Any tips on getting into DMOZ?

What on earth does one have to do to get into dmoz? It's ridiculous, been waiting about 8mos. No timeframe, allegedly I'm waiting for review. They say it's not unnatural for categories not to be updated for a year or more (on the dmoz forum). Which seems a tad lengthy to me, I know they must get a lot of submissions, but my word, that doesn't really keep it up to date.

Much like google and my site, pages are literally added faster than google crawls it. MSN crawls all day, every day. I guess that doesn't mean it's better, but it definitely has more recent content, I don't know what google and dmoz are thinking.

 

Is it a difficult process, because I really wouldn't mind. The category hasn't been updated since I've looked at it. It's ridiculous, 8 months without one change, even with what appears to be a dead link in it.

You think it would get me any where to send an email to the editor?

 

The editors job is made more difficult by those who make multiple submissions and submit mirrors or related sites. Like you.

And you were just advised in RZ not to send an email.

And the categrory was updated yesterday.

 

I still see the same broken link I did a while ago.

I don't know how many times I have submitted my site. I thought it was twice, once about 7 mos ago (?), again a couple weeks ago. Both of which I already said on the forum. The pointer I had, does not point to the same place anymore. Although it might be considered a doorway page, I don't know.

And I had a feeling someone from the ODP forum would come over here and say "Why are you asking here? We already told you." After about 9 mos of waiting for a site to get listed in a category with what.. 30 entries? I figure I wouldn't take the word of the people who say "it'll get listed when it's listed" and get a second opinion from the people here at DigitalPoint who really know their stuff.

I'd buy a year wait if I knew how many people were in front of me in line for review for that category when I signed up, and how many are in front of me now ~7mos later. I mean, something to base a wait off. In the ODP forum, the editors themselves told me it's not unusual for a category to go a year without an update. There's no way to determine what is going on, I could sit here for 3 years and still hear the same line "lots of submissions, you suck, etc etc, blah."

All I asked the editor was, hey... if you get around to my site, and decide it sucks or whatever, if you feel like it, lemme know how I can improve it enough to be eligible for dmoz. That's all I asked the guy. If you are him, and it offends you... oh well, I never demanded a reply from anyone at dmoz.

 

Vicious,

If I may, here's another question I asked over at RZ, that I'd like to ask you, what does this mean in my logs : http://editors.dmoz.org/editors/edi...ealth/Medicine/Directories/Doctors&chainsaw=1

Just that someone has viewed the site? that chainsaw variable seems odd.. heh. Just curious.

 

Welcome to the rather distorted reality of DMOZ, nddb.

Not much you can do. Once the RZ folk "advise" you not to do something, you may as well dig a hole and bury that site as far as DMOZ is concerned.

What you can do is submit to the many directories listed here at DP and on other forums... far more likely to bear fruit than trying to find any logic in DMOZ decisions.

 

Why all DMOZ editors sound like a broken record with their spam, spam song?

If there was a possibility for people to see what is happening to their submissions, may be they wouldn't submit multiple times but I understand that a clear reporting of situation will not be in your benefit, otherwise why users should click on the site in your signature and pay you $25 for every six month when they could get it for free.

macdesign-DMOZ editor signature site

It never surprises me, so many ways that DMOZ editors find to make money out of their "volunteer" editing for DMOZ.

 

I think this is exactly right! I don't understand why it's so hard for them to put together some kind of notification system. But now that you point out that site, it seems obvious why they don't.

Minstrel,

Yea, I think it's a lost cause. Oh well, =)

Thanks, I appreciate the comments.

 

Sheesh. Sharp eyes, gworld.

That pretty much does it for macdesign's credibility. Here's DMOZ repeatedly telling people they will not notify anyone about the status of their DMOZ submissions/listings and here's a DMOZ editor offering to sell you that information for a fee.

 

Of course you can get the information for free - I provide information that is available for all. If you could actually bother to read - the site states that.

You can also spend the time checking if your site server is up, or you can pay for a automated monitoring service. You can also build your own web site or pay someone to do it. Time is money.

What's the problem Minstrel - not enough crazy people in Ottawa to keep you busy - that you have to spend your entire life obsessing with ODP editors.

 

The fact that you don't see this as a conflict of interest is part of what bothers me. And I did "bother to read" - from your site:

Now, there have been posts in many forums asking why DMOZ can't use an automated email system (which could easily be scripted) to inform webmasters about the status of their sites. Every time this has been suggested, the idea has been shot down in flames.

So tell me again how your statement that "Of course you can get the information for free - I provide information that is available for all" is accurate?

As I have said more than once before, my profession isn't at issue here. I'm not a psychologist at Digital Point -- I'm just another member interested in web design and promotion and topics touching on that. But I do find it fascinating how quickly and vehemently people like you react when inconsistencies are pointed out.

 

If I am sick and go to a doctor, I am buying a service. If a doctor puts a poison in my food, make me seek and then try to charge me, is a criminal action. DMOZ situation falls in a later category.

Lets make it even more clear:

1-You as an editor, try to sell information to webmasters that can be available easily to all, if DMOZ install a simple script.

2- If DMOZ tries to improve and install a notification routine for submission statue, your business and source of income is dead.

3- Your interest as business owner is in clear conflict to webmaster's interest who would like a answer regarding the statue of their submission from DMOZ.

 

Dead on again, gworld!

 

It's really very simple - you download all the RDF dumps for the last few years and scan through them, it has the snapshot history of the sites added, moved and deleted. Anyone has access to those. Nothing I provide is confidential insider information. If the sites was reviewed, never accepted and only rejected my service does not tell you that.

You think that is my business - what a joke, it's a toy I made, I charge to get some loose change to pay for my overhead. My business is custom programming, web sites are just a sideline.

 

You still don't see this as a potential conflict of interest, macdesign. That IS part of the problem.

 

Do you see editors who review their own sites a conflict of interest?

 

Business:The occupation, work, or trade in which a person is engaged.

Source: The point at which something springs into being or from which it derives or is obtained.

Income: The amount of money or its equivalent received during a period of time in exchange for labor or services

All definitions from dictionary.com

Since you offer a service and charge for it, this is a business and a source of income. May be it is not your only source of income and I never said that it is but it shows that as business owner, you have a financial interest to keep the situation in DMOZ as it is and therefore it is a conflict of interest with webmaster's desire to be informed of the statue of their submission.

 

Yes. Are you saying you don't?

 

No it's not a conflict if done ethically - but there is a fine line tha't easy to cross.

I just wondered - since an editor in post #2 in this thread indicated that was her purpose for joining - and you made no comment.

You may find this surprising - but although I've reviewed tens of thousands of sites, I have actaully never reviewed any of my own sites. To be honest I in fact did join to list a couple of my sites that had not been reviewed - but one site happened to get reviewed the day before I was accepted, and the other [which is in a cat that I am able to edit] I asked someone else to review. All my other sites are in categories I cannot edit, and many are still waiting to be reviewed. Some of them for over a year.