My Concerns

I would just like to say that it probably is true when I hear DMOZ being corrupt.

So many Editors have sold their account privately and publicly, proving this is already corrupt.

http://www.threadwatch.org/node/4276

This was taken off eBay with the price reaching 3000 plus dollars USD, it was then sold privately.

Secondly you can find this yourself but many Editors/Meta's do write Blogs explaining what they have done today and one Meta states

" Decided to wake up early in the morning and randomly rejected the first 15 Applications, put 4 in review and accepeted 1 "

You can find one of the Blogs here

http://www.jimboykin.com/psssst-giving-away-dmoz-editor-accounts/

No Offence but GOOGLE is the only reason why DMOZ is important, that's the truth.

Well enough of my discussion I would like to hear your views on this.

Also if this post is removed or I am banned, I wonder what the means? Well you will know it!

Thanks,

Well, we don't remove posts or ban people simply because they post things we disagree with. That happens on other forums, not here. People are usually only banned for abusive behavior.

The discussion thread you referenced has been discussed here many times in the past, and the general concensus is that the thread itself is little more than an ongoing urban myth.

Of course, anything is possible, so if you have hard evidence -- not innuendo or rumor -- we have an abuse reporting tool that we would encourage you to use.

Are there any corrupt ODP editors? With an active pool of about 9,000 editors the laws of probabilty wold tend to suggest that is the case. Take a pool of 9,000 people in any profession and you would get the same or similar odds. We are, after all, a mirror of the society where we live.

I would also gently suggest that your belief that Google is the reason-for-being for the ODP is fundamentally flawed. If Google stopped using the ODP data tomorrow, the directory would remain and would continue to grow -- there would be simply much less pressure from spammers and corrupt webmasters.

Also if this post is removed or I am banned, I wonder what the means? Well you will know it!

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If your posts are removed and/or you are banned, it is because you're doing absolutely nothing here but trolling. Consider yourself on notice.

Corruption

I'll sell you all my current dmoz permissions for $3000.

In 2006 we are also going to have a vote for "most evil ex-editor"

Got Sour Grapes !!!

Correction..

Got Sour Grapes ???

In 2006 we are also going to have a vote for "most evil ex-editor"

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It's already mine - I paid $435 for it on eBay.

I would just like to say that it probably is true when I hear DMOZ being corrupt.

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Yep - it's endemic - over the 3.5 years I was an editor I was offered at least 3 or 4 beers after listing sites. Unfortunately the webmasters are 9000 miles from where I live but I fully intend to collect one day. As an ex-editor with no (current) intentions to return I am free to say what I like without fear of being in some way disciplined - not that it stops serving editors but there are some confidentiality clauses that no longer apply to me. There is no systematic or widespread corruption affecting ODP. There are potential problem areas that are kept constantly monitored. There are various isolated areas where you can see evidence of abuse long since resolved in the sense that the editor(s) have been removed but unfortunately their mess has not been entirely cleaned up - quality control issues that can be reported here or by PM to someone with an editor status on this site (not me). And there are listings that appear to be the result of corruption but which are in fact legitimate because of misunderstanding of listing guidelines or which preceded current guidelines on what can be listed, or which are sites that have been hijacked. Report them as you find them and they will be dealt with or explained.

I should also add that in those years I only once received an actual offer of a bribe (duly reported) - worth probably about $100 in goods. The site was banned. No doubt other editors got the same offer since it seemed pretty random. Had I listed the site I would have been caught immediately and ejected, as would anyone else. So in reality, the incidence of bribes being offered is miniscule, the risks of accepting them for editors enormous, the risk to the webmaster devastating (assuming they were under the misinterpretation that they needed a listing for success). My personal conclusion - the directory is not corrupt.

No Offence but GOOGLE is the only reason why DMOZ is important, that's the truth.

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It is the reason why DMOZ is important to you and most submitters but not for the users it is aimed at or the editors. On it's own dmoz.org is the 200th most popular website in existence - out of how many hundreds of millions? Sounds pretty important to me.

If your posts are removed and/or you are banned, it is because you're doing absolutely nothing here but trolling. Consider yourself on notice.

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Nice way of finding an excuse .

By the way, do me a favour and tell me the last time you said an Application has been accepted in the Becoming an Editor Forum? I can't seem to find one

In 2006 we are also going to have a vote for "most evil ex-editor"

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We already know who has that? -looks over at the rejection meta-

Are there any corrupt ODP editors? With an active pool of about 9,000 editors the laws of probabilty wold tend to suggest that is the case. Take a pool of 9,000 people in any profession and you would get the same or similar odds. We are, after all, a mirror of the society where we live.

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Okay, point accepted. In any other profession the business usually improves, aswell as the employees within the business. DMOZ has been the exact same since the year 2000 and I honestly can't find a single change in improvement. The editors are also acting the same way well the 1 in every 100 editors are, shouldn't there have been a way to improve this problem in the 5 plus years?

Yep - it's endemic - over the 3.5 years I was an editor I was offered at least 3 or 4 beers after listing sites

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Lucky you! And you are taking up the bribe? May I ask why you left as an Editor?

On it's own dmoz.org is the 200th most popular website in existence - out of how many hundreds of millions? Sounds pretty important to me.

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Because of Google....

Happy New Year everyone!

In any other profession the business usually improves, aswell as the employees within the business.

