this is straight from http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm He writes: The "Secret Hand" DMOZ Issues 1. Legitimate sites CAN'T GET IN 2. No Accountability 3. Corrupt Editors 4. Competitive Sites Barred 5. Dirty Tricks Employed 6. Rude dmoz editors Flawed concept - communism doesn't work Free editing? It ain't free, baby. The Google Directory is produced by an unknown, ungoverned, unpoliced, ill-intentioned, retaliatory, monopoly enterprise, consisting of profiteering power-ego editors feathering their own nests - the ODP. Somebody at the top is making millions, and needs to go to jail. Enough already! AND: This is a b|tch. Google's directory comes STRAIGHT from the DMOZ directory. You should try to get into dmoz. But you can't. Be careful whom you approach with the old spondulix - Formal DMOZ Bribe Instructions. It is almost impossible to get into DMOZ. This site cannot get in, after waiting over 2 YEARS (33 months). Not even in the lowest, most insignificant category, "Personal Pages". I guess I just don't "measure up" to the other 20,000+ sites in the personal category. I might as well give them a REAL reason to blackball me (this discourse). I'm not the suck-up type - I kissed them off long ago. DMOZ needs to wither away and die. What a waste of time! Google needs to DO SOMETHING about the dysfunctional Open Directory Project - the ODP! Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely MY OWN NOTES: Well i am trying to get sites in threre for a year+ now and never anything happened....really makes you wonder...if you can't get it..what's the point ? If you can't get in (for whatever reason)..then this is certainly no "OPEN" directory Project...but rather communism, but more in the sense of "failed communism" It just wont in y head that they are THAT MUCH swamped with work that it takes 1, 2 YEARS to get some sites listed in there....some sites i personally "applied" for getting in DMOZ i already sold again .... who in this world does even GET in that elite-club called "DMOZ"...and: How ?
DMOZ is a complete joke. Almost all commerce-based categories are edited by the corrupt owners of sites that are already listed in the categories. They deny competitors. It's as simple as that.
To sum this up - the ODP does not owe you anything, the volunteer editors do not owe you anything. Crying and moaning that your personal page site is not listed is a waste of time. Try other ways to promote your website - if this is what you really want to do. If you don't want to work to promote your website, find a hobby that is not stressful to take your mind off of not getting in the the ODP - you will be much happier.
I edited and added over 20K sites to the ODP. How the hell does that make me corrupt? Your statement would mean that I own 20K sites. Want to look at my bank book? Making blanket statements that editors are "corrupt owners of sites" is a bunch of bull. I am not trying to start trouble, but after a while, the moaning, groaning, and miss-information that is tossed around like "matadors" during the 'running of the bulls' really starts to grate on me. While I had issues with the ODP which caused me to rethink my volunteerism, I have respect for the editors that work hard to make the directory something that they are proud of. I was proud of the work I did on the directory, and I hope that someday, someone will appreciate it. This may never happen, but I can only hope.
Um, I don't recall addressing YOU personally, but I DO recall using the ever-so-critical word, "most." Learn to read a little more carefully. Neither do posters at DP owe you anything. People have opinions. Don't jump down people's throats because their opinions may differ from yours. Your statements here perfectly personify the snobby, all-powerful, go-f-yourself-if-you-don't-like-it attitude of the majority of ODP editors.
The only think that Dmoz is good at is wasting webmasters time. If you have a good site then it's really difficult to get it in.
This thread is a duplicate: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=367353 By pointing such a post at editors in general is a near direct attack against all current and past editors. That is certainly something to keep in mind. Actually, DP members owe other DP members at least some respect. Heading into the SEO forum and taking badly about Webmasters that specialize in SEO is likely going to return some animosity. Likewise, coming into the ODP forum and talking badly about DMOZ editors is likely going to bring some slack from Editors and Ex-Editors. You have just reaped what you have sewn. And your statements have perfectly personified the ignorance of non-editors. Shall we now call all things even?
