Monthly ODP Report

Are you suggesting that 90% of those who join DMOZ are corrupt?

 

The master of selective quoting strikes again. [just to be clear, the answer is no.]

 

So what was the point of your posting, if this was not what you meant?

It is an indisputable fact that 90% have left DMOZ, my suggestion was that it is because of DMOZ failure as organization, you suggested they removed for abuse. Would you like to tell us in your opinion what percent left because of DMOZ failures and what percent were removed for abuse?

 

DMOZ failures - 1%, Abuse 1%. But since it has never been quantified and published I could be overstating those percentages.

What was the point of you posting selectively from mine?

 

Your abuse percentage is low by at least an order of magnitude.

 

Depends how you classify abuse - could be by removals - which aren't published - could include people who log in once list their own site and then disappear, time out - which are not collated. I didn't really have an opinion as it can't be quantified but since gworld was playing games...

[Added - gworld could find out for sure if he wanted to - by examining the perms logs for every editor since Day 1 and noting the reason their account was deactivated. Then checking time-outs against editing logs to see if they were a single add editor.]

 

LOL, obviously you don't need one when there is the blind faith in the cult.

 

I'd rather that than a belief in supernatural conspiracy theories.

 

It seems you are the one that believes in supernatural since you have no logical explanation for the 90% of editors that have left which leaves the only alternative that they must have been abducted by aliens according to your theory.

 

I think you will find I already mentioned my theory for the bulk of the lost editors. You just have to read it. But I also suggested that DMOZ might do well to email former editors who did not leave under a cloud, find out why, and invite them to return. Abusers account for some of the losses. Misunderstandings, fits of pique, boredom, run out of enthusiasm, burn-out, can't be arsed, got married, had kids, got a job, died, reached 18 and can hang out in bars in the evening, exhausted, computer died, jailed (Turkish editor), got pissed off with constant accusations of corruption, fell over and broke both arms preventing logging on, had an argument with another editor and walked away, etc. etc. etc. Alien abduction might be there I suppose - a large proportion of Americans apparently claim to have been abducted at some point.

 

Typical fate of DMOZ editors (90%):

• They are corrupt.
• Prone to misunderstandings.
• Get bored.
• Run out of enthusiasm.
• Get exhusted.
• Break both Arms.
• Argumentive and fight with other editors.

It is clear now, how could I imagine for a minute that can be something wrong with an organization when 90% quit.

 

My you are a hard case gworld. In one thread you a whining about the lack of ODP openness in this one you are gleefully twisting the internal statistics that are made public.

Ya know I wonder how many sign up to a yahoo group and lose interest. Or perhaps how many have signed up to your forum and quit? Is your forum a failure by your own definition? Diamonds are forever, participation in internet communities is not.

 

If my forum loses 90% of the people who join then yes it is a failure. If a magazine loses 90% of it's subscribers then it is a failure. If a business loses 90% of it's customers then it is a failure.
When a volunteer based organization loses 90% of it is volunteers then it is very much a failure.

The quote about diamond is cute, it seems a lot of people thought they are getting a diamond but soon discovered that DMOZ is just a cheap imitation.

 

Silly gworld, Trix are for kids!

 

Cute. It doesn't change the fact that with an occasional brief blip upwards your editor numbers have been on a downward slide for some time.

 

No, I suppose it doesn't but personally the editor numbers don't bother me at all. You caught me in an area of the directory that I don't care about. That's a problem for meta's and admins. This is a hobby, I'm just building categories for the fun of it.

On the other hand, from reading this forum I get the impression that when DMOZ is less important to seo that editors who are in it for the wrong reasons will bail. Is it possible that this is what's happening? And if so, isn't that a good thing?

 

It is called turnover of staff. Over what? Eight years now? People join, people leave. If you have a forum yourself that is that old then compare who was around at the start and who is around now. Sure, you'll find a hardcore who have lived through it all, but you'll also find lots who have lost interest and lots who have joined in later. There has been a steady turnover in this bit of DP over the last 6 months as far as I can see.

But the steady downward trend is something I am concerned about - this is one of the disagreements I had with the official priorities, I think work needs to be put into recruitment and retention as a matter of great urgency. Proper structured training modules for new editors for example. The numbers are already dangerously low for maintenance needs let alone growth. Just hope it doesn't get left too long.

 

gworld forgot another reason for editor attrition:

*Honest editors being booted out by the corrupt majority.

 

And the #1 reason editors continue to decline:

1. You can only go 'round and 'round in circles discussing the theoretical possibility of changes in policy and proecdure, knowing that every minute you do so your role as an editor becomes increasingly more irrelevant to the universe and that nothing is ever really going to change, for so many months before your brain falls out.

 

Are you talking about "editors and DMOZ" or "minstrel and Digitalpoint"?