Report Hijacks, Dead Links, Inappropriate DMOZ Content, and other issues here ONLY

jeanmanco · October 30, 2004

#799 Nochaos - are you looking an the ODP directory or an old copy?

hkseek.com was marked as dead on 13/Apr/2004 and is not in our directory.

Others dealt with, thanks.

Nochaos · October 30, 2004

I indeed was looking at the current directory, but it seems to be last updated Nov 22, 2003. You should see it if you drill down to that cat on the public side and not from the editor side. Funny thing is that the Google directory shows a later update without 2 of the sites I mentioned (Hkseek and Lycos), so Google updated from Dmoz but not the Dmoz dir itself - does that make any sense?

Thanks for taking care of these. Btw, thehelper seems to be saying this is not the place for comments like these. If not here then where?

thehelper · October 30, 2004

We are all volunteers and entitled to our opinion. As long as someone is willing to do the QC it is not a problem.

jeanmanco · October 30, 2004

Nochaos - How strange. I don't know how you could see that old page unless it is in your own cache.

Believe me I looked on the public side of the ODP and hkseek.com was not showing there. Google takes a copy of the ODP RDF and so cannot be more up to date than the ODP, (unless the ODP has a disaster and has to roll back to an earlier version.)

Perhaps we should have a new thread for typos? I'm not sure where it would go though. It's not really a good fit under Abuse or Bugs and Features.

I agree that in the larger scheme of things, removing hijacked and dead links is more urgent. The crucial thing for our users is to be able to get to the content they want. But there are editors who like to pursue typos. Reported errors tend to get fixed quickly.

Nochaos · October 30, 2004

Jean,

As far as I know, I had never before been to the HK cat in question so cannot believe it was in my cache. Just minutes ago I refreshed the cat, and your edits are now seen as updated today. Somehow that cat must not have been updated for whatever reason but is definitely there now, even for me.

"Typos" is, I think, a bit of a misnomer for what I was doing and may do in the future. True, my first suggested correction earlier was a typo, but the remaining comments had more to do with inaccurate statements - improper descriptions, partial names rather than full, an incorrect title(imo). These latter aren't typos so much as conceptual errors and deserve correction just as much as dead links. In fact, dead links much of the time aren't all that important to deal with for one very good reason - sites that are down today are often back up tomorrow, so taking them out prematurely may only defeat your own purposes by creating unnecessary work as well as eliminating useful sites.

Imo, there should be a clear place to report obvious problems, not just typos. QC should have a high priority; it reflects the degree to which an editor has reviewed a site. Sloppy work only begets more of the same. I would much more appreciate an editor who spends time doing a solid job than one who tries to set some sort of record in speeding through sites only to have others later on have to redo or correct mistakes.

thehelper · October 31, 2004

I agree that typos need to be fixed asap it was the other stuff in the thread I was speaking of. That stuff was real borderline and though technically the whole category needed QC I did not see it as an abuse or hijack issue. Maybe a new thread should be made for QC issues like this, but I think typos should remain here. I would have corrected the typo myself but I did know the correct spelling either

jeanmanco · October 31, 2004

Nochaos - well the mystery remains over the old ODP page.

I wouldn't worry too much about dead links being deleted prematurely. When I returned to the ODP and RZ after a break, there was quite a backlog of reported broken links here. So I was checking them some days or even weeks after first found dead. Only a very, very few turned out to be live. You can check them yourself, if you feel so inclined.

If there seems some possibility of a return, the listing will simply be moved behind the scenes for a while.

spiderbot · November 1, 2004

Inapproriate ODP content and possible hijack

Under the category : http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Singapore/Business_and_Economy/Employment/Online_Services/

this site Careers Management Services at url: http://web.singnet.com.sg/~cmsedu/ is a education management or service site.

"We assist students in applying for places in schools, colleges and universities in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States of America." the free service is only for councelling

not exactly a site to be included in

http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Singapore/Business_and_Economy/Employment/Online_Services/

it should be placed in (if it should be placed at all)

http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Singapore/Education/Management/

Another site at (same page) Career Zone

URL : http://www.careerzone.com.sg/

this use to be a job site as what's described in your directory;

But Its now a single page site listing what you see on the home page. no more job search or job listings.

