Although a bit delayed, the monthly report for August has been published. http://research.dmoz.org/publish/chris2001/odp_reports/report_200608.htm You'll notice in the graph that robozilla went on a rampage during the month of August, finding and removing nonworking sites throughout the directory. September's report should be released much sooner
DMOZ definitely have a sense of humor. If you look at Activities & projects, you will notice the following: "advice on online safety for kids and young kids, courtesy of the Kids & Teens team." In The kids and young kids sections, you can see the following: "There are places and activities that can be great fun, but there are also hidden risks and areas that may be dangerous for children and young people." "Some websites are dangerous to your computer, and you might meet someone online who is mean and would try to hurt you if they can figure out who you are." Now I wonder if dangerous areas they mention is DMOZ? Where else do they provide to adult sections without any control and even let underage children to be exposed to the worst kind of underground porn? We should also not forget pro pedophilia, pro suicide and pro anorexia sites either. I think it would have been much more useful, if they would add a section in those parts that warns parents of the dangers of exposing their children to DMOZ editing.
And the number of editors continues to drop: Remember that in the fall of 2005 there were over 8000 editors (officially). More evidence of Chris2001's sense of humor? or is that better defined as sadism or sarcasm?
ROFLMFAO - though actually it isn't funny. This is the organisation that declines to implement COPPA, an Administrator of which has dismissed its provisions as not worth doing as kids could lie. This is the organisation that encourages kids to become editors, and exposes them to an internal Adult forum, could actually grant them editor rights in the Adult branch because they don't keep age records. And this is the organisation that grants high level supervisory rights in Kids and Teens to porn webmasters. This is the organisation that implements an obscure PICS technique to protect kids from the Adult listings and only puts that information deep in the background documentation, declining to put a simple warning on the main branch index page. The hypocrisy is incredible. According to the July report - 7,407 editors According to the August report - 7330 editors Net loss 67 According to the August report, net gain 77. Someone can't add up, 144 accounts have gone astray somewhere. If you factor out the Robozilla removals, there were only net 13130 sites added. With an extra 4 days in the period as well. This sets yet another record low for productivity following the previous low in July of around 17,000. The last Robozilla run in May took out 63,000 listings and overall listings were down by 33,000 so in that month 30,000 new listings had been achieved. So editor numbers down again, productivity at an all time low again, Administrators still in post. What kind of poor performance level does it take to replace ineffective management?
Well, I think orlady and lmocr both implied that but even they couldn't say is straight out without blushing.
Hmm, that would be less then 2 sites added per editor? And this was during August when people are usually on vacation and have extra free time! Ah, we finally know true reason about Conflict of Interests that got me removed - I was actually adding more then 2 websites a month and ruining downward statistics. How long will it take for Robozilla to delete all websites? Place your bets! You know we had similar thing in 90's when during privatization, successful (former communist) state owned companies were deliberately mismanaged in order to bring them to brinks of bankruptcy then they would be cheaply bought or even given away to guy who organized whole thing and he would then sell all the assets (real-estate alone was usually worth a fortune). Maybe somebody is deliberately brining down DMOZ so AOL would dump it and he could take over?
I'll say it. DMOZ management is smart. If I didn't have complete faith in our leaders I wouldn't spend so much time working on the directory. I do believe (like brizzie) that there could be a better system of management, but as far as the individuals in charge go, they are top-notch and I'm proud to be associated with them. Come now Ivan, you know that Robozilla doesn't delete any websites. Ever. Robozilla only unreviews them for an editor to check, then editors follow behind and either fix them or delete them. In my experience, we're able to find a lot of new URLs and get them relisted. Schools and public services are especially slippery, they change the URL often and we must track them down. Robozilla is our friend.
Yes, I know you do minstrel, and I appreciate it. Keep in mind this is just a hobby. Mostly. I also like to think I can do just a tiny bit of good since others will use the Internet and the world long after we're gone.
So smart that they have even fooled a lot of people. Monthly Report. Adult listings. There are lot of people working in the White House too, but that doesn't mean they trust the top people working. brizzie is wisdom at his age. Can't argue with most of his ideas. But not when he's tired and exhausted he speaks like an RZ commando. Blind loyalty is still curable Annie all you need to do is just open your eyes.
They are top-notch editors. They are far from top-notch project managers. Whether it is lack of experience, training, guidance, or support, or plain stubbornness and refusal to learn even the basics of project management techniques, they are simply extremely poor at that role and lack the competencies required. For the good of the project they should not be in their positions and in any commercial project they would have been sacked a very long time ago. Part of the problem is the system of a committee of equals, and part of the problem is the fact that they are appointees with no accountability to the editing community. But the biggest part of the problem is that, whilst excellent editors, they are the wrong people for the role they were appointed to and have accepted, they are in way over their heads. There are dozens of ways this can be demonstrated, have been demonstrated. The key thing here is honour. If they were honourable people they would have resigned over the disgraceful incident with the pedophile listings. When they lost their honour they lost the right to the respect and confidence of the editing community.
In a way, I have to agree with you. They have taken a volunteer organization and have it turned to a money making commercial enterprise for themselves with no accountability. You can call it smart but I think they are just individuals who lack any kind of moral and ethical principals that will do anything for a buck.