communicating with webmasters. Do you see a pattern here?
In a discussion in another forum, what I believe to be a DMOZ editor posted... I'm actually a DMOZ fan but this bothers me quite a bit. As long as the DMOZ accepts submissions, editors should be REQUIRED to review submitted sites. How many editors don't bother to even look at suggested sites? Dave
The way editorships are granted, many editors actually have no practical knowledge of the categories they edit. The "category-building editor" is largely a myth. Most of the time, editors ONLY rely on site submissions. For instance. My sphere of interest might be biology. But in order to help out, I might apply to edit in basket weaving. What do I know about basket weaving? Nothing. "Category-building" will be nothing but what I'd find in the first Google SERPs - other than that, it's submission queue all the way. The real problem is that there aren't enough editors, and submissions are never looked it, because the category is abandoned. Sometimes, a editor actually has some expertise in the area they oversee, and will build their categories with great zeal. This, in turn, attracts negative attention from one kctipton. Following this, our zealous editor will become a casualty of witch-hunts borne out of paranoid mentalities. To answer your question, Dave, suggested sites are rarely looked at. Most categories are ghost towns.
As helleborine said biggest problem is lack of editors and there attrition rate makes Gallipoli looks like well planed military operation. Hey it will always look very suspicions when editor is adding many new websites which haven't been submitted by public. Active DMOZ editor!!?? What are his motives??? Is he making thousands and thousands of dollars from all these webmasters??? Better remove him/her just in case!
The way ODP is structured it isn't necessary. What an editor needs to learn is the listing policies for a particular branch. In theory, and in practice, a good editor should be able to list any site in any category where they can speak the language. The editing skill is more valued than the subject knowledge. Subject expert editors are notoriously prone to be ejected for imposing their subject knowledge above listing guidelines and getting very frustrated when warned against such things. It has to be that way because editing is a privilege and not a right and, therefore, no opportunity for another expert holding an opposing view to put their influence on the category. To avoid getting into trouble an expert editor will effectively be forced to list sites they know to be complete nonsense or worse. Example - I listed bone fide art dealers then came across one that my knowledge, and confirmed by others, told me was misleading consumers by making false claims. Every instinct told me by listing the site I was encouraging his deception. ODP answer - list the site and let the authorities deal with the trading infringements (and it would have passed current guidelines too). Why should the ODP trust me and not the owner of the site? They have no way of telling whether I am being knowledgeable and preventing crap getting listed, or competitor blocking. I don't know for sure how you could produce a directory on an ODP model that balances editor expertise with preventing competitor blocking. ODP views the latter as more important. And, therefore, it is preferable in many respects for editors to be completely objective by not editing in their areas of expertise. It is not something you can easily resolve. Any alteration you make to the model in this respect will throw up other issues that would need to be solved. When you actually look at all the problems it is unlikely you can actually solve them without taking the whole thing apart totally and putting it back together again. But the project culture is very slow incremental change and is incompatible with the idea of radical change.
I agree. Lack of expertise, intelligence and common sense are highly valued qualities in DMOZ. In my opinion,The management is also chosen by this principal in mind since the common quality among them is being brain dead.
This makes sense in commercial categories, but for some touchy subjects expertise is a must i.e. "Balkan" history, one must be familiar in order to recognize opposing views and distinguish them from total nationalistic BS which has zero facts and only spreads propaganda and hatred which has no place in history category, somebody not well familiar with topic might do lot of damage listing such sites and giving them credibility.
History has been rewritten many times by different cultures to reflect their own interests. Someone who is part of one of those cultures may not be the best person to show objectivity.
LOL... I'm sure that this editor probably made quite a few bucks in he Open Wallet Project... No wonder why it can take so long to get listed... editors can wait for people to come along and pay them...