Sep 24th 2007 3:00PM
Welcome To The DMOZ Blog
Hello and welcome to the new DMOZ blog, the official source for information, insight, and updates about DMOZ, the Open Directory Project ( ODP ).
DMOZ is made up of thousands of passionate, volunteer category enthusiasts and experts from all over the world who donate their time to arrange their respective portion of the web. Thanks to their work, DMOZ is a starting place for browsing and searching the web. DMOZ data is also used by thousands of search engines and web portals to help people quickly and easily find information on the web.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of DMOZ's death have been greatly exaggerated.
The editor community is very much alive and thriving. Thousands of new sites are added and updated every week, and we continue to receive hundreds of editor applications and suggested sites every day.
We thought now was the right time to open the door and start a conversation with the Web community about what's happening with the largest human-edited directory.
We intend to use this blog to:
- Provide authentic messages about DMOZ and the efforts of our volunteer community.
- Highlight enhancements, both current and future.
- Allow editors to showcase their categories and describe, in their own words, why DMOZ is so important.
- Recruit new editors. If you have access to the Web and are passionate about a category, find out how to apply.
Additionally we want to hear from you.
What do you think about DMOZ? Why do you use the directory or data? Is there something you would like to see fixed? When you've been around as long as we have, some people are bound to have great things to say, while others might have a few choice words based on their personal experience. Either way, we want to hear it :)
We plan on posting every week so grab the RSS feed or sign up for an e-mail alert to receive notification of new entries as they are posted.
Bob Keating
Managing Editor, DMOZ Staff
DMOZ is made up of thousands of passionate, volunteer category enthusiasts and experts from all over the world who donate their time to arrange their respective portion of the web. Thanks to their work, DMOZ is a starting place for browsing and searching the web. DMOZ data is also used by thousands of search engines and web portals to help people quickly and easily find information on the web.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of DMOZ's death have been greatly exaggerated.
The editor community is very much alive and thriving. Thousands of new sites are added and updated every week, and we continue to receive hundreds of editor applications and suggested sites every day.
We thought now was the right time to open the door and start a conversation with the Web community about what's happening with the largest human-edited directory.
We intend to use this blog to:
- Provide authentic messages about DMOZ and the efforts of our volunteer community.
- Highlight enhancements, both current and future.
- Allow editors to showcase their categories and describe, in their own words, why DMOZ is so important.
- Recruit new editors. If you have access to the Web and are passionate about a category, find out how to apply.
Additionally we want to hear from you.
What do you think about DMOZ? Why do you use the directory or data? Is there something you would like to see fixed? When you've been around as long as we have, some people are bound to have great things to say, while others might have a few choice words based on their personal experience. Either way, we want to hear it :)
We plan on posting every week so grab the RSS feed or sign up for an e-mail alert to receive notification of new entries as they are posted.
Bob Keating
Managing Editor, DMOZ Staff
61. Here's a thought, maybe you should change the name of the directory to:
'THE CLOSED DIRECTORY PROJECT'
Because thats exactly what it is.
Posted at 11:26AM on Sep 27th 2007 by One Eyed Jack
62. It's about time! I was beginning to think that there were no more humans working on the directory. Since you've finally decided to communicate with the world, please quickly address the transparency issue for site submissions. I've all but given up submitting sites because I've never once received feedback from you on a site submission in the 8 years I've been submitting sites (accepted or declined). It would be nice to let us have an account that showed the review process and status for sites we submit.
Posted at 12:54PM on Sep 27th 2007 by Eric Itzkowitz
63. it is time to do something for DMOZ. Unfortunately there are Editors manipulating the submitted entries and " knock you out" if you apply for a Editor post.
Dear Bob Keating please check the records on the category NINGBO ( China). It well know in the community that a certain website has placed a friend as Editor which is blocking out other Ningbo related web sites from being listed. in fact it is not about competition as we are a non profit charity orientated organization and the other one is a profit orientated advertising web site. It is more about the fact that DMOZ seams to be able to easily manipulated..
May be you might get some more similar cases like this where hard working webmasters and even reputable companies had been blocked from listing by strategy well placed Editors..
I hope some will find the strength to let you know.
Anyway, after being also denied as Editor.. what surprise.. we have set up our own social bookmarking www.now2you.com which will even support a Chinese language version.
Bob Keating, if like to comment to me on this above and need to get more details which I can't publish here, please feel free to contact me by email.
Thanks
Posted at 9:30PM on Sep 27th 2007 by DMOZ-Friend
64. It looks good, ... lets see what's next
Posted at 7:40AM on Sep 28th 2007 by nacho
65. Why do ex-senior editors, like myself, have to wait months and months for a decision on reinstatement? I understand from many metas I know, that the decision is in the hands of the admins. One concern is that I have not heard one thing from them, even though I have sent them pm's via feedback. Not a good way to run an organization, imo. Maybe it is time for the admins to step down (instead of them ignoring the project and editing in the Wikipedia) and let someone else take the responsibility. I know of a few good metas that could/would do it.
Posted at 8:22PM on Sep 28th 2007 by Gary Boisseau
66. ODP - Open Directory project...while you are making changes, you might as well change the name ... suggestion Blackhole Directory Project.
1. A person applies to be an editor, gets rejected - no reason.
2. A site is submitted for listing...who knows what happens - rejected, pending, juggled, etc.
3. Besides the "Read the instructions and follow them..." not much that these "humans" can do. Maybe work with the potentail editor or person submitting the site (believe me they are "humans" too!) is asking too much of "humans."