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Are you sure about that. Because businesses rises and fall according to Wall Street. Unemployment rates have not changed dramatically in 5 years. Creating jobs is far more at dead end than the ratio of people looking for one. Population, Economic hardships, Political these are issues that have not been resolved even in by brilliant minds. We are just moving on in a fraction. Improvements will come depends on the people working on it. Try the White House or 10 th Downing Street or even Akasaka, Japan . How about correcting Corruption since Time in Memorial.

Jackstar, people whose application has been accepted don't NEED to ask about its status. They already know. (And people too clueless to figure that out, generally don't GET accepted. Taxonomic analysis is a fairly complex kind of formal logic, after all.)

jackstar said:

Secondly you can find this yourself but many Editors/Meta's do write Blogs explaining what they have done today and one Meta states
" Decided to wake up early in the morning and randomly rejected the first 15 Applications, put 4 in review and accepeted 1 "

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Permit me to doubt. There are a few genuine editors with blogs and they don't read anything like that. There are also one or two frauds about. People pretending to be editors.

Jim Boykin is neither. He is perfectly honest. He states clearly that he was removed as an editor in 2002. His post makes sensible points in an amusing way:

1. Dmoz is not a magical factor to ranking high in Google.
2. You can become an editor for free.
1 + 2 = You'd be pretty silly to pay thousands just to gain a login, particularly since it would almost certainly turn out to be a category of no interest to you.

(His advice on how to become an editor is not precisely what I would offer, but I'm just commenting here on the main thrust of the piece.)

In response to monayuki.

Firstly businesses do rise and fall, I haven't seen the rise yet from DMOZ as it's been staying the same for the past 5 years. Imagine that on a Wall street graph

Creating jobs is kind of dead in some areas, but I see DMOZ contributes to that since one in every 100 applications have been accepted (one in every hundred jobs?) whilst many sites are still waiting to be reviewed. Maybe if you listed more sites more frequently then it could provide them with some business thus providing more employment?

Finally, why are you constantly referring DMOZ to the White House? Or Wall Street? Or other businesses? Trying to find an excuse? You do know that since other people or businesses may be like this it doesn't mean you have to be. There's always room for improvement.

In response to Hutchenson,

Firstly Hutch, tell me what is the point of having a Board then if everyone already knows the answer? What about those people who applied and it is still being reviewed? So you're basically trying to say that the only answers you can give there are "still being reviewed" and "Declined"?

I don't really see how Taxonomic analysis is complex? Care to explain?

Maybe if you listed more sites more frequently then it could provide them with some business thus providing more employment?

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Anyone who would think that a business getting a listing in DMOZ would make such a difference is severely misguided as to how important DMOZ is. And a business owner who relies on a DMOZ listing is in for big trouble, his underlying business plan is totally flawed.

I don't really see how Taxonomic analysis is complex?

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I'd would it another, way - the law of natural selection. The target audience for that section of this forum, is a a very skewed subset of the population in general. Als the many thousands of editors who apply and get accepted, will never post in this forum, and may never even know it exists. Therefore the posts make it appear as though every editor application is refused, or take months to get reviewed.

Tell me Bob, what are you trying to say?

DMOZ isn't important? Finally someone agrees with me that it WAS important when Google primarily used DMOZ but now it really isn't 'that' important.

Thank!

**** Edit

Well I am off to bed, I am guessing when I return there will either be

1) 3 pages of replies 30 people against me
2) Topic has been locked
3) I have been banned

Thanks!

jackstar said:

Creating jobs is kind of dead in some areas, but I see DMOZ contributes to that since one in every 100 applications have been accepted

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Whaw. You seem to know things even editors don't know.

jackstar said:

Firstly Hutch, tell me what is the point of having a Board then if everyone already knows the answer? What about those people who applied and it is still being reviewed? So you're basically trying to say that the only answers you can give there are "still being reviewed" and "Declined"?

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Correct. The answers can only be "still waiting", "accepted" (no one is asking the question when he alreadu knwos he is accpeted) or "declined".
Sometimes the question can be usefull. In some postings you can see that the email did not reach its destination. The only thing what makes me wonder is the fact that it is always emails about declined applications that get losts.

No it's not. (DMOZ is not that important, it's value is vastly overrated in many SEO forums)

It's like tulips in Holland a few hundred years ago.

See http://www.periclespress.com/Dutch_tulip.html Tulipmania (Tulipomania) (1636 - 1637)

I have looked myself up in the mirror. Am I flawless no. I am your basic Human Being. Have you looked upon yourself lately and have done your household chores. Maybe your bed is not yet fixed or your kitchen sink has some glasses to be washed. Do you need help ? No you dont. As I am. I am reffering to the White House to give you a bigger picture. They are brilliant minds yet they can't fix the World. You worry too much about getting the sites to be listed worry about your personal life first. Have you been in Church lately ? Businesses dont worry about getting listed they worry how to handle their everyday operations. There are some business in my area that do not have a website but they are not worried about that. Yet they profit. They work hard and find alternatives. You have to be resourceful. You work hard for it. Room for improvements come from ourselves. It does not come from other people.

monayuki said:

Maybe your bed is not yet fixed or your kitchen sink has some glasses to be washed.

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He. How do you know. Where is that camera. :confuse2: :embar:

Just by instincts. People who like to look at other people forget about their own. They tend to see the dirt in someones face but not their own.

Oh but well a long line of Camera specially made by Kodak or Fuji has just been installed.