Nice red rep you left for me, EducationLinks. Shows how really intelligent you are when faced with an honest answer to your post. You left: for me. Real nice. Do you kiss your mommy with that mouth?
all this hatred and abuse over one directory ! guys/gals come on....get your act together....those that have abused others over something that amounts to nothing should be ashamed if you want to make something better....do something about. stop moaning and crying
I think there is a misplaced belief in some quarters that a DMOZ listing is somehow a pot of gold, and editors not listing some affiliate ringtones or drop ship ladder site is somehow depriving a poor webmaster's children of food and shelter. A DMOZ listing will not in fact do anything of any significance to any website's popularity or profit margin. Such webmasters have no-one to blame but themselves if their little web business isn't doing so well, certainly not DMOZ, its listings policies or its editors. The Internet is like any other kind of business and needs a lot of hard work to make any profit from. And only a few people will make big bucks and they will do it by offering decent products and services at the right price to people that want them. And, of course, by learning marketing techniques and applying them effectively. That is just basic business sense and applies equally to the Internet as well as elsewhere. The culture of blaming someone else is all too prevalent, and DMOZ editors are easy targets. Unfortunately people are taken in by get rich quick schemes using the Internet and are not best pleased when their investment doesn't quite pan out that way. Truth is that very few Internet only businesses ever make it big; most successful sites are based on established walk-in businesses and the few that have made it without that background are those who got in on the ground floor with a new idea, and have managers experienced in the sector they are targetting. For example, anyone can set themselves up as an SEO, even learn a bit about keywords and the like, and sell their services, but whether they know anything about real business and real marketing is another question entirely, and if they don't then they are a waste of space. DMOZ has a lot of flaws in the way it operates and is managed, it does have pockets of corruption although the vast majority of editors I have come across personally, and that numbers in the hundreds if not thousands, have been straight as a die. For DMOZ though it is a lose-lose area - when corrupt editors are removed they squeal about being found out and claim innocence (and a few are undoubtedly innocent, that is one of the flaws - the evidence should be exposed publicly, though a large number are crooks). If an editor isn't removed when an accusation is made, then DMOZ is riddled with corruption - once more there are undoubtedly corrupt editors who have escaped removal for whatever reason but virtually all of the accusations I have personally investigated were completely unfounded - the accusers site is not listed because (a) it is unlistable under DMOZ guidelines, (b) it has never been looked at because DMOZ has insufficient editor resources, or (c) the site has never been submitted to the right category and could be floating anywhere in the system (the database is unsophisticated and submission are not easy to track unless you know where they were submitted). But none of this matters. To a webmaster who takes the time to learn their trade, whether DMOZ sucks or not is irrelevant and not worth wasting their energy on.
Interesting that most of the venom on here comes from one of three groups of people 1. Editors who have been fired 2. Applicants for editorship who have been refused 3. Webmasters who have not had their site listed. Hmmm anyone see a common thread?
Gee, Columbo who would have thought that? I wonder why people who never heard of DMOZ never complain about it? BTW brizzie and minstrel don't fit any of your profiles and that last one managed to make some 10,000 posts complaining about DMOZ.
Why is it that DMOZ editors demand that the public be "polite," but it's perfectly acceptable for DMOZ editors to be pompously rude for absolutely no reason?
DMOZ demands nothing of the public. It asks people to help if they want to. I've listed sites belonging to the most obnoxious individuals, because the site was listable and original. If you are rude about editors then, as private individuals, they have every right to respond in kind. They can also be as rude as they like on the website they own and operate as a forum - RZ - and you have a perfect right not to visit or post there. I try to avoid it like the plague these days myself. You said in post 2: That's pretty rude I would say for someone who knows jack shit about most editors. Following it up with obscenities in a red rep also seems pretty rude. A more reasoned statement would have been to say Some commerce-based categories are edited by the corrupt owners of sites that are already listed in the categories. They have been known to deny competitors. When caught by hard evidence, most are removed though some, inexplicably, remain in situ. It's nowhere near as simple as that but at the end of the day, who cares? Only editors really."
There are many things wrong out there in ODP. But never mind, its not everything. I suggest, just submit your site once and forget it. At this stage we should not moan over our sites not being accepted