As the numerous responses to my first post show, this is one of the most common and controversial questions asked about DMOZ.
To answer this question, it is important to consider what DMOZ isn't.
DMOZ is not set up as a listing service for site owners. Site submissions are only one source for finding quality sites to add to the directory. Some editors choose to review submissions while other editors might prefer to (at first) find sites on their own through search engines, as links from related sites, in newspapers, on television, on highway billboards, etc. So...there are no guarantees that once you submit your site it will be reviewed within a specific amount of time.
There are also a number of practical reasons it can take a while for a site to get listed in DMOZ:
The site is submitted to an incorrect category. Many sites are submitted to categories that are either too broad, too narrow, or unrelated to the content of the site being submitted. Most of the time, incorrectly submitted sites are sent to the appropriate category for review, but that will usually increase the amount of time that a site will ultimately wait for review. Submitting your site to the single most specific category relative to your site's content will significantly improve your chances of getting your site reviewed.
The site is submitted to the wrong language section of the directory. For example, non-English sites are frequently submitted to the English-language section of the directory. As with sites submitted to the wrong category, editors have to redirect these sites to the correct language, which can increase the amount of time that they will await review.
The submitted site does not meet submission or editorial guidelines for inclusion. Quite often people submit sites that are incomplete, don't contain enough content, or consist primarily of syndicated or mirrored content. Uniqueness of content is one of the most important factors editors consider when reviewing a site for inclusion.
The category has a backlog of submissions. This can result when the popularity of the topic, which may attract large numbers of both listable and unlistable sites, doesn't match the interests of active or prospective editors. Submitting to one of these categories may mean a longer wait. (That doesn't mean you should submit your site to the wrong category just because you think it doesn't have a backlog – deliberately submitting your site to the wrong category is never a good choice.)
URBAN LEGENDS ( i.e. popular & fictional reasons ) as to why a site does not gain acceptance into
The category editor is corrupt and/or a competitor is keeping the site from being listed. DMOZ regularly receives allegations of corruption and abuse through its public abuse reporting system. Each report is thoroughly investigated and crosschecked. Most of these claims turn out to be baseless. In the rare case where there may be some truth to the allegation, the matter is dealt with immediately.
No one is monitoring the category. While a few categories in DMOZ may not have a listed editor that doesn't mean there's no one minding the store. All editors listed higher in a category's hierarchy can and do edit subcategories. In addition, many editors have permissions to edit anywhere in the directory.
I'm certain there will be no shortage of comments to this post, but please consider the topics listed above and re-check your submission application again.
And if/when you do submit, please...please....please avoid any claims/jokes/sarcasm of offering money to get accepted into DMOZ. Editors apply zero sense of humor to these types of statements and it is a sure fire way to ensure your site does not gain entry. Ever.
One of my future posts will include best practice recommendations for suggesting sites to editors.
Cheers.
Bob Keating
Managing Editor, DMOZ Staff
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61. Recently I try to be listed on as many DMOZ as it is possible - the work is rather boring but it is said that it pays off in return.
Regards
http://hide-it.net
Posted at 3:49AM on May 27th 2008 by przem
62. I have submitted our site, http://aging-management.com/, 2 or 3 times over 13 months.
The largely unregulated 'anti-aging' market place is full of cosmetics, fraudulent goods, outrageous marketing, scientific and medical inaccuracies and treatments and products that do not address age-related diseases and the degenerative conditions of aging in any meaningful way.
Against this grotesque carnival of snake-oil salesmen, we feature 2 doctors, both consultants, both qualified to the level of surgeon, who are committed to offering free advice on how to optimise health for longevity and comprehensive, well supported and referenced reviews of various supplements. We also sell a few supplements with a sufficient evidence base to justify their use to help cover hosting costs.
According to the DMOZ acceptance criteria, I feel that content that is this original, useful and from such good credentials is exactly the kind of content that should be sought after and valued.
I picked up from Google Analytics that we had a hit from the DMOZ editor's mail server, so I have good reason to think we have been 'visited' by the DMOZ editor(s).
I cannot understand why DMOZ has not chosen to list us...
I do not subscribe to any conspiracy theories, so can only echo the other requests for some kind of transparency in the acceptance process.
Many thanks,
Alistair Tweed
Posted at 6:12AM on May 29th 2008 by Alistair Tweed
63. I have submitted http://www.womenplayfootball.com which is a website for women's football shirts. The shirts are designed by and for women football players.
