Taking a mediating position, at least partly to illustrate a basic fact of the ODP: editors do what they think is worthwhile. Some editor thought it was worthwhile to set up this forum: other editors have seen ways it could be used to accomplish something they thought worthwhile.
Now, status information is obviously, as you say, a VERY-low-value grade of information. But (as noted) it's not ABSOLUTELY zero-value -- maybe .1% to 1.0% of the posts do serve some purpose concerning the submittal asked about. (Lots more of them blow up into webmaster tirades.) BUT: and this is, (I think) the key: in the process of asking stupid questions, people may learn something about the ODP -- leading to new editors, restrained overexuberance of formerly incontinent submitters, and ... the establishment of a forum where USEFUL information can be exchanged. We find out about bad listings, server problems, and novel spam approaches; submitters find out how to use the ODP to their best advantage without abusing it -- which, I admit, is mostly learning how the ODP Submittal Policies work, and why nothing else works better; the public learns all sorts of things -- which, I admit, is sometimes just a voice of reason crumpling up the tinfoil-hat brigade that tends to dominate some other circles.
(I don't mean to criticize other internet forums: most welcome ODP editors, and we participate there also. But we have a little bit more freedom here, because here we can pick what subjects can be discussed -- other forum admins quite properly pick subjects corresponding to their own interests and their willingness to moderate, and ... if their primary interests had been the ODP, they'd have been editing, not running those other forums.)
