If I can't get updated, can I withdraw my listing?

Help Please!

Google is now using an old title for my website which is very misleading.

I have been unable to get any editors at DMOZ to acknowledge/respond to my update requests, which I've made every 3-4 months for the last 3 years.

Is there any way I can just withdraw my site from the NIGHTMARE that is DMOZ ?

Thanks.

pvgool said:

You are allowed only to suggest a site ONCE with the main url.

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Then howcome our site has two listings? We have tried to correct this for OVER 3 YEARS with no reply, no acknowledgement and NO joy.

We don't delist sites on demand. But we don't want to have incorrect titles so if the title is wrong, that's something we want to correct. Have you actually submitted an update request (using the link at the top of the category where the site is listed) or have you been trying to update it by sending feedback to editors?

donelson said:

Then howcome our site has two listings?

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An editor can decide to list a site more than once.

donelson said:

We have tried to correct this for OVER 3 YEARS with no reply, no acknowledgement and NO joy.

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I don't know what you tried to correct. But request for corrections are only suggestions and an editor will decide based on the website, the current listing (category / title / description) and the suggestion if anything needs changing.
If you suggested a chance several times you can be sure that your suggestion was rejected. Many requests I see are about including marketinghype and keywords for searchenigines, these are in violation with DMOZ guidelines.

See also my answer in another thread. Asking the same question in more than one place is never a good thing to do.

Actually, he asked a different question in that thread.

motsa said:

We don't delist sites on demand. But we don't want to have incorrect titles so if the title is wrong, that's something we want to correct. Have you actually submitted an update request (using the link at the top of the category where the site is listed) or have you been trying to update it by sending feedback to editors?

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I have made at least 15-20 requests to correct the title name and "languages list" over the last 3-4 years, with no acknowledgement or reply (see below).

It could be because my site is listed in two different categories for some reason (perhaps 5-6 years ago it was submitted by myself and our webmaster separately at the time - we didn't really understand listings at that time, sorry).

Also, my email address was changing every 4-5 months due to a spam problem we had (1,500 per day to me), so that could be why I got a missed reply or whatever...

The one that's more (not completely) correct is in
/Regional/Asia/India/Uttar_Pradesh/Localities/Agra/Arts_and_Entertainment/Taj_Mahal/

the one that's wrong & out-of-date is in
/Computers/Multimedia/Software/Macromedia_Flash/Animations/

Can I name the site here?

Also, I did not see this thread before I posted the other thread, sorry. You can roll them into here if you want...

( pvgool -- the update requests I made recently were an attempt to get someone's attention. I submitted two; one (last week?) that I knew was bad to see if I could get a "human" rejection by email, the other (today) was a correct one based upon advice I received from a Matt Cutts blog page.

The main thing I was is for either (a) the Taj_Mahal dir listing to be kept and the animation to be dropped, OR (b) the animation listing set to match the Taj_Mahal listing, including description and title.

There should be NO hyphens in Taj Mahal in our title, and since 2001 the site has been in English, French, Hindi and Japanese. We also want the ONLINE or VIRTUAL TOUR descriptors in the title to make sure Everyone Knows we are NOT a travel agent or airline to the Taj etc.

Thanks.

( Sorry if I've gone about this the wrong way. Our we had two different webmasters over the last year, and now I am acting webmaster, photographer, programmer, producer, director -- everything but marketing... )

I am responding in thread 219563 now, thanks.

donelson, I'm going to close this thread. I'll be sending you a PM regarding your site shortly.

If we don't like what an editor has done, is there an appeals process, or is that editor the same as GOD?

Is there an appeals process for De-listing a site

Is there an appeals process for de-listing an site?

We were never told that we could not be de-listed when we applied.

[Please don't start new threads to talk about the same thing -- I've merged all of your post together here in this thread which I've reopened]

If you feel there is abuse, feel free to file an abuse report by going to http://report-abuse.dmoz.org . Please note, though, that not getting the title and description you want is not abuse. If you feel your current title and/or description are inappropriate, use the Update listing link on the page to suggest a correction.

Is there an appeals process for de-listing an site?

We were never told that we could not be de-listed when we applied.

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We have a standing policy of not removing listable, functioning sites on demand.

donelson said:

We were never told that we could not be de-listed when we applied.

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This is not correct.
On the form you used to suggest the site the following text can be read.

I also acknowledge that Netscape and the ODP have unfettered editorial discretion to determine the structure and content of the
directory and that, because a site's placement in the directory is subject to change or deletion at any time, I may not rely on any aspect of a site's inclusion in the directory. (i.e. "submission" means the title and descriptive information you supply for your site, not the actual website or its contents).

