With all the complaints on both sides about suggesting, submitting, and listing un-reviewed sites, what would happen if ODP got rid of the whole "suggest a site" process? Would it be any worse than it is now? Would it be easier for editors to find and list sites on there own? It would definitely do away with the topic of "suggested site status."
As a former (obscure niche) editor I would have to say it should be removed but only for spam categories, some obscure niches are very hard to discover websites so it would nice to leave it. Or more practically if category has already more then 10 sites submitted by public new submissions would be turned off so until these are cleared there wouldn't be a pill up. But this whole thing is pointless while editor numbers are drooping and secrecy/corruption paranoia is preventing anything constructive from happening. General overhaul if more pressing matter, if DMOZ had Wiki numbers there wouldn't be any backlog and I can't see how much bad would it be with all the crap which keeps getting discovered hidden somewhere deep in DMOZ - at lest there would be many more editors checking listed sites.
They'll just submit in a category still open to submissions. Close all submissions in all commercial categories. Re-open them up on a selective basis depending on the experience. Can't make things any worse.
You could reduce the amount of spam significantly overnight by implementing a smart submission system instead of the current form. Leave submissions open but make it a much much lengthier process that heavily discriminates against multiple submitters of crap but at the same time makes the title and description far more compliant. Conscientious webmasters who took the time to go through the process would benefit greatly, so would editors.
My thoughts are for the Moment is to take all submission down and let editors review the 7 figures UNREVIEWED. While doing it the ADMINS can come up with an upgraded version of Submission process or they can ask one EX-DMOZ Editor here. ALL THEY need to DO is ASK. Right brizzie ?
In the categories I was overseeing, submissions were actually very useful. It would have been a loss to remove site submissions. New sites can take many, many months to achieve SE visibility. Without the submissions, I might never have found out about them. I the Jewelry category, in which I also spent some time, there were thousands and thousands of little home sites. Again, not something that lends itself to "category building" by the editor. They were a pain in the neck to review, for sheer numbers, but they were overwhelmingly legitimate. I believe several sections should have site submission turned off, though, that attract an overwhelming number of affiliates and other dodgy websites.
I'll do my best to help anyone who asks nicely and hold no grudges. Helleborine's experience is quite likely why a smart submission system is a better solution than to switch them off entirely. A large number of those will be located in horrible categories, like e-cards and ring tones, I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. In the world of business when resources get tight many organisations shed high effort low gain activities and focus on core business. What do e-cards, ring tones, online gambling, porn sites, etc. bring to the DMOZ party. Nothing but trouble. Drop them, remove countless problems, consolidate effort in areas where DMOZ remains king, is maintained properly, is truly valuable to surfers at large. If the editor base expands again in the future then the luxuries can be re-explored. Either DMOZ cuts its cloth to match the resources available to it, or the declining editor base is unable to maintain the diverse thread of categories and the entire project collapses in on itself.
You bring up a good point, brizzie. No one knows what proportion of the queue is made up of ringtones, travel affiliates, and casinos. How many sites are waiting in "normal" categories, vs. in "spammy" categories? Has this every been estimated?
From personal experience "normal" categories usually don't have more then one site on waiting list and that same website can wait for months since there are so little editors which can cover everything. Your average normal webmaster which doesn't know or care about SEO and has no idea that DMOZ even exists, most of these websites exist for small audience of friends and are literally impossible to discover unless you're familiar with that particular niche or one of his friends submits his site as a favor. So separating normal for spammy and letting kids play with normal categories without policing them all the time would give massive boost to listings.
It's too late to start exploring options like this. That's like worrying about whether the person is getting enough calcium or whether his social skills need some work when he is in the last few months of a terminal illness.
Didn't you hear the news? One of my countrymen has found out how to revive dead cell... http://www.medils.hr/Default.aspx?art=127&sec=96 So if Voodoo magic fails to bring back DMOZ as Zombie it can still be brought back one night. IT LIVES!
I think a smart submission process would be nice, but it would probably be pretty difficult to add on to the current version of DMOZ. I don't think we realize just how old the DMOZ system actually is. As far as I know they aren't even keeping their data in an SQL database. It is some sort of filesystem database. (Although the do make it available for download as SQL). While it may need a major overhaul, how many people do you know that actually use DMOZ to find something? I think most people are just going to look on Google search or if they want something in more of a directory style they are going to go to Delicious where things are more up-to-date.