DMOZ Status

[Loopdog]

Hi all

Just wondering if anybody could shed some light on the status of DMOZ, like most people I`ve tried to get on there but i`ve come to the conclusion that its a waste of time. The part of the directory in which i thought may have been an advantage but when i decided to check the listings in the part of the directory i was intersted in being part of, well, dead links, links that lead to sites which have no relevence, some links even lead me to porn sites, quite a few of the sites had what you wanted until you decided download, dead links, a lot of kids use my site and sites like it, the fact that dmoz leads these kids to porn is very sad, it must be one of the worst directorys on the net, so poorly managed its unbelievable, the content is old and dated, if the main engines do in the most part drop ODP it will be a blessing.

[Alan Perkins]

Hi Loopdog, welcome to the forums :hi:

I'm by no means a DMOZ expert but (until one arrives) I must say I find the Google version (http://directory.google.com/), sorted on PageRank order, to be one of the best directories around.

What category(s) are you talking about?

[ihelpyou]

Welcome to the forums Loopdog! :hi:

Well, DMOZ is a volunteer directory. I know they can be very frustrating, but there are a few real good editors in there. We have a couple of them as members.

Have you tried to email the category editor you are talking about? If you cannot get ahold of them, go to the next level up editor.

[Loopdog]

Hi There

Thanks for the quick replys, just had a quick browse through the part of the directory i mentioned again, i did this about a month ago, does look as if someone got rid of the porn links, so theres someone home but I still found dead links and sites that are`nt relevent.


http://dmoz.org/Arts/Music/Sound_Files/Samples_and_Loops/

[newriver]

Should not be a lot of dead links in DMOZ, they have ways of getting rid of them automatically. In terms of porn links, I have to imagine that every directory is just as easily manipulated by the bate and switch tactics of porn sites.

[Loopdog]

Hi there


so ODP is getting rid of the dead links automatically, doesn`t look that works to well either, bit like ODP all round, all the more resaon why people should drop it, the update dead links doesn`t work, the editors do`nt do anything and the directory has dated and poor results, like i said before it will be a blessing if the main engines drop it and the sooner the better.

[ihelpyou]

hey loopdog, as I am not a big fan of odp either for the reasons you may be stating, I will not bash them. We really should not do that as they are trying to get things straightened out. The main thing is they are trying. You have to remember they are Volunteers and do not make anything at all, compared to Yahoo and Looksmart editors who DO make money and are employed. That is a big difference.

[Loopdog]

Hi

Thanks again for your thoughts, i see what your saying with ODP trying to straigten things out but if they just put something on the site to say that then maybe people would`nt feel the need to slate them, as you mentioned Yahoo and looksmart get paid for inclusion in the directory, i did get listed in Yahoo with no problems and without having to pay anything, one of things that i find a bit of a puzzle is that other webmasters who have the same kind of site that your trying to get indexed, i can`t see how that can benefit anybody, if they see you`re site as competition then they`re not going to list you, more than likely get blacklisted, there`s so many flaws within ODP and the time is would take to straighten out(cant see them ever nsorting it), hopefully enought time will pass for the major engines to see that there wasting there time too.

[Farhan]

You have to remember they are Volunteers and do not make anything at all,

Doug:
May i add that yes! most of them "may be" volunteers but in my case i feel that they are my competitors. I have just made once to get into Dmoz, but since then...its just a process of waiting..... till when? i dont know. i have even mailed to the upper categories...but still no response.

i dont know, how many will agree...but i wish they put some fee for review like other directories ( NOT 299 of course!!) but a minimal amount will be accpetable to many, considring the importance of the directory

[Loopdog]

Hi There

That sounds cool, the idea of fee, that would sort things out for sure, paying would also raise the profile of directory and hopefully get rid of the all the rubbish.

I`d send ODP a mail with your suggestion, pretty sure I woundn`t get a reply though.

[ihelpyou]

I don't think a fee would change anything much as the editors are still volunteers.... they are Not paid.

[Loopdog]

Hi there

I suppose if people were paying a small fee and some of that fee went in the direction of the editor then the incentive would be there to keep things running smoothly, even if it was only a slight amount the incentive would get the job done.

Superb forum, all i can say is quality.

[newriver]

<biting tongue>
The fee idea will not work, if you have a volunteer system they would have to legally pay every volunteer if they accepted fees for the volunteer service.

Loopdog, sounds like you have had a real bad experience, why don't you send me a PM telling me about it? I'll see if I can help you.

In terms of editors not responding, if you recieved as many emails as many editors do, and they all said the exact same thing, you would probably stop responding as well.

I usually respond to intelligent emails, but I have to say most of them are not.

My typical email (95% of them say this verbatim)

Tradman,
I am the owner of "XYZ Company", we do not like the title and description of our site. (I always list the real company name as the title, I research until I find the real name so I don't give the spam name). Please change our title to " Free Online Term Life Insurance Quotes" and our description to " Free term life insurance quotes online, whole life insurance, variable life insurance, VUL, universal life insurance. The best online term life insurance site on the web."