Possible hijack

http://www.9to5.com.sg/

the page gets redirected to http://www.careermastery.com

jeanmanco · November 1, 2004

#808 dealt with, thanks.

lazydog · November 1, 2004

cacaphonic.com

www.cacaphonic.com

This domain was earlier owned by Nate Thomas and contained movie reviews by him. It has since been hijacked.

Here's an example -

earlier -

http://web.archive.org/web/20040220043341/www.cacaphonic.com/movies/archives/000072.php

and now -

www.cacaphonic.com/movies/archives/000072.php

Listed in -

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/E/Edward_Scissorhands/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/M/Moulin_Rouge_-_2001/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/M/Master_and_Commander_-_The_Far_Side_of_the_World/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/P/Phone_Booth/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/S/Scotland,_PA/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/T/Texas_Chainsaw_Massacre_Series/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/E/Elf/Reviews/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/K/Kill_Bill_Series/Kill_Bill_-_Volume_1/

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/M/Matrix_Series/Matrix_Revolutions,_The/Reviews/

Already removed from -

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Movies/Titles/2/28_Days_Later/

ishtar · November 1, 2004

Thank you. It seems that jeanmanco is in the process of taking care of them.

[Edit] Done now. [/Edit]

jeanmanco · November 1, 2004

#810 dealt with, thanks.

spiderbot · November 2, 2004

Inappropriate ODP Content

3 cheers to jeanmanco and all the editors who has been working so hard

http://www.aqualite.com.sg/

Aqualite Trading Pte Ltd at the category http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Singapore/Business_and_Economy/Beauty_and_Cosmetic_Services/

A bidet company placed in Beauty and cosmetic services.

November 2, 2004

Hmmm, site moved.

Thanks

:tree:

icebane · November 2, 2004

Category:

http://dmoz.org/Health/Conditions_and_Diseases/Infectious_Diseases/Spirochetal/Lyme_Disease/

Broken links:

Ask Noah...http://www.noah-health.org/english/illness/lyme/lyme.html

Health A to Zhttp://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/dc/caz/infc/lyme/ldindex.html

Lyme Disease Explainedhttp://www2.bc.edu/~lamontia/lyme.htm

Sharing Our Storieshttp://groups.msn.com/Sharingourstories/_homepage.msnw?pgmarket=en-us

jeanmanco · November 2, 2004

#815 dealt with thanks. The changes may not appear immediately on the public side.

screenprinter · November 2, 2004

dead link and spam sites

While reviewing sites listed in: /Shopping/Clothing/Custom/Printing/

If found a dead link, Stichalogo - http://stitchalogo.homestead.com/Pinoy.html

And a spam launching site, Patriotprints - http://free.hostdepartment.com/s/shirt1/index.html

Quite a few of the sites listed in this category are poorly built with out dated content and broken links internally. This category could use a little tlc if any of you editors are available.

Is this category needing an editor? I am thinking of re-Applying to edit this category but my last submission was turned down citing that the category was already well represented. Is it really well represented?

Thanks,

David

jeanmanco · November 2, 2004

#817 dead link and change of content dealt with thanks.

Sorry I can't respond to the query about editing, as I am not a meta. If you ask in the forum about becoming an editor, you should get an answer there.

Nochaos · November 2, 2004

Cooled Businesses

What is the rule when it comes to cooling individual businesses, esp'ly national air carriers?

Starting from the cat http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Travel/Transportation/Air/Airlines/Asia/, there are @links to the airlines of 12 countries in Asia. Countries whose national airlines made the grade include India (2 of them no less), Malaysia, Pakistan and Singapore. Not all countries may have national carriers as such, but do those who do really deserve such an honor as one of the best overall sites in the cats? These are, afterall, merely businesses that just happen to be owned by their respective governments. I did not see the same treatment in Europe or N. America (like Canada, eg); only in Asia were certain airlines so lucky.

