I got kinda bored searching DMOZ. It is so bland. I decided to add a little "flair" by incorporating the RDF dump into the KingBloom Directory as an off shoot. http://dmoz.kingbloom.com I welcome any suggestions or comments.
I love it! The screen shots are especially useful; I've already located several outdated listings in a matter of minutes and removed them. Thank you!
very nice - pretty fast, too! did you know, the fact you have screenshots of the webpages helps us editors? The ones without screenshots are worth us investigationg, since many are 404
mia, if you are using thumbshots.org screenshots, I think you should give credit to them. See http://www.thumbshots.org/license.pxf
It's not the only ODP clon with screenshots. One of them (mine ) also has a report dead links link, which points to dmoz update URL script. That should make things easier for you. For example, take a look at: http://www.geek-toy.com/Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists/G/Godsmack/ http://www26.brinkster.com/smackpt/ is not working: http://dmoz.org/cgi-bin/update2.cgi...smack&url=http://www26.brinkster.com/smackpt/ I could add a link to http://editors.dmoz.org/editors/editcat.cgi?cat=Arts/Music/Bands_and_Artists/G/Godsmack if it is useful for editors.
Very nice work muchacho! I hope people take advantage of the report dead links link. These two sites can be used to illustrate what we editors mean when we use the tired old canned response that "webmasters are not our customers, the data users are." --> mia and muchacho have stepped forward to admit they use ODP. Thank you. It goes way beyond the big players such as google, which is also why we keep saying we don't pay attention to or care about Page Rank. (We really don’t.) Here we have two resources, each using dmoz data in their own creative way, working to make the web a better place by providing the means to use the core ODP data to access knowledge about the content of the web in a unique way. Not advertising, seo manipulation, or marketing crap, but actual content. I see a lot of talent in forums such as this. Sadly, too much of it is focused on the negative. The variety of options to process and present the ODP data is limited only by the human imagination. If our users are able to present this data in a way that complies with the ODP license and at the same time makes them money, then great! If editors can use the work of these creative individuals to improve the directory, then that’s even better! Working to help the ODP improve, (whether you do it as a volunteer editor, or a web user who suggests good online resources, or as a data user who presents the ODP database in a unique way,) can only make the web more useful to everyone. Well, everyone but spammers, but we've said all along it's about unique content. I’m a relatively new member here at Digital Point, but from what I’ve seen, I think it’s acceptable to hijack a thread? If so, I’d like to request that anyone else using ODP data in a creative way, please share the URL so we can see what you’re doing. Inquiring minds want to know.
Actually I am using a script callled "phpODP" which I purchased from the author. Yes, they are using thumbshots in their script. The license I purchased said you could remove the copyright/links from the pages if you bought the script. I did not notice anything about the thumbshots license in their terms. I will look into that. Thank you for letting me know.
Thank you. We can certainly add something like this easy enough. I wonder if it would make sense to create a crawler that would not only find did links, but report them directly to editors of their respective category so they will be notified of updates automatically. Something to tinker with this weekend anyway. It's gonna be cold here, so looks like lots of inside work for me. Perhaps instead of a "Report Dead Link" URL, we can do something like our KingBloom Directory does. We have a crawler that check to see if a site is active. It checks daily, and does not de-list a site right away, mainly to keep from generating false positives for whatever reason. Once a certain threshold is reached the site is placed into a queue where it is de-listed and can be reviewed. It is eventually deleted if it does not reappear. Using that set up, we could have the system just send out the "dead link" notice directly to the ODP after all the thresholds are met. Basically automate the process, but do it in such a way that it keeps from showing a live site (that may have only been momentarily unreachable) as dead.
grrr Mia http://dmoz.kingbloom.com/Society/History/Timelines/By_Topic/ There is no thumbshot for my History timelines and Articles
Well, that's not ThumbShots fault. This works: http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=http://www.yahoo.com This does not: http://open.thumbshots.org/image.pxf?url=http://www.historyexplorer.net The site was likely dead when last polled. Hope this helps.
Very nice mia. Just curious, how come the site doesnt take you directly to a subcategory if it is an @link ( that is an @link on dmoz)? You have to then click again on "[Click here to visit the site]".
Because for one, I did not write the script. That is just what it does. Secondly, I kinda like it, because it keeps you in the site longer, and offers you time to view a few more adverts