new dmoz announcement (no longer accepting status checks)

This sucks imo...

from http://resource-zone.com/forum/announcement.php?f=10

 

I dont really see it as being that big of a deal. Getting one of the editors to confirm your site is in the queue to get reviewed doesnt speed up the submission process.

 

No If they only could close the whole resource less zone, it would be even better.

 

seems reasonable to me. Maybe they can get more work done this way

 

Perhaps if they actually took the time to review and approve submissions, there would be no need for people to ask "what the hell is going on with my application/submission?"

It's not rocket science. Turn around time should be 48 hours or less. Come on DMOZ.

 

True, but it would appear that the vast majority of people asking about their submissions are not asking 10 seconds after submitting their site. You are talking about people that submitted a month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months...out.

I don't want to sound anti-DMOZ here, but I have noticed and ever increasing arrogance in moderators, editors, etc., as well as an intentional need to slow the process for reasons unknown to mear mortals.

 

Well, THAT was a miserable failure, wasn't it?

Letting people interact with editors is only positive PR if the editors don't behave like assholes. The problem was that most of the ones who WEREN'T assholes stayed the hell away...

What a joke

DMOZ: If you really want to improve your PR, close down the RZ entirely or banish the moron editors who mostly populate it now (and let's not get into any silliness about who those editors are -- it's pretty easy to spot them). Then start actually listening to some fo the suggestions about improving DMOZ efficiency that have been posted on countless forums, including the RZ, over the years, instead of the canned response of "you don't understand what DMOZ is all about - that can't be done".

I doubt that any of this will happen, however. My next recommendation is to prepare for extinction and the inevitable implosion of the project.

Note: PR here = Public Relations

 

"Miserable failure" is a good two-word summary of DMOZ.

 

All this should be academic when Goole introduce their 'Trust Rank' patent with the only human interaction being within the Googleplex, rather than seeding from DMOZ.

 

I believe so and hope so, OWG... hence my comment, "prepare for extinction".

 

The forum is the reason I'm in dmoz in the first place. I was never added after waiting what seemed like eternity. I inquired about my status and was added after 24 hours or so.

I hope they can focus on what needs to be done so people don't need to pester them.

 

I'm cynical -- what makes you believe that Google won't seed from DMOZ?

 

At the risk of incurring minstrel's wrath by being an editor that (in his words) keeps "popping their snotty little noses into threads like this one" once again, I will offer this:

Pretty much every serious suggestion has been listened to, and discussed in the editor's forums. Some have been adopted - in actual fact, doing status checks on the Resource Zone came at the suggestion of many submitters, and the RZ itself was set up in an attempt to address the outcry of webmasters on various forums saying that the ODP was an "Ivory Tower" and that they didn't feel like they had any means to interact with the editors.

Well, now they have. And it wasn't pretty. I think it became very obvious that the priorities of ODP editors and webmasters tend to clash. Reading your (and other's) concerns on this forum shows me that. The ODP still seems like an "out of touch Ivory Tower" to you, and I think I understand why you feel that way. I don't think that simply having contact with the editors helped much.

Anyway, for the sake of anyone else reading, you can take my word for it that there are a LOT of suggestions made on external fora which are taken and discussed amongst the editors to see if it meshes with the "Vision" of what the ODP is. Just because the discussion isn't in public for all to see, and just because not every suggestion gets implemented, does not mean that people are not listening. If you want to believe that I am another one of those corrupt ODP editors, then I suppose you'll just say I am lying about that too, but just in case I have at least a shred of credibility left, I offer up that comment.

...and about letting the ODP die - I absolutely agree. If it is truly no longer relevant then that is exactly what will happen.

Ok, minstrel, now you can tell me to go away again.

 

Not at all, Alucard. A post like that one is always welcome. And, in case anyone wonders, no, that wasn't sarcastic... I meant it.

 

Maybe "hope" is a better word, WS... but I'm not sure how much benefit Google derives from DMOZ even now, and that benefit is bound to decrease progressively as time goes on. The more methods they have to determine "importance" and "relevance", the less they will look to DMOZ to help them do that...

I sincerely believe it's only a matter of time. And as I've said many times, once that happens, DMOZ becomes just one of hundreds of directories and not even the most relevant one.

 

I would be happy with 48 days. A 48 week guarantee would also be an improvement.

 

Even waiting to be an editor is a long wait. I applied to become an editor a little more than 2 weeks ago and no responce yet...

 

Minstrel, I'll give you an idea of what sort of weight I think G gives to dmoz entries:
One of my sites
Primary keyword (happens to be the exact name of my club & site) only 150K results.
The long time #1 site not updated in last 2 years. Has dmoz entry + about 30 IBL's, PR2 site.
It's taken me 4 months to get that top spot - 300+ IBL's, 300+ pages indexed (actual site is about 4500 pages), PR2 homepage, PR5 internals.
We sat at about 100 IBL's for around 2 months (due to me having other commitments). It wasn't until I upped the IBL's to 300 that we took the #1 spot and knocked them to #2.
For a long time we had way more IBL's but they had a dmoz entry. So by my estimation, it took a 10 fold increase in IBL's to overcome that 1 dmoz listing (even though the page at dmoz is only PR3).

How many of those 300 IBL's G has actually found, we'll never know (due to their bad link: ). It might be that they've only found 50, or they may have found all 300 - who knows. But without doubt it takes quite a few IBL's to overcome a dmoz listing.

This is a good example because the keyword exists in both of our cricket clubs - it's just that it's our entire club name.

 

Hell, I applied two months ago. There are people that have applied even longer than that. The biggest problem with not allowing anyone to inquire about submissions now is, there is no way you know if you were even rejected. If they had some type of facility where by status updates could be obtained, or perhaps an email blasted out to let you know what the hell was going on, I could gain a bit more respect for the process.

From an editor standpoint, as an applicant, you really do not know what to think until you ask. Then you get a response like, oh ya, you were denied a month ago. What? So we are all supposed to sit with baited breath waiting to find out nothing? Then you also have responses like, you were not denied, but your application is awaiting review. Or how about, we are currently re-evaluating your category of choice.

I cannot understand it. Is DMOZ really that popular, big, overwhelmed and under staffed? I am skeptical at best.

 

This is a historical day, finally something that we can agree on with a DMOZ editor.