Spam Vs. Ethics

OK, because I have been extremely lucky thus far in pushing the envelopes of "suggestions," I feel bound to whine a bit more.

The problem with human edited directories in general:

I believe that all URLs that are an exact match are just "updated," not resubmitted. The rest of this is based on that.

1. Get a website.
2. Submit www.yourwebsite.com
3. Submit www.yourwebsite.com/
4. Submit www.yourwebsite.com/index.html
5. Create www.yourwebsite.com/forwarder, and put an automatic forwarder script in it
6. Submit www.yourwebsite.com/forwarder
7. Submit www.yourwebsite.com/forwarder/
8. Submit www.yourwebsite.com/forwarder/index.html

I haven't tried this yet, so there's no guarantee it will work. The problem is, all I am doing is repeating myself. Therefore, I could write a program to do this, very easily, actually. So then we get the spammers (no ethics) against DMOZ (ethics). The problem is that I can submit far faster than DMOZ can check it, and threaten to keep submitting until I am listed. Not that this would work, but I am not going to devote too much attention to defrauding DMOZ, because I have better things to do with my life. But my point is this: using human editors is, in itself, inefficient. Spamming, in itself, is efficient. Seeing as DMOZ won't be automating any time soon, the only way to get to everything is:

A - Kill all spammers.
B - Get more editors.

Solutions:

A - Being worked on.
B - You're doing this. Just... not fast enough, in my honest opinion. Thousands are accepted each year, true. But you turn down a lot of people too. Not that you should lower your standards. But I think that you could set aside a small group of editors whose top priority is to check editor submissions. I'm not familiar with the inner workings of DMOZ, but this is the only plausible solution, in my mind.

Feel free to explain my mental instabilities to me if you wish, or just completely ignore me....

~Polly

I would not recommend trying your proposal. We won't tell you whether we'll take option A or option B or whether there ARE other options, but we CAN tell you that:

(1) You wouldn't be the first to try that trick.
(2) You wouldn't even be the first spammer to die a messily violent death.

You're doing this. Just... not fast enough, in my honest opinion. Thousands are accepted each year, true. But you turn down a lot of people too. Not that you should lower your standards.

Click to expand...

Well, you must think we should or you wouldn't mention that we turn down a lot. Obviously, if we turn down a lot (your words, not mine), then we're processing a lot and speed isn't a huge factor overall.

But I think that you could set aside a small group of editors whose top priority is to check editor submissions.

Click to expand...

Only (k)meta editors and (k)catmods can process new editor applications. We're a small group as it is. Some specialize in processing new editor apps, some specialize in other tasks. But we're all volunteers, just like every other editor. What we each choose to make our priority is not something that can be dictated.

hutcheson said:

I would not recommend trying your proposal. We won't tell you whether we'll take option A or option B or whether there ARE other options, but we CAN tell you that:

(1) You wouldn't be the first to try that trick.
(2) You wouldn't even be the first spammer to die a messily violent death.

Click to expand...

You're doing this. Just... not fast enough, in my honest opinion. Thousands are accepted each year, true. But you turn down a lot of people too. Not that you should lower your standards.

Click to expand...

Well, you must think we should or you wouldn't mention that we turn down a lot. Obviously, if we turn down a lot (your words, not mine), then we're processing a lot and speed isn't a huge factor overall.

Click to expand...

Heh. I'm just rambling. I do, indeed, think some posts aren't entirely up front with the requirements to being an editor, but that's to be expected, and I doubt it's a calculated attempt to deceive us.

But I think that you could set aside a small group of editors whose top priority is to check editor submissions.

Click to expand...

Only (k)meta editors and (k)catmods can process new editor applications. We're a small group as it is. Some specialize in processing new editor apps, some specialize in other tasks. But we're all volunteers, just like every other editor. What we each choose to make our priority is not something that can be dictated.

Click to expand...

Eh, just an idea. As I said, I don't fully (at all) understand the inner workings of DMOZ. I don't know how possible it would be to create a special group like this, or what course of action could be taken.

I would not recommend trying your proposal. We won't tell you whether we'll take option A or option B or whether there ARE other options, but we CAN tell you that:

(1) You wouldn't be the first to try that trick.
(2) You wouldn't even be the first spammer to die a messily violent death.

Click to expand...

You mean the whole create a folder with autoforwarding thing? Did you read the bit where I said I had better things to do with my time than try and trick DMOZ? Hell, if you're going to expend that much effort, you might as well do it the legit way and get a nice, productive website out of it. My point was that in a 'war' of spammers versus editors, editors need to outnumber spammers to win. At least, I think.

I'm not going to forever hate DMOZ for not taking my suggestion. It was simply that. A suggestion.

~Polly