I believe that the women's sports apparel category is not the most backlogged or busiest category, but I haven't been listed after 3 months. Any idea why http://www.womenplayfootball.com would not be listed in DMOZ?
Posted at 2:03PM on May 30th 2008 by Hope
64. There really needs to be some form of procedure for following up on listing requests. I have tried to get a listing in this for years and have never heard back in any shape or form. The site http://www.imchat.com is a global web chat room forum that has been around since 2003 with tens of thousands of members. Yet even with all the traffic and AdWords advertising - I can't seem to get a dmoz listing. The Dmoz PR 9 rank is very important and should never be taken lightly. So how do we as average website developers and entrepreneurs get some form of service?
Thanks
Posted at 12:00PM on May 31st 2008 by Max
65. Hi all
Just submitted mine! http://www.magazinesubscription.co.uk
Lets see how long it takes.
Posted at 7:07PM on May 30th 2008 by Mally
66. I have a website http://anypursuit.com that is a general interest website. However, there is no 'General interest' category for such website. This site is also a multilingual website with a hindi section http://anypursuit.com/hindi . Is there any way to select an appropriate category? I had submitted this site in 'reference' category years before, but it could not find a place in your directory. The 'multilingual' category of dmoz is limited in its scope and does not cover my concept. Can you kindly suggest something in such cases as mine? Can I ever get my site published in dmoz directory?
Posted at 8:47PM on Jun 3rd 2008 by Gyan Pathak
67. Wondering if a webmaster that submits to DMOZ using the same email account may get their sites regected.
Posted at 11:14PM on Jun 4th 2008 by Robin
68. We make DMOZ important. Let's think about that!
Posted at 1:59PM on Jun 8th 2008 by Martin Siebel
69. How do we know the editor of a particular category isn't biased, insane, political extremist, power-hungry, corrupt, or some other such status that would cause them to decide not to list my site based on personal motivations that may not be "fair"? The idea of a human edited directory certainly leaves open for the directory to fall subject to the pitfalls of human nature that have led to corruption offline.
"Some editors choose to review submissions while other editors might prefer to (at first) find sites on their own through search engines, as links from related sites, in newspapers, on television, on highway billboards, etc."
The portrait you paint of editors who have criteria of prefering to include only sites they see on TV or highway billboards (those are ADVERTISEMENTS anyway!)-- is not comforting to me in terms of the thought process behind what sites should be included or not.
I'm supposed to trust in one person's opinions? That seems awfully narrow and I'm not sure I see the value in that, especially in relation to the whole concept of information sharing that is the World Wide Web.
DMOZ is a crock. Smacks more of a secret society of elitists than an "open directory"
By the way, how can I become an editor?
Posted at 1:34PM on Jun 5th 2008 by Pomegranate
70. Like many others here, I too submitted a site a long while back (2+ years) and it was re-submitted back in January last year after the crash.
Unlike many others though, I will freely admit that the initial reason for submission was to increase its search ranking. I really think that 98+% of site submissions are purely for this reason. Following on from this I expect that 98+% of correspondance to DMOZ and its editors is people trying to get a commercial gain from it. I guess this is why it is pretty hard to get in. Just reading through some of the comments on here highlights the importance that some people place on a listing. Like many others I also thought about applying to become an editor to try to accelerate the process, but within a few months came to the realisation that my time was better spent doing something more constructive than trying to game a directory that was becoming ever less relevant as an SEO tool. How many people would still submit if DMOZ were to start using nofollow on its links? That would certainly make the editors jobs a lot simpler.
To all those that loathe the idea of a human making a decision as to what should be listed - get a grip! How is this any different to a human that writes code to try to acertain how to rank a site in a search engine? I would rather trust a human ranking as this is a real opinion, the algorithm used in any search engine is far more open to abuse / bugs in most cases. At least the human version is liable to peer review.
After all this time I have pretty much forgotten about DMOZ now. The site that I set out to get listed (www.gissit.com) has done very well without the listing and ranks very well for its terms. It must be useful because people still use it and plenty return to use it multiple times. Other sites that I have built since have not been submitted because I just see it as a distraction now.
One of these sites must be a prime contender for DMOZ as it is pretty unique (Smart Car with high performance motorcyle engine - www.smartuki.com) If DMOZ actually works then it will find its own way in and if DMOZ does not work, what is the point anyway as it will just fade away eventually?
