Were All Sites Rejected?

This is thread I like...

I suggested several sites too and I learned a little bit how to do that in the last years. Why do we think that's important to be listed here, because someone is telling us we get better SERP's in Google, nice idea...

From the 5 websites I suggested at DMOZ, is only one listed here (in the wrong category, that's my opinion). I spend a lot of time to get unique content rich websites listed here, but maybe it's better to start a blog site to create more unique content (with a few link to the website I like to promote). In my opinion this will help you to get more visitors via Google.

regards Olaf

PS. how about the visitor count of the DMOZ website, is this an increasing number within the last years?

Editors have no idea about visitor numbers. I think only Netcape/AOL staff could tell you that.

Of course, if they DID tell you that, you still wouldn't know how many people use the Google Open Directory (for its pagerank and search features) or some other licensee. And you still wouldn't know how many people were visiting the ODP just to look for their own site.

If anybody's income was based on eking a few pennies from advertisers for each ODP visitor, the statistic might matter. But as it is, it really doesn't.

File it under "M" for "more statistics that wouldn't be meaningful even if they could be calculated."

do you think that DMOZ is used by a lot of people (just visitors not the website owners or webmasters)?

Really, I have respect for all people helping the internet community with open source projects, but is this project so usefull for everyone?

There are lots of complains about outdated links in your directory, and then the long time you have to wait until a new page is added...

Complaints about outdated links are good -- they indicate someone is looking at more than their own website. (And they get fixed _fast_.)

Complaints about waiting till a new page is added: that's not something our users ever complain about (well, almost never, I can remember one instance...), But because the ODP doesn't EVER add more than 10% of suggested sites), those complaints will be eternal (just like the eternal wait that the submitters of those 90% will suffer.)

The advantage of an open source project is that it doesn't have to be useful for everyone. It just has to be findable by the people that could use it.

It's like the difference between a library and a bookstore. A book that gets read once a year won't be found in your neighborhood bookstore. But a library can wait much longer for its material to be useful. (I've been really surprised at the variety of people that I've heard about, that have used material I've published online. Who knows who else found it useful?)

Or think of the difference between a local machine shop, and a mechanical engineering research lab. The machine shop has to deliver specific items every week; the research lab has to make itself worthwhile, eventually, somehow. But trying to find a particular social benefit in a particular day's studies is an exercise in irrationalism and futility.

I have one site that I have been trying to get into the DMOZ for almost 2 1/2 years now with no luck. Its a rather large site (60+ pages), with tons on unique information on a subject that no one else in the category has even begun to touch on.

Its a non commercial site - the only thing available for sale on the the site are logo T shirts.

Not to mention, no new sites have been added or removed to said category for the entire 2 1/2 years I have been waiting for a listing.

I submitted every 6 months at first, but I don't bother anymore. My guess is that there is no one editing the category anymore, or that the editor is someone biased against the site.

No response to me offering to become an editor either.

This is OK what you're saying...

I like to know people using my open source work and of course to hear that they like it.

You say there is no one complaining about the long waiting time, I am!
My own site (top listed in Google) is first time submitted more then two years ago.

but that's not the point, I remember the time some years before, at this time everyone has the opinion that getting listed at DMOZ is very important. This is changed now, it looks to me that DMOZ is not anymore (really) important for SEO's and web developers (like me). There is no more priority about getting listed at DMOZ...

Olaf

croix said:

I have one site that I have been trying to get into the DMOZ for almost 2 1/2 years now with no luck. Its a rather large site (60+ pages), with tons on unique information on a subject that no one else in the category has even begun to touch on.

Its a non commercial site - the only thing available for sale on the the site are logo T shirts.

Not to mention, no new sites have been added or removed to said category for the entire 2 1/2 years I have been waiting for a listing.

I submitted every 6 months at first, but I don't bother anymore. My guess is that there is no one editing the category anymore, or that the editor is someone biased against the site.

No response to me offering to become an editor either.

