How to Request REMOVAL from DMOZ/ODP?

Our company is currently listed in the 'web hosting' category on DMOZ/ODP, at
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Hosting/H/

However, our company has evolved and web hosting is no longer a primary part of our business.

We no longer wish to be listed in DMOZ/ODP in the 'web hosting' category. Could you please remove our link, or advise how we can arrange to remove this link? Thank you for your attention and courtesy.

Visit the category and use the 'update URL' link at the top of the page. Some editor will process your request in time but we can't predict who or when that might be. Most editors give priority to such requests.

We're usually happy to make any essential changes such as amending the description as a business changes or moving the listing to a more appropriate category. Be aware that, unless they are dysfunctional, we rarely entirely remove listings.

The answer of jimnoble might give the wrong impression.
We do not remove listings on request. Editors decide which sites will be listed and editors decide which sites will be removed. But not at their own will. Editors must follow the guidelines. If a site is listable according to the guidelines an editor is not allowed to remove it from the directory.
What you can do is file an "update URL" message telling us how the site has changed and you can also propose a new category that better fits the current website.
If you want the site to be removed from DMOZ there is only one option for you. Make the website non-listable or remove it completely from the internet.

Thank you for these replies. I have submitted an update request (before posting this query), requesting removal.

Unfortunately, several people at our company have submitted update and removal requests over the past several years, with no reply or action ever taken.

It is not an issue of "some time" or a delay, but instead it is an issue that after multiple requests over a period of four or five years, there have never been any responses or changes.

Frankly, your replies are the first I've seen in several years suggesting that there are actually active editors for DMOZ pages (I haven't visited this forum before, I don't think). On other discussion forums, there is near-universal agreement that DMOZ submissions and update requests are never seen by any human, ever. And the directory itself shows no signs of any meaningful updates, additions, or removals.

If the editors don't believe it's appropriate to remove our listing, then we BEG that the description be updated.

We're adding the "NOODP" meta tag to try to get the ancient, inaccurate description to disappear from some search engines, but I don't expect that this will have any impact on the thousands of web sites which republish data from DMOZ/ODP. (A Google search for the outdated description text, including our company name, returns 38,400 matches.)

I actually considered whether it might be helpful to seek out and engage in intentionally abusive and policy-violating conduct (on behalf of our company) in order to trigger some DMOZ/ODP penalty that might get our listing removed -- but I simply couldn't bring myself to engage in such behavior.

On other discussion forums, there is near-universal agreement that DMOZ submissions and update requests are never seen by any human, ever. And the directory itself shows no signs of any meaningful updates, additions, or removals.

Click to expand...

You shouldn't believe everything you read on the interwebs .

Update requests are processed and, as I said above, most editors give them priority. One of my first tasks in the morning is to process any that are in my areas of interest (~240.000 listings). I accept, sometimes amending, the ones that conform with our SOP and decline others. Typical reasons for declining are proposed hyped descriptions/titles, unjustified category move requests and unevidenced attempts to change the URL (Yes, there are attempts to hijack ODP listings). Removal demands without a good reason (such as a broken site) are also declined.

mwelch said:

Unfortunately, several people at our company have submitted update and removal requests over the past several years, with no reply or action ever taken.

It is not an issue of "some time" or a delay, but instead it is an issue that after multiple requests over a period of four or five years, there have never been any responses or changes.

Click to expand...

If several update requests have been made over several years than you can be sure that those requests have been seen and that editors decided that those requests should not be honored.
As Jim wrote this might have happened because people tried to inlcude changes that do not follow DMOZ guidelines. But it also might be beacuse the website does not show that the update is needed. For instance if an old description is "The company sells oranges" and the request is to change this to "the company sells oranges and bananas" but on the website we can not find any bananas being sold than the request will not be accepted.
DMOZ describes websites, it does not describe companies.

And than there is ofcourse the option that even after the change the current category is still the best category we have for the website.