Inactive Resource-Z users; why?

Today I received, like many no doubt, a notification on inactive users.
A good time to log in, which still worked(hurray), and see what's going on. I immediately moved to general topics, the first article is from a user called mystic, dated sept 09, with the topic "9 years no response etc".

I actually gave up on DMOZ (or DMOZ NL in particular) in 2007, after many attempts to have faulty information changed or adjusted. As of today nothing has happened and I am sure that the DMOZ days are over. This system outgrew itself already 6 years ago with a tendency to very arrogant behavior by some senior editors.
The result must be that many many sites have false or totally incomplete information as updates will only be done, it seems, by people who are being favoured or who manage their own website as a sub-editor. Just like I did myself in the good old days.

So what's new? Has there been any improvement for me to take this community at all serious?

Ed

That your user account at resource-zone.com was tagged as "inactive" has nothing at all to do with your activity, site suggestions or lack thereof at dmoz.org. Two different sites - and all the "inactive" label means is that you haven't posted here in a while, which again doesn't affect dmoz.org in any way.

(I realise that this doesn't actually address the questions in your post, but since the forum is receiving a lot of hits from people who got the same email you did, it's better to be clear about this. No doubt somebody who is not about to log out and go to bed will be around to answer the questions you asked )

I also had not bothered to post or like many others after many visits and it not working had not been back not sure when the newrer style cam in looks much better,,,, maybe the newer style will be better… woulder if the gripes that people have always had are the same

I too have received an email saying that my account had been made inactive. no big deal, I understand why that has happened. But I think that moulin's point is very true. I had a look around the forums for a while and the information on here is of no help in getting a perfectly reasonable site registered with DMOZ this is a complaint that is echoed on other forums also. If DMOZ would give some feedback ie we have rejected your website for the following reason... or we have received your submission and it will be reviewed in x period of time it would be helpful. However when you submit your site for inclusion you get nothing. You have no idea if your site has even been considered. or perhaps someone looked at it when the server was down or found a broken link. No feedback. I have read time and time again where webmasters have just given up on DMOZ.

Moulin,

I agree that DMOZ is dying, but I don't believe that the arrogance of many senior editors is the only reason. It may not even be the main reason. In any case, think about what you know about the people you mentioned; are you sure that they can behave differently, or were they the sort of people who were trapped inside their own petty frustrations long before they became senior editors at DMOZ? If that's so, is there any point in talking about it?

I suspect that all of the general search directories are dying for reasons which have little to do with DMOZ itself: Long ago the Web became too big and too dynamic to be hand-indexed into a general directory which would be complete enough to serve the user/searchers. After that, webmasters valued general directories as a way to get a better position in the automated search engines, but the operators of search engines soon discovered that the general directories were too easily manipulated by the webmasters, and yes, also by senior editors who had other priorities than the Web searchers' convenience, even if those senior editors were not always conscious of their own priorities. So the search engine operators started assigning little importance to the general Web directories, which have been left with little significance.

As a web user, how often do you yourself still use a general directory to find the information you want?

Good luck.
D.

Alice Huntly said:

I had a look around the forums for a while and the information on here is of no help in getting a perfectly reasonable site registered with DMOZ

Click to expand...

If you mean to get a specific website listed than the answer is yes. That is not the purpose of this forum and it never has been. This forum is only to provide general information about DMOZ not to help people get their website listed.

However when you submit your site for inclusion you get nothing.

Click to expand...

Ehhh. You can not suggest a website for inclusion to DMOZ at all. Seems that you totaly misunderstand the purpose of DMOZ. DMOZ is not a listing service for websites. It never was and it never will be.

DMOZ is a hobby project of a group of people. These people collected links to websites they are interested in. One time some people decided to combine their efforts. The links were grouped into subject areas (categories). DMOZ was born. As these people did understand that there are many websites they would like to list but did not know existed they gave other people the option to tell them about these websites (that is what suggest a website is). When DMOZ grew they understood that some regulation was needed and the guidelines were written down. These guidelines describe how each editor should behave and which type of websites will not be included. When other people want to join the hobby project they can write an application to show who they are, that they have a basic understanding of the guidelines and that they will honestly act according to those guidelines. All the time each editor still only works in those subject areas he is interested in. As a result some subject areas will not be managed because no editor is interested enough. This can change, a new editor with interest in the subject may apply or a current editor might get interested.