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Like someone told before some sites do not fit into a category:

I have a site partly in dutch langauge and the rest in english language all pages are about php and webdevelopment. It looks like that its not possible to find the good category...

By the way resubmitting is like pushong the reset DMOZ button, after the submission you are having day zero again...

olaf2 said:

This is changed now, it looks to me that DMOZ is not anymore (really) important for SEO's and web developers (like me). There is no more priority about getting listed at DMOZ...

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It seems SEO's and webdevelopers are finaly starting to understand what DMOZ editors have been telling them for years.

pvgool said:

It seems SEO's and webdevelopers are finaly starting to understand what DMOZ editors have been telling them for years.

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Do you think there is another motivation by website owners to get listed at DMOZ then higher listings in search engines?

>You say there is no one complaining about the long waiting time, I am!

Ah, but in this respect you're NOT one of our users. You're a would-be-supplier, of a product (website) we haven't (yet) seen a pressing need for.

>Do you think there is another motivation by website owners to get listed at DMOZ then higher listings in search engines?

This is not the place to judge motivation. A selfish person may well report bad listings to skewer the competition, and -- we thank him kindly! A well-meaning but gorm-challenged person may spam away, and we wish he'd go away instead.

So long as people help us find listable sites, their motivations remain their own.

olaf2 said:

Do you think there is another motivation by website owners to get listed at DMOZ then higher listings in search engines?

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I don't know. And to be honest I don't care. From a DMOZ point of view the whole hype about PR and SERP position is totaly not relevant.

I know that there are a lot of spammers, but don't forget that you need all these serious webmasters otherwise you have to look by yourself for new websites. I'm not a spammer and I'm helping the internet community every day but I can't say that I have any positive experience with DMOZ, sorry...

>you need all these serious webmasters otherwise you have to look by yourself for new websites.

We don't have to be forced to look for ourselves. We do it for fun anyway.

>I can't say that I have any positive experience with DMOZ, sorry...

That's OK. You aren't looking for anything we provide. No apologies necessary. There are other websites.

We don't have to be forced to look for ourselves. We do it for fun anyway.

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I know...

That's OK. You aren't looking for anything we provide. No apologies necessary. There are other websites.

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yes the Internet is huge ... blink

My estimation is that from all the sites I have listed (over 15.000) only half were suggested. The other 50% I have found myself using other sources.

but I can't say that I have any positive experience with DMOZ

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Do you mean as a user (someone searching for information). If that is the case I am sorry to hear. If you let us know the problems you encountered we will look into them.
If you mean as a webmaster that is no problem at all. DMOZ does not deliver any services to webmasters. How can you have a positive or negative experience with things DMOZ does not provide.

BTW noone has said you are a spammer.

My estimation is that from all the sites I have listed (over 15.000) only half were suggested. The other 50% I have found myself using other sources.

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that's a lot of work...

Do you mean as a user (someone searching for information). If that is the case I am sorry to hear. If you let us know the problems you encountered we will look into them. If you mean as a webmaster that is no problem at all. DMOZ does not deliver any services to webmasters. How can you have a positive or negative experience with things DMOZ does not provide.

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both, as user because it takes to much time: often timeouts, never found what I'm looking for, search engines are much faster...

as a webmaster, re-check my old postings, I know I did also things against the guidelines (maybe there are too much rules)

olaf2 said:

both, as user because it takes to much time: often timeouts, never found what I'm looking for, search engines are much faster...

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In my opinion directories and search engines have 2 totally different purposes. For searching one single information I would always use search engines. If I would like to have an overview over websites about a certain issue I would use the odp, even when it takes some time to get to the right category.

I was the original starter of this thread -- I was trying to determine why no new sites had been added to the category I submitted to for at least four months. It seemed that either all submissions to that category had been rejected, or the review process was very slow.

Anyway, I recently discovered that my site has now been added, apparently some time within the last month. That means that the total wait was about six months, not unreasonable since you're probably inundated with submissions.

So I want to thank all the editors for the hard work you are doing.

Thank you, billybw

Thank you for coming back and telling us the good news . Few do .