The last thing I've heard was that they had a robot to filter out the spam submissions. Then the news was that the spider was broken. Seriously: If I was an editor, why should I care if there is no support. Just my 2 cents.
Ha! DMOZ and democratic in the same sentence - I never thought I would see the day. Just a little food for thought - Even when someone who edits for DMOZ claims there is a good deal of corruption, and they can prove it and even share some of the ways that people attain editor accounts in abundance - you are first shunned by the other editors, and then when you exploit them as in "I told you so" your editorship is revoked. The greatest part of all is - they don't even ask how the fraud is accomplished. I shared a great deal of confidential information with a gentelman from Time Warner whom I contacted when I was going through a battle of morals with DMOZ because nobody within the "club" wanted to hear about corruption... or even admit that it exists. I only told ONE, and I mean literally ONE person at DMOZ about what I had learned in regards to how people obtain multiple editor accounts - the one person I came to trust at DMOZ. If you are a DMOZ editor thinking about speaking out in the RZ, or the Editor Forum - DON'T! If you are a DMOZ editor thinking about speaking out anywhere else - cloak your IP, hide your identity, and for gods sake, use a proxy (if you want to remain an editor), because you WILL be removed and your ability to prove corruption will be taken away. (regardless of weather your information is valuable in the fight against internal corruption or not) What some former editors know about the exploits that exist at DMOZ could allow virtually ANYONE to obtain an editor account. It's gotten out of control, and I don't think there is any chance of DMOZ getting "clean." Back on the topic - I want a democratic forum as well, and they tend to gang bang anyone who speaks ill of anything even related to DMOZ with red rep and comments that attempt to discredit the persons character and ethics. I've never red repped any of them - but if I do, I'll have the decency to leave my name. Anyone want to play a game... perhaps its time for some more screenies. I'm sure the folks on digg.com would love to see a step by step guide to getting your own editor account (without applying) - which can be and IS being done.
Exactly. To have a non functioning system is what many with real power in DMOZ want. They have DMOZ were they want it to be. For those people, DMOZ is not broken, it is PERFECT.
The funny thing is, I've applied twice to be an editor, twice turned down (of course), but I've never taken the time to read thru everything. The second time I went on the resource zone, and saw a lot of rudeness that has turned me off. It was really unprofessional and I figgured it wasn't worth all the hassle. The question remains what is going to happen to DMOZ long-term. Will it just go away? As long as listings impact search engine rankings, it will be a topic of discussion. How much it really does have an impact is up for debate, but it definitely does make a difference.
DMOZ certainly could use some backend/policy changes IMO. For example I would make it so editors can't see how many pending submissions there are (just for the psychological factor) and I would also make people approvers/deniers rather than EDITORS. So if you can't write a compliant title/description, or put it in the right category, then the submission simply disappears into thin air (of course then you will have everyone complaining about 95% of the submissions being denied instead of complaining about how long it takes to be listed since editors have to edit/reclassify most submissions manually). Those two things alone would be huge as far as making it actually POSSIBLE to get caught up.
The perfect solution would be for Google to stop using DMOZ for their directory. That would kill it in a week. And then, let Google build its own new directory.
Now we're talking! This is what we need to see. Proof of scandal, corruption, bribery, competitor sabatoge, fraud, extortion... I want a DMOZ editor to just once admit, "Damn, this whole thing is broken and beyond repair."
Oh, there have been many of those... many threads about editors speaking out about the corruption in there. And then the DMOZ mafia comes in and jumps on him. Has happened many times.
Well it would have to be a "bribe your way into it" (like Yahoo), because I'm pretty sure there isn't a group of Google employees who want the ultra boring task of looking at (end fixing) a never ending pile of submissions. Maybe DMOZ should require a $5 "submission fee" (doesn't mean you get listed) to cut out the spam. {lol} Well I haven't witnessed the "DMOZ corruption" myself (although with 50,000+ editors, I'm sure some of them are corrupt). For the most part it's burnt out editors that can't keep up.
So who is really in charge over there? Who does an editor turn to for suggestions other than a head editor who may just ignore the suggestion completely and then turn on the person who has spoken up. I know that some editors get harrassed for speaking their minds publically. But they normally do, because they cannot voice their own opinions within DMOZ without getting the cold shoulder afterwards. It makes me wonder what's the use in having DMOZ around really. It was a great idea and concept from the getgo, but somewhere down the line the ball was dropped, and now it seems to run downhill without anyone really running after it. Totally agree, and that money could be used to actually create some spam filter software that actually works
DMOZ seems to be a huge cold organization where no one has a clue about what the other guy next to him is doing
There is an internal forum - where a lot of questions get asked and answered. Additionally, editors can send feedback to other editors and ask for assistance privately. There is a mentoring program. There is an IRC chat room for editors only. - Added - answering the question about who an editor can turn to to ask questions.
I know it's really cliche, but the best thing you can do it improve DMOZ is to apply to be an editor (and reapply until you are approved). They don't have any problem with you editing categories where your own sites go, as long as they are legitimately list-able sites. I think most editors (myself included) started at DMOZ because of the frustration in the amount of time it took to get your own site listed.
This is not true, there is hardly ever corruption without somebody benefiting from it. For those people DMOZ is a warm, profitable place, just PERFECT and the way they like it.
Lmocr, I'm sorry but: from what we see, there are no changes worth mentioning. It's been the same for the 5 years I've spent in online marketing. DMOZ is not improving, no matter what any editor may tell me. Heck, the credible ones will tell me in private that it's doing rather the opposite.
In fact... if anyone wants to edit any category (or sub-category) of mine, I'll personally help teach you the ropes (someone did the same for me)... http://dmoz.org/profiles/digitalpoint.html
Those weren't changes - I was just answering the question about where an editor can turn to for help. Based on my reading of "ancient texts" aka old forum threads - the editing scene is a much kinder, gentler place to be than it was four or five years ago