DMOZ needs Changes?

I've tried to get my listed with DMOZ.com/. So far no can do. However, I see a few broken links and sites that have nothing to do with the category I submit too.

Anyone know the CEO for AOL? I am willing to motivate DMOZ and get this in a new direction. I feel some changes need to be made.

Best Regards,
RazSport

You have three courses of action, here.

If you see broken links in a category, we would love to hear about them. In the forum entitled "Abuse Reporting" there is a huge thread called " Report Hijacks, Dead Links & Inappropriate ODP Content Here ONLY" - post your findings in there - with a clickable link to the category name, together with which sites you feel are listed in error. You will find that editors are very quick to correct these mistakes.

You could post a request for submission status of your site in the Submission Status forum, after having read the guidelines for information we would need from you in order to investigate the status.

If you wish to take a corporate route by sending email to AOL/Time-Warner's management, please be our guest. I'm sure you can find out all the information you need from the company's corporate web pages.

But if I were a betting man, I know which ones my money would be on for getting these sorts of things changed in the ODP....

Best regards.

Do you have someting constructive you wish to offer?

Have you taken a moment to properly report the broken links? With 4.5 million sites, about 10,000 active editors, and one totally awesome automated link checker, a few still slip through the cracks.

I'm curious, how exactly are you going to "motivate" an all volunteer organization?

Hi Editall/Catmv,

Thank you for responding. I did contact the proper category editor about these broken links. Still no response.

I've worked very hard on my site and offer unique content. I'd love to help DMOZ grow for the better.

I am online alot and love visiting other web sites. I have excellent eBay ratings.

Are you aware that most editors totally ignore e-mail from submitters? Not surprising that no action took place.

Have you ever asked for a site submission status check?

"Are you aware that most editors totally ignore e-mail from submitters? Not surprising that no action took place. "

Why?

Because of threats, spam, inappropriate and off topic questions, pushing for instant review, demands that keywords be included in descriptions, complaints showing a lack of understanding of the how the ODP works. Previous experience has shown that entering into discussion over these matters leads to frustrations and escalation.

Contacting the editor was very deliberately NOT one of the options I presented, for good reason. I suggest you follow-up on my original suggestion.

And congratulations on your EBay rating!

razsport, you e-mailed an editor. That editor might not be active any more, although they were still listed as editor because they had edited something three months before -- the category was last changed six months ago. So that really isn't an effective way of making sure that somebody gets the message.

We want to know about dead links. However, right now is not the best time to tell us. Robozilla just informed us about tens of thousands of dead links: you're probably wasting your time checking them just this minute.

But we know robozilla doesn't catch everything, and would like to hear your list.

The most effective way to do this would be:
(1) Tell us what category you're seeing dead links in (not the specific category, but some large category above it, like "Regional/North_America/.../California" or "Shopping/Gifts".

(2) Editors who are interested in having your help will perhaps make a special attempt to clean up the Robozilla reports in that category. In any case, we'll try to clean the whole directory within the next two or three weeks.

(3) You tell us, via our "abuse" forum, what robozilla missed.

(4) We feel grateful, although we don't always stop to express it.

"Because of threats, spam, inappropriate and off topic questions, pushing for instant review, demands that keywords be included in descriptions, complaints showing a lack of understanding of the how the ODP works. Previous experience has shown that entering into discussion over these matters leads to frustrations and escalation."

Hi Bob,

Well, part of a business owner/person or the reality of the real world is to communicate.

All I ask for is fair play. DMOZ, which is owned by AOL, says it wants a clean cut site for browsers to use. You work hard to build a site with your own content. You submit site, but can't get any where. Mean while you see other sites being listed that have broken links, poor spelling and repeated content as other sites.

I'll ask again, have you ever requested a submission status request?

DMOZ, which is owned by AOL, says it wants a clean cut site for browsers to use

Click to expand...

Where did you see that quote?

Hi spectregunner,

Yes, I did contact DMOZ about my site being reviewed and listed. No response

Not what I asked. Have you ever used this forum to request a status check. We already told you that editors don't answer e-mails, so it that is the route you took, then it is no surprise you didn't get an answer.

No, I have not used this forum to ask about my status. I contacted Netscape Communications Corporation.

Well, no wonder you didn't get a response.

Assuming that you are not being a troll, go to the sie submission status forum and post a properly formatted request. Then you can deal in facts rather than supposition. Because that is really the only way to find out the status of your submission.

razsport said:

Well, part of a business owner/person or the reality of the real world is to communicate.

Click to expand...

To be sure. But per definition that doesn't apply to ODP editors: we are volunteers, not business owners/people. All ODP activity is done in the editors' spare time, and nobody can tell us what to do or where to work within those categories we are entitled to work within.

Did you expect to receive a quicker response if you emailed one specific editor? That might be the case in a business organisation, but not in the ODP. Since every category can be edited by a couple of hundred people, and nobody has any exclusive right to edit anywhere, you are doing yourself a grave disservice by contacting one single person who may or may not be actively editing, rather than asking at Resource-Zone, where several dozen active editors, many of them editalls (that is, with directory-wide editing privileges) will read your questions.

razsport said:

All I ask for is fair play.

Click to expand...

That is, the same treatment as other sites. You are getting it.

razsport said:

You work hard to build a site with your own content. You submit site, but can't get any where. Mean while you see other sites being listed that have broken links, poor spelling and repeated content as other sites.

Click to expand...

We work hard to build a directory. There are about 10000 of us, where only a few hundred have directory-wide editing privileges, trying to keep abreast with a directory that grows with several thousand new sites every week. Meanwhile we are being told by you that there are dead links and double listings, but we are not being told where - and that is frustrating. Cleanup operations is a high-priority activity for most of us, as you will see in the forum thread Alucard mentioned. But we are not all-knowing, nor do we play it on TV.

-nea, chiming in to say what at least four editors have said before her...

Do we feel the need to communicate with submitters? YES, that's EXACTLY why this forum exists! It is our chosen means to communicate with submitters. You have chosen to start complaining about the ODP before you have used the most effective means of communication that we have made available to you.

We have just chosen to communicate in a way that does not submit the volunteers to the harassment, abuse and general mis-treatment that can come from communicating with people. Those of us who choose to can come on here and provide you with the information you need - IF YOU ASK FOR IT

So... please... use this forum to get the information which you require, and we'll all be happier.

The submission status forum is where you check on the status of your submission. I am an editor. Many different editors are telling you this. Why ask Netscape Comm? are you even listening to us here. If you have a question about your site post a message our Submission Status forum. Stop emailing anyone, don't Personal Message anyone. Go to Submission Status forum please.