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Near the top of that form you are also asked

Please take a moment to review some of our submission policies and instructions.

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Under "Editorial Discretion" you could / should have read

In addition, a site's placement in the directory is subject to change or deletion at any time at our sole discretion.

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Try to think of it this way.

You have a website. You can put anything on it you want. People may make suggestions to you. In fact, you like suggestions, but you always get to decide whether you want to implement them or not. Life is good.

Now, imagine someone else in the same situation.

We're them.

We will either (a) add code to refuse incoming links from DMOZ, or (b) get new domains and move our sites over to them.

All this fighting with "clubs" on the internet, who say whatever they want and do NOT respect the wishes of the copyright holders, is undemocratic and fascist.

Hundreds of sites have "virtual tour" in their titles; what gives anyone the right to arbitrarily without right of appeal to decide arbitrarily not to de-list on request?

As an officer of Armchair Travel Co Ltd, I state to you that no-one on the board of directors or other officers were told of your conditions of submission.

You have no signed authorisation from any officers of Armchair Travel, therefore you conditions are null and void. No one with authorisation to speak on behalf of our limited company gave you any rights reject a de-listing request from us.

REMOVE OUR SITE NOW. -- Or are you admitting you are outlaws?

We don't require permission from a site owner to list a site in our directory.

donelson said:

We will either (a) add code to refuse incoming links from DMOZ, or (b) get new domains and move our sites over to them.

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You are of course free to do either/both. Option A will only prevent customers from finding your business, if they choose to come via dmoz but most don't, they come via one of the data users like google so I don't know how effective that would really be? Option B would definately work to get the old listing removed, but if a working URL was discovered and the new URL was listable there is nothing preventing the listing from being re-included?

donelson said:

All this fighting with "clubs" on the internet, who say whatever they want and do NOT respect the wishes of the copyright holders, is undemocratic and fascist.

Hundreds of sites have "virtual tour" in their titles; what gives anyone the right to arbitrarily without right of appeal to decide arbitrarily not to de-list on request?

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If you know of some that have Virtual Tour in there title and it is NOT part of the actual site/company name, then by all means point us to them and we will get them corrected.

donelson said:

As an officer of Armchair Travel Co Ltd, I state to you that no-one on the board of directors or other officers were told of your conditions of submission.

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You and they are all free to review the listing guidelines and submission instructions. They explain everything for you, and should have been read before in submissions or update requests were made.

donelson said:

You have no signed authorisation from any officers of Armchair Travel, therefore you conditions are null and void. No one with authorisation to speak on behalf of our limited company gave you any rights reject a de-listing request from us.
REMOVE OUR SITE NOW. -- Or are you admitting you are outlaws?

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To my knowledge (not a legal expert) there is no law preventing anyone from adding a link to someone elses website so I fail to see how they could be an outlaw?

Your site is your own. We cannot remove it.

The ODP is not yours, in any sense. It is not your copyright, it is the editors' copyright, assigned to AOL.

Nobody on the planet requires permission, let alone authorization, from you or any of your associates, to speak or write on their own website.

It's not the ODP that is trying to exercise Fascist control over someone else's freedom of speech on their own website.

shadow575 said:

listable there is nothing preventing the listing from being re-included?

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Is there a no-robot / no-crawl meta-tag for ODP/DMOZ? I know that MSN have a NOODP meta-tag (no surprise, really) now.

If you know of some that have Virtual Tour in there title and it is NOT part of the actual site/company name, then by all means point us to them and we will get them corrected.

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No, I am saying the reverse. "Virtual Tour" IS in our homepage title, like the other sites on DMOZ, but this editor is refusing to use it. What makes our site different from all those others? If they can have "virtual tour" as in their page titles, and we have "virtual tour" in our home page title, what act of hatred or arrogance is keeping DMOZ from treating our site equally? Got a grudge?

You and they are all free to review the listing guidelines and submission instructions. They explain everything for you, and should have been read before in submissions or update requests were made.

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No officer authorised or read those legal notices, or agreed to their terms, therefore the agreement is null and void under English law.

To my knowledge (not a legal expert) there is no law preventing anyone from adding a link to someone elses website so I fail to see how they could be an outlaw?

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Just the law of common courtesy. If we have listed a site on our site, and they come back to use and ask us to remove it, WE DO !

hutcheson said:

It's not the ODP that is trying to exercise Fascist control over someone else's freedom of speech on their own website.

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Just like the Communists, DMOZ are refusing to let us out!

And just like the Communists, once people were able to leave, there was a Mad Rush to get out!

Just like for DMOZ. No wonder DMOZ don't want anyone to leave; its corrupt system would collapse.