So I guess in my last DMOZ blog entry I will add a link to your DMOZ article and it should be all good
I got two in DMOZ without submitting. I guess in some categories the editors do not have sufficient submissions and therefore they go looking sites themselves.
Editors are always looking for interesting sites to add to DMOZ. Reviewing sites in the suggestion pool is not considered a priority by most editors, since the majority of these suggestions are generally lacking in quality and unique content. During this week, I added close to 100 sites, none of which were suggested. Please do understand; the editing in DMOZ is a hobby or a pastime for most. It is not a job, an obligation or a commitment of any sort. That is one of the reasons why editors are more inclined to look for the sites to list themselves than rely on the suggested pool.
My favorite DMOZ activity was putting small towns on the map. Pick a small town with no category let alone listings. Google on the town's name and you can normally get 5 or 6 results even for the smallest hamlet. Only got defeated once - somewhere in Kentucky even the USPS had deleted from their databases. Same for movies and bands and prominent people with no category. Probably not what webmasters want to hear but maybe 65-75% of the sites I added had never been submitted. A large majority of categories have no submitted sites waiting for review - the unreviewed submissions are generally concentrated in particular commercial categories where no volunteer feels like treading.
When I first started I added 400+ sites where the development company was too damn lazy to submit them. The sites are all regional, and the owners probably wouldn't know what SEO stood for if you put a gun to their heads. It gave me good experience finding my way around to get the best category... I still add local companies when I find them and they impress me enough for me to remember their url when I'm next in editing mode.
It's probably even higher than that. I think it's the best way to do it. A few 1000 people trawling the net every now and then adding sites they like sounds better than all the rest of the ranting and raving you hear from webmasters. IMO They should completely scrap the submission process.
That would at least align expectations with reality. It would also finalize the victory of search engines over directories, as you could not get into DMOZ without first showing up in the search engine SERPS so that a DMOZ editor could stumble across your web site.
Or by advertising in a magazine or newspaper, by having your URL on your vehicle, handing out business cards, on billboards, on television, by listing in a niche directory, having a link on a related site - or anywhere else an editor might see it. Most of the URLs I've found, I didn't find by using a search engine.
As an edtor, it is the job I signed up for to make my categorie(s) of very high quality. This means going out and FINDING high quality sites, as well as having sites submitted. 90% of the listings in my category I added myself.