One other point, in the Singapore @link China Airlines is listed. This airline is based in Taiwan and is also listed there as it should be. While this airline indeed flies to Singapore, so do dozens of other airlines worldwide, yet for some reason only C-A is allowed to be double-listed.

And a final point, in case you are not aware of it, SilkAir is a subsidiary of Singapore Air (both are listed). If you look hard enough, you will see each has deeplinks to the other.

jeanmanco · November 2, 2004

Good question. Editors often use the cooling feature to pick out official sites. The usage here seems to be reflecting that, though I see your point.

Followed up your other points, thanks.

jbeutler · November 2, 2004

Dead link

http://the-wizard-of-roz.com/http://the-wizard-of-roz.com/

in http://www.dmoz.org/Health/Alternative/Coaching/United_States/ http://www.dmoz.org/Health/Alternative/Coaching/United_States/

seems to be gone.

Check?

jeanmanco · November 2, 2004

#821 - dead link removed thanks.

Nochaos · November 5, 2004

Sites in Regional/

One of the two cooled sites, http://officialcitysites.org/, is noting how it has been cooled by Dmoz itself! I wonder when they put that notice up - before or after the 9 countries they show. If Dmoz cools the site with only 4 countries, what kind of award does the site get for > twice that many countries?

DMO is dead at the moment.

Global Real Estate Project - My own opinion on this one is that this is a somewhat narrow subject matter for a top category.

International Center for Island Studies is "no longer in use" - they want you to go to Global Islands Network (GIN, as it were).

Island Directory - Isn't it improper to use website text verbatim without attribution, ie descriptions should at least be in quotes if so done? Better to write your own I'm sure.

Webteka - It could be mentioned this site is also available in the Russian language.

------------------------------------------------------------

I'm being just a bit picky here in that this *is* a top level category with no fewer than 20(!) resident and senior(!) editors, and yet not one seems to have taken a look at these sites lately.

jeanmanco · November 5, 2004

#823

As I mentioned above, many editors will 'cool' official sites. So you can see the logic of picking out a directory of official sites. The correct place for it is at top level Regional, since it covers more than one continent.

Global Real Estate Project may be aimed at a particular class of users, but it contains the same type of general information on countries as the CIA Factbook and is correctly placed also.

Dead and redirecting links removed, thanks.

Island Directory - On the whole and generally speaking it is better for editors to write their own descriptions, but now and then a submitter provides a description which can be accepted unchanged. In a few cases the submitted description is exactly the same as the site subtitle. If it perfectly fits our own Guidelines, it may be used. Since the submitter grants us permission to use the provided description, there is no copyright issue. [if you would like to discuss this point further though, I would appreciate you starting a separate thread.]

Webteka - Although editors can and sometimes do say in a description that the site is available in other languages, this is not strictly necessary. It is more useful to list sites with more than one language version under all the languages concerned. Webteka could be listed with a Russian description in the Russian-language tree in World.

The top level Regional editors do not edit simply in the top level category. They edit the whole tree, which is huge. They are therefore extremely busy.

blaster_1981 · November 5, 2004

30 Links which may need looking at.

I've found about 30 or so Links which appear to be incorrect. As far as the dead links go, i don't know weather the web servers are down, or weather the sites do not exisit. The rest I thought may be worth pointing out. The 3 Regional ones I know need updating.

http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Business_and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Chat/ http://boards.funs.co.uk/ popups & invalid content.

http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Business_and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Chat/ http://info-highway.co.community.everyone.net/ Discontinued site.

http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Business_and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Chat/ http://www.virgin.net/chat/chatredirect.html Discountined site

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http://www.kailove.com/ in Computers > Internet > Chat which looks like a domain name renewal page, which has an option for someone else to renew

--

http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Chat/IRC/Bot_Services/

http://www.rent-a-bot.net Dead Link

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http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Chat/IRC/Networks/A/

http://www.absoluteirc.com/ Dead Link

http://www.adultchatnet.org/ No Pages