4. Besides gettinga couple of links - what does the DMOZ directoy offer? Sites still get listed (via use of other directories - human edited or not) in the major search engines.
5. Besides acting like some demi-god, super "huamn" entity jsut what can DMOZ deliver?
Posted at 1:17AM on Sep 30th 2007 by H
67. There are some web-sites which have nearly 50 pages from one domain in the DMOZ index, one link for map of each city. The map technology has changed considerably since the time DMOZ was started. The static maps shown by some sites pointed by DMOZ are of very poor resolution. Modern maps, e.g. Google have high resolution and can be scrolled, zoomed etc. You may therefore review the need to have a map page on DMOZ for each city/state.
When a web-site has more than one page in the DMOZ index, please consider using the REL='NOFOLLOW' for all except one of the Links.
Posted at 8:24AM on Oct 1st 2007 by Kuldeep
68. Here's a perspective from someone who's been an editor since 2001. We've had some shining moments but also some mistakes, as should be obvious from the critical posts. We've done remarkably well with volunteers, but now for the first time we have a multi-person staff showing a committment to improvement, and an openness to suggestions, from AOL.
Outsiders probably have no idea of the magnitude of this change, nor could they realize how recently it was made. I jokingly call myself a True Believer because I have stayed with DMOZ through some very rough patches. I honestly do believe that DMOZ represents our best shot at mapping the Internet, and admit to an almost embarrassing faith that improvements planned by staffers like bbgrant and Bob Keating will leverage our existing strengths beyond what anyone can imagine.
I ask that criticism be phrased civilly, although I really do sympathize with the desire to blast and curse us, and promise to do my best as a conscientious editor (one of the 99%, you might say) to make this thing work. As common sense woul suggest, I can assure those who remain civil that their comments will be taken seriously long before there is time to deal with the other kind.
Thanks for this blog!
Posted at 10:12AM on Oct 1st 2007 by tedk1
69. Hi, I write from Spain. I thought that Dmoz was a great idea to create a good way to ordenate interesting sites in categories and I tried to add my sites www.benezit.es and www.spanishtaste.es one year ago aprox. but I still don't appear in Dmoz categories. I tried to contact anyone from Dmoz but it was impossible. What do I have to do to see my two sites in Dmoz Directory?
I think that this blog is a good idea to let know what people think.
Thanks
Posted at 5:11AM on Oct 2nd 2007 by Blaise Roux
70. I'm sorry to write again but my links doesn't appear. http://www.spanishtaste.es and http://www.benezit.es
Kind regards
Posted at 5:16AM on Oct 2nd 2007 by Blaise Roux
71. It's great news to see that DMOZ have come up with an official blog. At last some positive changes. I submitted my site over a year ago and it still remains unlisted in the directory,many people feel thoroughly discombobulated with the lack of feedback.
Regards,
Vincent
http://www.HomeGrail.com
Posted at 3:26PM on Oct 3rd 2007 by Vincent
72. Over the years I tried but failed to get my websites listed in Dmoz. I thought they were picking on me until I went to forums and read about the profuse complaints millions of webmasters and website marketers have about them. So, I decided to forget them. I am shocked they are still around and have not gone out of business.http://clickbank-cbmall.maychic.com
Posted at 8:13AM on Oct 5th 2007 by clickbank-cbmall.maychic.com
73. Perhaps you can tell me why the domain I have been trying to get in the directory for five years is still not in.
Posted at 9:26PM on Oct 4th 2007 by Ian
74. Are different categories take longer to get listed? What about subcategories like law firms and business law?
JP
www.jpmclaw.com
Posted at 1:41AM on Oct 6th 2007 by Law Firm of JP McClelland
75. Today,I first know about dmoz!
http://sujiaoban.com
Posted at 10:52PM on Oct 6th 2007 by ylh
76. well, good to hear dmoz launches its blog and recruit its new volunteer. I tried once to become but may be it's too hard get involved just for commercial problems. anyway, just want to ask a question. how long the editors will come a site and review it after it was submitted. do we get emails on if a site get accepted or rejected? you know we can't submit a site other time
Posted at 5:50AM on Oct 7th 2007 by seo asia
77. Hi. Thanks to all the Editors for your hard work. It would be helpful if sometime in the future, we could get a status page to check whether our sites have been rejected or are still in the queue. Cheers!
Christian
http://www.southptc.com/
Posted at 2:38PM on Oct 16th 2007 by Christian Folland
78. Hi,
For the last two years I've tried to update my site in your directory (appears in a wrong category, not added by us), and there is no way to get an answer from nobody there, nobody answers my emails and the site remains there, in the wrong place.
What is to be alive? DMOZ is alive for who?
Posted at 6:04PM on Oct 7th 2007 by Sandro Franchi
79. For 7 yrs I was wondering what was going on at Dmoz. But after reading this blog, I now have some clues. It appears the issue is that the directory is edited by volunteers who are not paid any money mscsrrr.com
Posted at 6:57PM on Oct 9th 2007 by Mscsrrr.com
80. i didn't know DMOZ was such a high ranked site! meet singles in cincinnati free! don't be single in cincinnati! meetcincysingles.com!
Posted at 6:35AM on Oct 12th 2007 by meetcincysingles