DMOZ is Dead...Long Live the Open Directory Movement!

Sunanda said:

Then again, June Bugeye may be wrong.

What is the industry standard average time (from site creation to directory listing) across all free-for-listing directories that have the same order of magnitude entries (say over 2 million) as the ODP?

Without that statistic, we can't begin to make comparisons.

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That question assumes that we are a "free for listing" service. But we are not, and never have been. We're a group of volunteers who are building a directory. We accept suggestions as just one of our sources of sites. Since we aren't a listing service, we make no promises of when we'll look at the suggestions in a particular category. All of the editors are volunteers, and they all decide independently what of a number of possible tasks they will do when they login.

I think a better question to ask would be:

Take a random web-surfer, with a random desire for some information from the web. How likely is it that the ODP has sufficient sites to provide a reasonable amount of relevant information? And how easier is it to use the directory to find those sites?

Then compare those statistics with other directories and, if you like, other ways of finding the same information.

gloria said:

That question assumes that we are a "free for listing" service. But we are not, and never have been. We're a group of volunteers who are building a directory. We accept suggestions as just one of our sources of sites. Since we aren't a listing service, we make no promises of when we'll look at the suggestions in a particular category. All of the editors are volunteers, and they all decide independently what of a number of possible tasks they will do when they login.

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so if you decide not to log in for a week or for a month, it's ok!?

Of course it is! After four months without an edit, the editor account times out, and the editor must apply for reinstatement.

hk995 said:

so if you decide not to log in for a week or for a month, it's ok!?

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Umm, yeah on occasion my kids like to take vacations and they usually would like their daddy to go with them.

so if you decide not to log in for a week or for a month, it's ok!?

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Yep, sure is. It's not a job, and the ODP is not a business. It's a worthwhile community project that we work on when we have the time and desire to, for the sole benefit of web surfers who are looking for information.

We have no other purpose.

Sort of like volunteering to help out in a community library, hospital, or local food pantry.

We allow the general public to help in that effort by submitting site suggestions that they happen to run across, but, we are by no means obligated to use those suggestions to build the Directory.

As we already have a lot of sites for the web surfer to choose from, in their search for information, there is no particular hurry to find more, it can be built in a leisurely fashion.

>so if you decide not to log in for a week or for a month, it's ok!?

If I decide NEVER to log in, it's OK. And that's the decision most people make.

crowbar said:

It's not a jobm

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it's an adventure.

Sorry.

shadow575 said:

Umm, yeah on occasion my kids like to take vacations and they usually would like their daddy to go with them.

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Seems you negotiated a far better deal with the ODP than I have. All I was able to get were lunch breaks every other day


Ron

nea said:

Of course it is! After four months without an edit, the editor account times out, and the editor must apply for reinstatement.

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Nea,

I would assume that if certain sections of ODP have editors that are responsible for mutliple sections of ODP? That would explain why certain sections have not been updated for 9-12 months, but the editor keeps his status? So if they edit just one out of the let's say 5 sections they are editors for, they would be fine?

I am not being sarcastic, just trying to understand ODP better.

Editors may have permission to edit one small category (that's how all editors start out), or they may have permission to edit in wide areas of the Directory. Higher/wider editing permissions are normally requested by the editor. Sometimes they are granted and sometimes they are declined.

I edit in all of the US. As I'm a volunteer, I edit where I want to within the US, and lately I haven't felt like editing at all, so I haven't. If I get really bored with editing, I may even resign, it's my choice.

I owe no submitter anything, as I do this as a hobby, , and no one can tell me when, where, or how often to edit.

As far as responsibility goes, an editor isn't given duties to perform, they request and are given permissions to edit certain areas, whether they use those permissions or not is up to the editor. No one can really dictate how much time a volunteer should devote of his free time, .

crowbar said:

Editors may have permission to edit one small category (that's how all editors start out), or they may have permission to edit in wide areas of the Directory. Higher/wider editing permissions are normally requested by the editor. Sometimes they are granted and sometimes they are declined.

I edit in all of the US. As I'm a volunteer, I edit where I want to within the US, and lately I haven't felt like editing at all, so I haven't. If I get really bored with editing, I may even resign, it's my choice.

I owe no submitter anything, as I do this as a hobby, , and no one can tell me when, where, or how often to edit.

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Excellent. I appreciate the information. It makes a lot more sense to me now. Thanks for your work.

You're very welcome. As an editor, the things I value are the freedom and trust that we're given, .