That's a pair of very complicated posts.
It sounds like you may have been searching (at dmoz.org, I presume) for a particular site.
But you don't say whether you had any reason to believe that the site should have been found. If you actually saw the site in some category, then don't worry about it -- you know where the site is, and eventually the search index will be updated. The process is complicated, like anything involving thousands of people and multiple computers will be: but always ask yourself, "can I do something about this?" if the answer is "no", then it doesn't matter how complicated things are. And in this case, none of us can do anything about that.
If you really didn't have any reason to expect to find the site, then the search may have done what it should have done.
Some things that AREN'T EVER reasons for thinking a site might be in the ODP:
(1) Don't think a site is in the ODP because you suggested it. That's not why sites that are listed ARE listed; that's not what sites that AREN'T listed are waiting for. The "Submittal Policy" says "no site is guaranteed a listing" -- and that is specifically in the context of "suggested sites."
(2) Don't think a site is in the ODP because it's a good site and it was suggested "a long time" ago -- whatever your definition of "long time" is, minutes or millenia. Site suggestions don't get prioritized for review based on age of suggestion; suggested sites may not even get review priority over sites that were never suggested. It's all very complicated: think of it like a lottery. It doesn't matter how many weeks ago you bought your first ticket, every ticket has the same chance of winning.
(3) Don't think a site is in the ODP because it's new (and needs help) or it's old (and doesn't need help) or it doesn't make much money, or it does make lots of money, or it doesn't have many visitors, or it does have lots of visitors, or it doesn't have good Google visibility, or it does have good Google visibility, or it's attractive, or you think it's better than some other site that is listed, or ... any other reason that has nothing to do with the real editing process. (I didn't make these up: they all are reasons that some people think apply, or should apply. They don't apply and they shouldn't apply.)
What is the reason a site is listed?
There's only one reason.
An editor looked at the site, and found information on it, that he'd never found anywhere else on the web. And that editor decided to recommend the site.
That's all. Everything else is set up to make that simple process work as efficiently as possible: Editor picks topic to develop; editor looks for sites on that topic; editor reviews sites and recommends the ones that provide unique information.
That's all very simple in concept. It gets complicated when you start second-guessing -- "why did that editor work on that topic, when will an editor work on this topic, why look at that site first, etc." Nobody can answer those questions, and it's pointless to ask. Editors are free to choose when and where to work: all of us are free to choose whether or not to use the directory they build that way.
As for the complexity of the forum software, it's just off-the-shelf software: vBulletin. one of the most widely used bulletin board systems. Their website is at
http://www.vbulletin.com , and I suppose they have a mechanism for user feedback. Explain carefully and precisely, exactly what you did and what happened to confuse you; otherwise they will probably not be able to help.
