DMOZ - a test of ethics

Too true.

One thing has become very clear in my little time looking inside their forums are that only a relatively small part the 'community' actually use the forums. The forums are very busy and everytime you refresh a page there are new posts that you have missed but when you consider how many editors there are meant to be then it is clear that a lot of them sit on the side lines without posting. It always seems to be the same "bunch" of editors who reply to questions. Just like the RZ I suppose.

 

Yeh 90% of editors are not even logging in or getting involved at all unless they want their own site or a clients' (friends') site to get listed.

The boneheads with no lives are always there ... funny cause they keep talking about how busy they are

 

Many of the ones in the Resourceless Zone also are the same ones who pop into other webmaster forums to chime in to defend DMOZ...

I would agree that their time could be put to better use actually doing the work (volunteer or not) they're supposed to be doing or (God forbid) implementing some of the suggestions they spend so much time telling us can't be implemented in those other forums.

 

Minstrel, AFAIK, DMOZ only has 1 or 2 programmers (paid AOL/TW staff) who can implement any changes to the scripts/system. Volunteer editors cannot implement any changes themselves.

Your criticisms regarding DMOZ editors use of time in posting in forums could easily be applied to everyone who participates in forums.

 

I'm not holding anyone up by the time I spend in forums, bernard. As for editors not being able to implement anything, (1) I'm sure you're correct -- I wouldn't trust most of them to turn off the lights; and (2) my point was they should spend more time adding sites and less time defending why they are too busy to add them.

 

I agree we have heard the "suffering" talk for so long, it gets old. Everytime on RZ or some other forums, they are crying about how hard their lives are. Noone wants to hear it anymore. Nobody believes it after so many lights have been shined into what is really going on behind closed doors.

Noone respects DMOZ anymore, that includes the good editors, the bad ones seem to not even respect themselves according to their conduct.

 

IMO, there are many false assumptions laden in that statement:

• editors owe anyone an obligation to review their site
• submitted sites will only be reviewed by editors who participate in forums
• submitted sites are listable
• editor's time participating in forums is a driving factor in delaying the review of any given submitted site

There may be some overlap there, but you get the idea (hopefully).

 

Oh, I get the idea, all right.

More DMOZ smokescreen for "yes, we agree the system is hopelessly flawed but we'll never admit it and we'll never fix it either".

You've also missed the most important part of what I said:

 

Reading your posts, I get the impression that you believe that all ODP editors should be site reviewing automatons spending every moment of their free time working on the ODP. Do you presume to judge how people should spend their free time? Do you apply the same standards and criticisms to yourself and everyone else who particpates here at DP with regards to their time management and perceived obligations?

 

This is a typical DMOZ stance, Bernard -- obfuscation.

Look, let me say this for the last time -- I don't know why it's such a difficult thing for you to understand:

I don't give a rat's a** how much time DMOZ editors spend on forums, watching TV, or sitting on the toilet. I don't personally care what they do at all. Just please spare all of us the incessant defensive condescending BS whenever anyone makes a comment or offers a criticism of the way things are done or a suggestion for improving something about DMOZ.

 

if the system/scripts in dmoz is so flawed and backward, why not get help in improving it? i'm sure many many many people will be more than willing to contribute time and expertise to help improve it.

you hear from the editors about how they have to work within the parameters that limit them - why not just improve the damn thing? or is the system/scripts kept retarded as an excuse and an entry barrier?

 

If the ODP was not the Google directory, I doubt many would give it a second thought. I know for fact that the bulk of submissions to DMOZ are spam, many more are not submitted properly, more still are unsuitable, while only a small % are suitable sites, described properly and within the submission guidelines.

What people don't realise though is that all submissions deserve to be treated the same. IMO ODP should start charging for submission. The amount is irrelevant, it is the mechanics of it that will help. You can't autosubmit to a paid inclusion (not on a grand scale available to the masses anyhow) If ther was a charge, then people would not submit 100's of identical sites (because they do now). This would cut down on the spam so much, that eventually there might not be a backlog, and editors would not get depressed everytime they log on.

This action would not remove some of the arrogant, ignorant editors, but it would surely lower the tension towards them. People like that exist in all walks of life, and there will always be their type who poke fun and relish the feeling of power over others. Sad but true, there is nothing that can be done.

 

owg, that's what i mean - why doesn't dmoz want to implement some of these improvements???

 

See this thread dating back to November-December 2003... just in case anyone thinks any of the crap spewed by those DMOZ editors at RZ is anything new.

 

no, its far from new.

 

it's been going on forever and it's really getting old. And Minstrel is right, it is the insults combined with the constant whining that we have been witnessing for years now. People become editors for a reason and then they seem to forget. Apply or don't ...

 

We have different definitions of obfuscation then. I understood your point. You apparently did not understand mine.

Right... Does "incessant BS" = anything that you do not agree with? I'm the one being condescending?

 

Talking about DMOZ is a waste of Shawn's bandwidth.

There are bigger fish to fry.

This thread should have died ages ago.

 

If I may say one more thing without starting an argument:

There are many grey areas in life but some things are plain right or wrong. What is going on at resource zone is wrong!

There is no excuse in the world which can despute and belittle that.

A lot of words of reasoning get taken as a defense since their bahaviour is undefendable.

I think everyone needs to be careful who to associate themselves with. A lot of the good editors are staying far away from RZ.

They are ashamed of what is going on. So why is it going on?

 

1. I'm going to assume you know what and where the Resourceless Zone is and that you've read at least one or two of the threads there.

2. I'm going to also assume that you know the definition of "incessant BS" well enough to have seen page after page of it at RZ.

3. I'm going to also assume that you don't realize that everytime you open your forum mouth you prove my point about the DMOZ gang.