Dmoz

[Ghome1971]

I have tried to add some of my sites to DMOZ over the past 18 months and have not acquired any listings. Can anyone give me some guidelines eg

I understand you can't use adjectives that are subjective eg cool and you can add your site to a region in addition to another category

(Lee - perhaps the editors don't like red buttons!)

Any other tips please - Thanks

[wjcampbe]

Geraldine,

Shopping categories are very infrequently visited by editors. They attract a spam to genuine submission ratio of about 95% spam.

Listing is a case of making only one submission to the correct shopping category, and one submission to the regional location where you have a physical presence, and then moving on to other things.

Second submissions to the same category/location overwrite the initial submission. Additional submissions to other categories (even if there is an argument for relevancy - they ask you to submit to the one best-fit category)/locations are spam according to the DMOZ rules.

The best advice - forget it and move on to other things, the DMOZ system is specifically designed to make all attempts at manipulation and control by webmasters futile.

[leehack]

DMOZ has moved into an area where it is just too big now. Who actually uses it to look for anything anymore? its the crappest, most outdated, most irrelevant, slowest, poor performing directory that exists on the net.

It's a human edited directory, that doesn't accept payment for inclusion, yet if you know where to go online, you can readily pay someone a back hander and get your site listed in 2 weeks flat. Its corrupt and dying a slow death.

I had a client 18 months ago so desperate to get in there, convinced it was the key to online success. I tried to explain there are many more things you can do and not to worry about it, but he insisted and wanted me to do whatever it took to get him listed. He paid £250 to get listed and appeared within 16 days. He now admits that it has made no difference at all.

DMOZ - SchmeeMOZ.

PS - i think there's only you that does!

[RuralWeb]

Also note that the editor interface has been down for many months so nothing has been acepted for ages.

[wjcampbe]

you can readily pay someone a back hander

Lee, if you can actually prove that with a url, then the Editors would be very glad to investigate and relieve the person who received that £250 of his/her editor priviledges. There is an abuse reporting link on every page in DMOZ, set up for just this sort of thing.

Is DMOZ corrupt, or the webmaster/developer who offered and paid the bribe, or ALL of them?

[leehack]

Is DMOZ corrupt, or the webmaster/developer who offered and paid the bribe, or ALL of them?

Just like every other single facet of life Bill, there is a written down suggested method of working and then there is the underworld which has it's own rules. DMOZ got too big and too powerful and it would always come down to who you know in the end, with editors using that power to their advantage. Make anything that powerful and there will always be corruption.

One only has to see requests on certain freelance sites to know this is evident and still prevails to this day.

Personally, i have no problem with someone taking a bung to do something for somebody as long as both parties are aware of what they are getting into and the possible consequences - that is there business and doesn't affect me one iota. I live and let live and concentrate on things important and integral to me, if someone or something ever threatened my livelihood, then i would take action. As it is, i couldn't give a monkeys.

IMO the whole ethos and idea behind DMOZ has collapsed miserably. Undoubtedly there are honest hard working editors who are fighting to save DMOZ from the dogs, unfortunately i think it's halfway down the dogs throat already and i can see no way back.

If any business nowadays relies upon a listing in DMOZ to be successful, i'd suggest a DMOZ listing is the very least of their worries.

[RuralWeb]

Who actually uses it to look for anything

You are missing the point of getting a DMOZ listing - the important thing about DMOZ is that it is a feeder site for many search engines so getting a DMOZ listing will result in your site showing in many other search sites.

Having said that the value of a listing is reducing

[leehack]

You are missing the point of getting a DMOZ listing - the important thing about DMOZ is that it is a feeder site for many search engines

This is what it turned into at it's peek Mal yes, but not what it was initially started for at all. Unless i've read the wrong background info of course, which is entirely possible.

[wjcampbe]

the important thing about DMOZ is that it is a feeder site for many search engines

Only in the eyes of Commercial Website owners.

DMOZ editors repeat every day in their own resource zone forum, that the use to which the data is put is not important to them. Just so long as the correct attribution links are used.

Personally, i have no problem with someone taking a bung to do something for somebody

You are really trying to tell me that if a subcontractor you were using were phoning the Clients he was assigned and telling them - 'An extra £250 under the table and you'll get your site Friday' - you would be totally OK with this?

[leehack]

You are really trying to tell me that if a subcontractor you were using were phoning the Clients he was assigned and telling them - 'An extra £250 under the table and you'll get your site Friday' - you would be totally OK with this?

I think you are misquoting me Bill, I am saying that i have more important things than to worry about whether some bent DMOZ editor is taking a bung to list a site. If a site owner is happy to pay and editor is happy to take, then fine leave em to it in my world. I'm a strong believer in Karma.

In your above example, i would actually be delighted to find that out, as it would ensure that the subbie never heard from me again. I have my own home improvements company, and trustworthy, reliable excellent tradesmen are hard to find and it literally took me 2 years to find the guys who i wanted to work for me. I've had the same 3 guys now for nearly 5 years. All the dross that i have left behind and things they have done, have no bearing on my past or my present - they are just nobodies.

If it doesn't affect me, i let it be, if it affects me, i will choose to deal with it as it turns up, not think or worry or have a plan in place already.