$400 to get a listing in DMOZ from SEO company?

Hi,

I'm writing this for two reasons.

#1. I've been waiting four years to get one of my websites listed and waiting 2 years on another.

#2. I'm shocked that DMOZ may be compromised by SEO Companies.

Background: I've been doing my own SEO for years now, and finally I tried a highly rated SEO company I found on Elance. The results were great, the methods were not. I've since quite using them, but in looking for a legitimate source to help me out, I have found a highly rated company on Elance that guarantee listing in the DMOZ directory for $400. These companies have very positive ratings, and comments from their customers indicate that they are able to accomplish this!

I've applied to be an editor in the past, and been rejected, either for my grammar, or that I may be tempted to cheat the system? I'll admit my grammar skills are not great, but they should be good enough, I did graduate from collage (And I don't like cheaters)

So, how is it that a SEO company seems to be able to get a website listed for a price?
After looking through the forums, I'm sure many other will be asking the same question.

But, is it really worth $400 to get listed? I would love any assistance or suggestions to getting listed the old fashion way, in the spirit of the free web.

And, I'd love to hear if others have come across anything similar...

It is not allowed to sell listings in DMOZ for any price.
It is also not allowed to buy a listing.
What most of those companies do is suggest the website and hope that an editor will review the website. Easy money to be made for something that everybody can do in a few minutes.

It is always possible that a dishonest person managed to become an editor. But when we notrice what he is doing we will remove the editor and also remove all websites that got a dishonest advantage. These website and all other websites of their owners will be banned for ever from DMOZ.

If you have prove of abuse please send me a personal message with all the information you have. Help to dicover dishonest people is always welcome.

pvgool said:

It is not allowed to sell listings in DMOZ for any price.
It is also not allowed to buy a listing.
What most of those companies do is suggest the website and hope that an editor will review the website. Easy money to be made for something that everybody can do in a few minutes.

It is always possible that a dishonest person managed to become an editor. But when we notrice what he is doing we will remove the editor and also remove all websites that got a dishonest advantage. These website and all other websites of their owners will be banned for ever from DMOZ.

If you have prove of abuse please send me a personal message with all the information you have. Help to dicover dishonest people is always welcome.

Click to expand...

How come you can say that ????
I am waiting one of my site get listed by Dmoz about 1.5 year. And i know many people who waits about 2 years and apply again again as Seth B. said.
And i know some editor in japan directly request money for listing.

I am sure Dmoz was created for helping people but Dmoz turned into money machine for someones.
I have no idea why am i still persist to be listing by Dmoz. Maybe google loves it because of that.
Besides that Dmz became crap and full of garbage in it.

winhostings said:

How come you can say that ????
I am waiting one of my site get listed by Dmoz about 1.5 year. And i know many people who waits about 2 years and apply again again as Seth B. said.
And i know some editor in japan directly request money for listing.

Click to expand...

If you have any proof please send me a message and it will be investigated.

Besides that Dmz became crap and full of garbage in it.

Click to expand...

If you think this to be true why do you want your site to be included amongst all that crap.

Dear pvgool
next time if i face something like that i will his Driver's license and post it to you. Then you jump plane and come to osaka and punch him in his pace.

You question's answer was inside my post. But i am writing again "because of google"

Regards

pvgool said:

It is not allowed to sell listings in DMOZ for any price.
It is also not allowed to buy a listing.
What most of those companies do is suggest the website and hope that an editor will review the website. Easy money to be made for something that everybody can do in a few minutes.

It is always possible that a dishonest person managed to become an editor. But when we notrice what he is doing we will remove the editor and also remove all websites that got a dishonest advantage. These website and all other websites of their owners will be banned for ever from DMOZ.

If you have prove of abuse please send me a personal message with all the information you have. Help to dicover dishonest people is always welcome.

Click to expand...

Hi,

I have PM'd you the info needed.

I think we should keep this post going, as on open discussion into this issue that is important to keeping DMOZ free and full of good websites.

Honestly, I don't see how we can stop this type of shenanigans from happening, other than making it easier to become an editor?

Any other ideas anyone?

Run a credit check on editors? (I don't know why this would matter :lol: )

I'm just throwing ideas out there...

Seth

other than making it easier to become an editor?

Click to expand...

It's already pretty easy to become an editor. All the candidate has to do is:

- Demonstrate fluency in the language of the category (including spelling and grammar)
- Demonstrate an understanding of the category (by appropriate examples)
- Demonstrate an ability to read and understand the application form's questions.
- Demonstrate an ability to write clear and neutral website descriptions.
- Demonstrate integrity.

So what's hard about those? Which ones should we drop to make it easier for candidates ?

If we make it easier to become an editor (and as jimnoble wrote it is already very easy) people who want to abuse the system could more easely enter the system.
If you want it to be more difficult for potential abusers to enter the system than we must make it more difficult to become an editor.
Our checks are very good but sometimes someone slips trough the maze. It is a fine balance between accepting promising new editors and stopping those that are only interested in their own gains.

Dear pvgool

After seeing this url
http://www.dmoz.org/search?q=yenisarkisozleri.com nobody makes me believe that dmoz is not bribing.

This site contain illegal music and listed 64 different categories.

winhostings said:

This site contain illegal music and listed 64 different categories.

Click to expand...

First of all, the search result you see is not current, because if you go inside those categories you will see that the site is not listed.

Remember however that Dmoz is not the Internet police, so as editors we can define a site as illegal when there is very clear evidence.
In these cases it is much more important what can do a single citizen/person.
If you think that a certain site is illegal, make your denunciation to the competent authority. If your complaint is founded the site will be obscured in a short time.

This is a very interesting thread because Ive been thinking about this a lot latley. It wouldnt at all surprise me if there was someone making money off being an editor. In fact, if you ask me, this whole thing sort of seems like one giant scam until you start reading the forums & docs... That is what I was beginning to think, that all the editors here were just site owners who became editors for the sole purpose of listing their site, controlling the cat and perhaps a few were SEO companies... But seeing the level of quality control and a certain editor's dedication, I do feel much differently.

In the end, if DMOZ is what it claims, it seems to me its gotta be one heck of a job already finding real editors and surely some charlatans have slipped by...