How is information used?

[hotbunyip]

Hi,

 

This question may have been previously asked so I seek your forgiveness if that is so.

 

Before I ask my question I would like to put before you a couple of my assumptions, so as to make the wording of my question a little easier for me.

 

Assumption: As dmoz does not actively promote itself as a directory, a large proportion of internet users are not aware of it and so it is not used to its full capacity;

 

Assumption: Most webmasters worth their salt would have already listed their sites with the major search engines;

 

Fact: If I were to be apply for a position as an editor, I would glean most of my sites,I would submit to dmoz, from a Google search;

 

Taking the foregoing into consideration, my efforts in presenting acceptable sites to dmoz, would result in them appearing in the dmoz directory and very few other places.

 

My question has turned out to be more of a statement, sorry, but could someone correct my assumptions please.

 

I just feel that if my assumptions are correct, my efforts will only be adding to the dmoz directory which, if for example, I elected to edit a regional alternative health sservices ection, few people would make use of it.

 

I sound as if I am confused, and I guess I am.

 

Hotbunyip.

[hutcheson]

>Assumption: As dmoz does not actively promote itself as a directory, a large proportion of internet users are not aware of it and so it is not used to its full capacity;

 

Fact: People can use the ODP without ever visiting any dmoz.org server.

 

(1) Major portals (this season, most notably, Google and AOL) host copies of the directory. (They have professional promoters, and servers that can handle a much greater load. The ODP has neither.)

 

(2) Major search engines (this season, Google and Yahoo) use ODP data in various obscure ways. One big-name SERP perp calls the ODP "the mother of all search engines."

 

(3) So, in general, we simply don't KNOW who will use the ODP, except that it will be "anyone who wants to." It is always available for creative new uses.

 

(4) There is only one real alternative to the Open Directory clones -- the smaller, commercially-oriented Yahoo directory. Whether many or few, the people who like a comprehensive web directory are a captive audience that cannot easily be taken away.

 

>Assumption: Most webmasters worth their salt would have already listed their sites with the major search engines;

 

Experience of reality: This is not at all true. Most webmasters worth their salt are focussing on creating good websites, not on promotion. Very few of the very best websites, new or old, are suggested. Instead, the promoters (might as well call them spammers) dominate the site suggestions.

 

>Fact: If I were to be apply for a position as an editor, I would glean most of my sites,I would submit to dmoz, from a Google search;

 

This may well be true. But to be a really effective editor, you would need to learn some of the many other techniques for finding good sites. The editing community will eagerly help you learn to get out of "the rut" (whatever that rut is.)

 

>Taking the foregoing into consideration, my efforts in presenting acceptable sites to dmoz, would result in them appearing in the dmoz directory and very few other places.

 

That doesn't logically follow at all, either from your assumptions or from the actual facts. So I'm a bit puzzled as to where you came up with it. But ... does it really matter?

 

The relevant questions are these:

 

(1) Do I (do you) want to spend your time building a web directory that won't directly help me (you) financially?

 

If the answer is "no", then that's an end of it. It doesn't matter what effects the ODP has, you're not going to be an ODP editor. There are other good things to be doing, on and off the net, and perhaps you are the person to do them.

 

But if the answer is "yes, I'm the sort who would be doing indexing whether or not ANYONE ever looked at my index!" then you have to look at the trade-offs between the ODP and your "other" way of building a directory.

 

(1) The ODP offers efficient editing tools, standards, a helpful community. How much time are you willing to spend doing the "webmaster/sysadmin" work on your own site? Or is that perhaps what you'd RATHER be doing?

 

(2) The ODP offers a high reputation (compared to your own new site) and established distribution channels. How much time and money would it take to get your own site to Google PR 9 or 10 or whatever, and Alexa rank umpteen-hundred-and-whatever? Are you willing to spend your time and money that way -- or perhaps, who knows, that's what you really enjoy doing.

 

(3) The ODP offers wide distribution. What you put on your own site is likely to have very little effect on the net at large. How would you get your own directory distributed, or are you willing to depend on the promotion of that one obscure site?

 

(4) The ODP offers cooperation with other likeminded people. Are you willing to work cooperatively to build a consensus about the best way to do things? Or do you feel compelled to repeat work that's already been done by someone else, just so you can do it your way?

 

(5) You have to give up the control that you'd have on your own site, and work within the ODP guidelines, which may not be exactly the way you'd choose to work. How much are you willing to let other people demand that you do whatever you do to a very high standard -- taking into account the accumulated experience of many man-years of effort? Or perhaps you're one of those people who would welcome a challenge, and who would enjoy learning from people with different backgrounds from yours, and who can cooperate with other people in a good cause?

 

Everyone always has a choice. I hate replicated work. I am not fond of the mindless drudgework that constitutes all too much of system administration and webmastering and SERP perping. I like making the best of a particular schematization, whoever defined it. I love the challenge of defining excellence by seeing how much better the best can be made. I'm not in it for the money. And, so long as I and people like me can find what they want on the web, I don't care how many or how few people that is.

 

So the ODP suits me well. But it doesn't suit everybody, and it might not suit you -- and even if it DOES suit you, it might suit you differently than it does me.

 

Take your pick. If you decide to go on your own, and you actually do a good job by ODP standards, then eventually an ODP editor will find your directory, and "mine it for links" -- and in that (indirect and delayed) way, you might end up having almost as much effect on the web as if you'd been working on the ODP all the time.

[hotbunyip]

Thank you for your prompt and very fulsome reply.

 

Just to correct a couple of your assumptions , I am not looking to make money out of dmoz and I don't have my own site. So, I was not sure what you were talking about when you were referring to my site. But not to worry, you have given me a lot of new information, and for that I am genuinely grateful.

 

I apologize for assuming I would have to get my sites from search engines, and look forward to learning how to locate sites by other means.

 

Just to put my inital query into a bit more context, I am 73 years of age, retured and merely looking for a worthwhile endeavour to give me some mental stimulation whilst knowing I was expending my time on a worthwhile cause. I reiterate, I am not looking for any way to make money on the internet.

 

Thank you again for your response and maybe in the not to distance future you may be whispering more goodies into my little pinkie.

[hutcheson]

When I wrote that, I noticed you were saying nothing about wanting to make money. I didn't assume one way or another -- just mentioned it, because for some people that IS an issue.

 

As for "your" site -- this is the 21st century. If you don't have one now, you COULD have a free one easily enough. So the ODP is always competing for editing resources with at least that alternative -- personal sites, tightly focussed on personal goals and interests, and designed just the way the webmaster likes it. Or -- if not "your" site, then someone else's site, to which you donate content. (I don't have a site. There are several sites that each accept enough of what I want to do, that I don't need my own.)

 

You have a lot of options: the ODP is only one of them.

 

But what you say sounds like a fit. You'd not be the oldest or the youngest ODP editor. Some of us are gainfully employed, some underemployed, some retired, some still in school. About the only common factor is "'satiable curtiosity."