I need help I have been trying to get listed with dmoz for ages

Prem1on · Sep 17, 2009

Thanks for clearing this up...

Eric-the-Bun · Sep 17, 2009

areas of interest to those volunteers.

their personal interest

Are not the same.

At the onset editors will apply to edit a single category in which they have an interest - it may be a personal interest such as a hobby, favourite band, or business that they are in but it may be their village or town that they have an interest in building a resource for.

When editors expand their priviliges, it is often because they have an interest in the directory as a whole and want to improve it.

Having an interest in a category could come because an editor sees that no one else had looked at it for a while and decides it could be improved, or because another editor calls for help, or any number of reasons.

I can assure you that I have not edited in my area of personal interest for a good while, having been side-tracked elsewhere where my interest is entirely on creating a good resource. I edit systematically through the categories in the area following a concept - effectively the specific topic (where I am editing) is totally irrelevant to the overall effect (what I hope to achieve).

You might therefore say that my interest is currently philosophical and abstract

regards

makrhod · Sep 17, 2009

Would the DMOZ be more balanced if editors were encouraged pursue suggestions outside of their personal interest?

What makes you believe they are not?
If editors stayed only in the category of most interest to them, there would be no editalls, cateditalls, catmods, metas etc. And there are several hundred of those, not to mention thousands of editors who have taken on additional responsibilities since joining.

Prem1on · Sep 18, 2009

Thanks for your explanation. We now have a better understanding of how DMOZ operates.

Since we are digging a bit into the DMOZ philosophy here, please note the following:

An ODP editor will review your submission to determine whether to include it in the directory. Depending on factors such as the volume of submissions to the particular category, it may take several weeks or more before your submission is reviewed.

(source: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html)

DMOZ makes a certain statement here: an editor WILL review your submission. Now realistically we do expect a long waiting period, but DMOZ "promises" that submissions will be reviewed.
It does not say "an editor might review" or "maybe an editor will review", it clearly states to submitters that their suggestion is will be reviewed.
This statement made by DMOZ will cause confusion among website owners if in reality editors can ignore submissions entirely.

Best regards,
Hans

makrhod · Sep 18, 2009

There is no confusion.
The guidelines say that suggestions will be reviewed. True.
They also explain there is no time limit. True again.
The above posts explain that an individual editor is not required to review suggestions. Also true.

In other words, individual editors are free to ignore suggestions if they choose, and to leave them for someone else to review. We are all volunteers, so we don't have to do anything.

Prem1on · Sep 18, 2009

Volunteers don't have to do anything, fair enough.
But if DMOZ as an organization makes a "promise", and then leaves it up to volunteers... then there's your confusion!
Understand that web masters (who have been told that being listed in the DMOZ is of great importance) read the statement made by DMOZ as an organization, and then "get their hopes up", and expect a review even if it takes two years or more...
If individual editors can do what they want with suggestions, then DMOZ as an org should not implicitly "guarantee" review, am I right?

Anyway, thanks for your time and explanations. And good luck editing

Best regards,
Hans

pvgool · Sep 18, 2009

Prem1on said:
If individual editors can do what they want with suggestions, then DMOZ as an org should not implicitly "guarantee" review, am I right?

No you are not.

We can guarantee that every website that is suggested will be reviewed.
We just can not predict which editor will do the review.
And we can not predict when this review might happen.
Could be tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or even only after several years.
But as suggested sites will never disappear from the system without a review we can guarantee that in the end every suggested site will be reviewed.

The problem is that website owners want a fast review or atleast require a specified time in which the review will happen. That is something we can not guarantee.

computerstar · Sep 19, 2009

pvgool said:
I can only speek about how I decide to review websites. Other editors might work in a similar way or do something completely different.

First of all I decide in which category I would like to work today. How I make this decission? Most of the times based on something I noticed in real life or on the web.
When I have found a subject that interests me at that time I first look at the current listings. Are we missing some websites I know myself about that subject. Yes? List them.
Now I look at the pool of suggested websites in that category. Are there any update requests. Process them first. Do some of the suggested websites show any signs that the person who made the suggestion has tried to follow our guidelines (decent title and description). Yes. Process them.
Do I still have time available. If I do I might look at the other suggested webistes or I might search for listable sites in other sources.

It also happens that I find a group of websites mentioned in a newspaper or magazine. I will list all these websites (if they meet our guidelines) and most probably will not look at the suggested websites at all.

In all these case the directory has grown. That is good.
Does it matter that there are still websites in the pool of suggestions. Not at all.

My site is unique in the sense that it has a page rank of 0 but for every single keyword it will show up in google, yahoo, and bing in the first 5 result. Isn't unique? Isn't interesting to you? My website needs medal or certificate from you and that medal is "list it in the directory please". You can find my website under my profile.

LibrianFriend · Sep 20, 2009

I don't think editors are neutral. Because I noticed many "unable to meet DMOZ crieteria" websites in categories I was looking top be listed.

There are some people here who are "Editors" to list their sites.....

pvgool · Sep 20, 2009

computerstar said:
My site is unique in the sense that it has a page rank of 0 but for every single keyword it will show up in google, yahoo, and bing in the first 5 result.

These are all aspects of a website that are of no interest to us and will not influence the review process.

> Isn't unique? Isn't interesting to you?
We only will know when a review is done.
And as written many times in this forum. When a website will be reviewed is something we don't know.

> My website needs medal or certificate from you
Sorry, we do not provide medals or certificates. You must a totaly wrong idea about what DMOZ is and wants to be.

> You can find my website under my profile.
Sorry, we will not look into websites on request of their onwer.

nea · Sep 20, 2009

Because I noticed many "unable to meet DMOZ crieteria" websites in categories I was looking top be listed.

We are much, much concerned about that fact that you could ever be - but you have the position of being able to improve the directory here. Instead of mentioning vaguely that a directory with six million links contains several sites that should not be listed, you could let us know which sites, and in which categories, and give us an opportunity to do something about it. We know that sites change their content and their URL, sites are hijacked, sold, or "repurposed" all the time. We do check listed sites from time to time to see if they are OK, but because we are human, this work takes time. If you either use the "Update listing" link at the top of the category where the site is listed, or use the "Report bad listings" thread in this forum to let us know exactly where the unsuitable sites are located, you give us a chance to improve the directory, which is exactly what we want to do. Thank you!

computerstar · Oct 13, 2009

Who own dmoz?

Who own dmoz?

jimnoble · Oct 13, 2009

I need help I have been trying to get listed with dmoz for ages

Prem1on

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