You can almost smell the frustration...

I have seen too many times now where a blog or seo site claim that the DMOZ is either a waste of time, or a futile attempt. Unfortunatly, I am not a big beleaver in heresay; so I had to check this for myself.

Thankfully, my wait has only been about five months now. I have read about others waiting years, and that just dumbfounds me. I suppose that nobody can put a time frame on volunteer work, but it makes it frustrating when many of the tools these sites depend on are influenced directly by the DMOZ.

A perfect example is Alexa. I operate a web site, and on Alexa my catagory is currently occupied by 95 other sites, but not mine. No, Alexa pulls its directory straight from the ODP, and out of those 95 sites, about thirty are long since dead, and another twenty are parked. That leaves almost half the list irrelevant, which is a complete shame.

So why would this be frustrating? Well, of the remaining 45 sites, my site (at five months old) is already bigger than thirty of them. This is good and fine for me and my site, but not so good on the business end of things. Like several others on the web, my site works with other, namely manufacturers. These manufacturers will only do business with sites listed on Alexa, and although my site is listed in the top-site traffic details, it's not in the directory. Seem odd?

At any rate, I close this message by adding that I understand the frustration on both sides. Developers want to be added, and editors are voluntarily donating their time. I thank the editors, and even though I requested to become one (and was rejected), I still have faith that I won't be one of the lost souls who reports back after three years. The sad truth is that this may all be for nothing if something doesn't change.

These manufacturers will only do business with sites listed on Alexa

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I think it's pretty short sighted of them to base their decisions on the uncontrollable and, to all intents and purposes, uncontrollable actions of a bunch of hobbyist volunteers. Perhaps it's time for you to seek out some more professional and realistic ones .

Oh, I don't disagree. Unfotunately, Alexa is a guiding light for some pretty big names out there, and it's difficult to convince their marketing/pr firms otherwise.

I whole-heartedly agree that Alexa (owned by Amazon) has made a poor decision by using the ODP and not their own list.

Alexa (owned by Amazon) has made a poor decision by using the ODP and not their own list.

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I never said that so I'm not at all sure with whom you're agreeing.

Unless it has changed there is an inherent flaw in relying on Alexa stats. They only factor in those who either explicitly use the Alexa toolbar, or have older versions of IE which included Alexa (unbeknownst to the user) and it hasn't been disabled. Given that Alexa is actually a rather skewed measure.

DasCapitolin said:

These manufacturers will only do business with sites listed on Alexa, and although my site is listed in the top-site traffic details, it's not in the directory.

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I dont belíeve you.

The concundrum, is complex.

Surfers want a directory that is actually useful with listings that do not go to the highest dollar or the company with the best SEO. If they are looking for a bakery in Fresno, California, that is what they want and they don't want to have to go through 200 pages of bogus results.

Site owners want visibility. Naturally, and perfectly normal.

Editors want to collect interesting sites and list them. The collection is done with an eye towards to surfer. While editors see and understand the site owner's desires (many editors own their own sites), a good editor cannot allow those desires to influence the editing process.

Then we have the desire for instant gratification.
-- I submitted my site 3 days ago and it is not listed.
-- I am going to get fired if the site is not listed.
-- I should not have to wait.
-- My site is ranked #1 and it must be listed.

None of those do anything but irritate the average editor.

My personal view is that site suggestions should expire every six months. If we don't get to it in six months, then let someone suggest it again (and yes, I can hear the webmasters screaming that this is the third time it has expires and it is just not fair.) that way everyone starts over every six months.

But that is probably never going to happen, and besides, no one asked me.

Still, I do understand your frustration.

There is one positive thing you can do. It has no relation to your suggestion, and there is no cause and effect in play, but if you are aware of a category that needs maintenance, take a few minutes to make a posting in this thread. doing so will help the directory and will probably make you feel good about helping. There is a style we like to see on post in that thread, but i can assure you that those postings get a lot of attention.

We've had some friends of the dirctory make hundreds of these posts, and we have welcomed every one, even if they have been occasionally wrong.

I hope to see you posting there sometime soon.

Good post, spectregunner.

As a recently retired editor of six years, I have every intention of working from the outside myself, when the bug bites me again.

I got a little sick and tired of the whiners on the outside who refuse to understand plain English when editors try to explain that the ODP is not a listing service for site owners, but are building a resource for the web surfer. NOT web user, meaning search engine/webmaster/seo/other directories, butweb surfer.

I unvolunteered myself, .

So, ok, I'm on the outside with the rest of you, by choice, and I find that even though my vision of the Directory is limited, I can still write proper ODP compliant Titles/Descriptions for a site I happen to find, and I can still submit my suggestion to the directory for consideration.

I can also submit an update to an existing site, when I find a bad URL or description, or I can post in this forum, so many of the things editors do on the inside can also be done from the outside.

Any site suggestions I submit will wait right alongside your own, until a volunteer editor happens to wander into that area and decides to work there. It's very likely that the site suggestions I submit will be spotted right away because they'll have ODP compliant titles and descriptions.

Those kind of submissions usually stand out nicely among all the crap most of you submit. I do have experience as an editor, but all of the editing Guidelines are open to the public. There is no secret to writing a good title/description that will stand out and give a site suggestion an advantage over others, it's all available to everyone.

As far as a long wait to get your site suggestion listed, your suggestion is waiting right along with a couple hundred thousand other site suggestions, what makes you more special than any of them? Submit like everyone else, and stop depending on the Directory to make you a wild success, if your site is crap, getting listed in the ODP isn't going to help it, .

My site is a non capital site. Mainly just text. I freely give my information to people that wish to benefit from my 37 years of efforts. My listing even from your site would be obscure. As it is a “Theory of Everything” I do not intend this site for anything other than just to give people information. The directory that I wish to list in has about 30 entries. I waited a year then I tried again I even offered to edit the directory for them. I was turned down for editor because I could not find 2 additional entry for this directory. I must laugh at you. I must find 2 more “Theories of Everything“ before they will ok me as an editor. I hope that this does give you a bit of an idea what is wrong with your system.

You have already lost Google. This was because of the numbers of frustrated people that you no longer even except email from. So they go and post on Google. This is likely why Google dropped your listing.
Oh yes. They are also posting on Yahoo and dozens of other places as well. If you wish to save your project you best get your act together.
John
PS my site is being read in 17 countries without your help. It just took a bit longer. If things keep going the way they are maybe one day I will give you a link.
John

Hi JohnWG,

If a site that meets our current listing guidelines has not been listed, the reason is most likely that a volunteer editor has not yet reviewed it. Although I realize that this can be frustrating, it is the nature of the directory to allow editors to work in categories that they have an interest in and where they wish to spend their time. This can result in some categories not being updated as often as we would like.

As for volunteering to edit the category, the application's requirement for 2-3 listable sites is an integral part of the application process. It shows the reviewing Meta editor that you have a good grasp of what fits the category and also with writing guidelines compliant titles and descriptions. Also, that category sounds like it would not really be a good starting place for a new editor. If you were not able to locate at least three new sites it would prove rather difficult to gain the editing experience needed to gain new categories and/or to remain active as an editor.

This is likely why Google dropped your listing

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See http://blog.dmoz.org/2007/09/26/the-search-for-dmoz/