A- Their real company name is already listed, I am not going to give a spam title like that.
B- Are they freaking stupid trying to get a description like that?
C- Didn't their mommas ever teach them manners for their letter writing skills?
D- It gets real frustrating when you recieve the same idiotic request up to 30 times a day.
E- It gets even more frustrating to see people bash your work in forums when they have put zero hours into building the directory that you have spend hundreds and hundreds of hours on for free.

DMOZ editors are not your competitors, if they were they would not be there long. Upper level editors have listed several thousands of other peoples websites, and weeded through several hundred thousand spam submissions.
Think about how many yahoo and looksmart submissions get rejected for valid reasons. These people paid 199 or 299 to get a review, now imagine how many BS submissions the typical DMOZ editor gets when anybody can submit any BS site for free.

I guess what I am trying to say is, instead of complaining, join and help fix what you see the problems are. It is not tough to do.</biting tongue>

[ihelpyou]

Yes, I agree completely with newriver. Because it is volunteer, I would not want to be an editor at this time as I know I could not spend the time necessary to fix things and handle all of the bad emails and submissions they get.

For those of you who do have some time, you should sign up to be an editor. That is the only true and honest way to fix anything you see wrong with a volunteer directory.

[Alan Perkins]

I also agree with newriver, apart from those <biting tongue> tags. He did not appear to be biting his tongue. Or perhaps he was, literally, as he typed.

Also, newriver, it's only fair to point out that experience on all directories, paid and particularly unpaid, varies widely according to the category editor.

Don't be put off, Loopdog. Take up newriver's PM offer...

[Loopdog]

Hi all

I am sorry if i had you biting your tongue Newriver but it is a public forum about DMOZ, if punters do`nt like something and it appears to them that its not doing what its supposed to surely we can say what I feel.

i do appreciate the PM offer tho, most kind after I bashed you on the forums.

I`m can appreciate that you and many others like you have put many hours into the areas of ODP but the area which i mention at the beginning of this thread does`nt look as if anybody has spent an hour on it in the last couple of years, if you was read the list of rules that you read before you post off DMOZ it mentions a number of guidelines in relation to sites and getting them listed, if you was to trawl through the part of the directory i`m talking about then you`ll know what i mean, dead links, when you get to a site, dead links, broken downloads, sites that are`nt relevent, I`m not sure how this can benifit the user, if people are coming along and discovering the same as what i`m discovering there not coming back and that can`t be good for DMOZ and can`t be very good for editors like yourself who do seem to care deeply about there contribution to DMOZ and righly so.

I have tried to become an editor but the reply i received said the part of the directory i`m interested in is fully represented by editors.

Cheers

[ihelpyou]

Yep. That is what we mean loopdog. NO directory can have a perfect score...... not Yahoo, not anyone. Yahoo has a paid staff but yet you see MANY spam domains and sites in it.

ODP is improving, just cannot do everything at once. Some categories are a mess, but many are just fine. Actually, I would call yahoo more SPAM filled than the ODP is. Their editors even get paid to do a job. ODP is volunteer and I cannot stress this enough to you. It is a free directory. What more can anyone want for something that is free? You get what you pay for. This goes for anything in life. Free is free. You are not losing anything if it is free. With yahoo, you lose money if you pay and do not get ranks.

[ihelpyou]

If I were you, I would concentrate on getting good ranks in Google. Google visitors will far outdo any kind of ODP listing you may get. If you are in ODP,... great! If not, simply make your site better and resubmit. Patience is a big factor with all of the search engines. Nothing is quick and for anyone to say otherwise, is full of it.

[Loopdog]

Hi Doug,

I do ok on Google for the keywords which i optimized for, I come in at No 1 on google and coming in 2nd place behind me is the yahoo directory and in the 3rd place is ODP, your not wrong about getting good traffic from google, its where most of mine comes from and the Yahoo directory, i come second place on excite for keywords, really relevent but not a lot of traffic comes from excite, no where near what comes from google.

cheers

[newriver]

If you wanted to fix that category, i would apply again, and say this:

A. Make sure you have three good sites to put in it, and that the title and description show proper grammer. They are very particular about this!!!

B. In your application put a note:
To the meta editor reviewing this application, I have applied in the past and been rejected with the reason that this area of the ODP is well maintained. I wanted to point out the following dead links <list 1,2,3,4>, links to porn sites <list 1,2,3>, and broken downloads <list 1,2,3>

I would work well with the other editor to maintain the category, but thought based on the size of the category at 212 sites they may need some additional help given the nature of the category.

Loopdog, I bet you 3 to 1 you get accepted assuming you give proper titles and descriptions for your category suggestions.:thebomb:

[Loopdog]

Hi Newriver

I`ll give that try, much appreciated.

Cheers