Posted at 8:09AM on Jun 9th 2008 by Brian
71. Hi,
I submitted my site two days ago and wish to retract it, and resubmit it, correcting a few errors, is this possible.?
Help is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Doug
Doug
Posted at 3:59PM on Jun 11th 2008 by Doug Asker
72. Bob: Thank you very much for defining the each step of the submissions. I think, many web-masters and the companies should study this post in order to understand the work-load of Dmoz. I agree, people in hurry send their listing to the wrong categories, that surely demands more time for editors,and for the review team to have a look at and sort out the issues.
I think, Its the brilliant post, that is quite very much helpful for all, lookint to be listed and by bearing with the rules and regulations, suggesting in the right categories, with specific information and appropriate content may let users be listed there.
Thank you anyway for a brilliant post again.
Regards - Tina
Posted at 4:04PM on Jun 12th 2008 by Tina
73. I understand that you wish to provide a threshold to entries in this service. However, I have now waited for over three months to get listed in "World: Bahasa Indonesia: Kesehatan: Kondisi dan Penyakit" (only one other entry). As has been noted, unfortunately our requests seem to go into never-never land, with no way to determine whether they have been rejected or are still under review.
Can you let me know how long I should be patient?
Thanks
Posted at 12:09AM on Jun 22nd 2008 by Chris
74. I have attempted to list Websiteking.co.uk in the DMOZ directory once per year since I began way back in 2002, every time my url is not added. I have wrote to '.Net' magazine about this and they've asked me to inform them of your reply.
Posted at 10:34AM on Jun 24th 2008 by Robbie
75. Hi Bob,
Thanks for the info. I'm curious though why my own website has still not been added to dmoz - I have submitted once a year or so for several years & still no sign of it! I write electronica music & have submitted it to the following category:
arts - music - bands & artists - styles - electronica
Can you please tell me what I am doing incorrectly (if indeed I am doing anything incorrectly). I have read your comments & believe that I qualify for inclusion in the database. I also believe the above category is specific (there are no sub-categories, except for German language - as my site is in English & I don't speak German I'd say that it's fairly accurate to submit to the above). Many thanks & hope to hear something back, if not from you then perhaps from one of the other posters.
Michael.
Posted at 4:25AM on Jul 2nd 2008 by Michael Martin
76. I would like to know where to find the adult section! You say to make sure it goes in the correct place and anything porn would have to go into the adult section. I can't find and adult section in the directory and I don't believe there is one!
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Posted at 6:46AM on Jul 7th 2008 by J.L
77. Funny... but a very politically correct response. Here's the action that IS happening right now. Our little company, listed #287 on the Internet Retailer top 500 list, has been submitting to the proper category for 4 years now. No response or luck. No company spends more on google adwords, has more incoming relevant links, or has more consumer brand recognition than our company.
To me, here's what 4 years supposed "backlog" means: DMOZ and Google Directory is completely insignificant to the industry. I'm currently working with a high level google executive to share my expreiences, so if you wish to join in, please respond or shoot me an email.
Posted at 5:49PM on Jul 8th 2008 by Rick
78. The elitist attitude of DMOZ and its editors will ulimately be its downfall. While attempting to maintain a non-commercial, honest, directory service it is alienating normal, honest people who would like to be listed, but don't want to be left in the dark as to whether their submission is accepted or not. Harsh rules warning people not to submit a site twice or else they will be 'punished', and having no point of contact for queries/feedback are ridiculous aspects of the site. DMOZ simply does not have enough respect for the people who take the time to submit their url for listing, and it over inflates the importance and wisdom of its editors. DMOZ is a good example of a shoddy website.
Posted at 2:41PM on Jun 5th 2009 by minica
79. I feel really embarrassed that I tried get my site listed. It was my first and I didn't realized until AFTER I posted it that it needed to be of high quality. But I guess I'll let it get denied and I'll add to it.
My apologies,
Mina
Posted at 1:21AM on Jul 16th 2008 by jellybeana4
80. Patience guys! Let them serve the way is appropriate, They are humans but far more busy, for instance a report says, an editor in DMOZ recieves more than 2000 submissions a day. Sorting it out might not be this easy we expect! Let them do their jobs the way they want! and also Dmoz approve sites a little late, but their delay is always productive. So lets bear with the rules and regulations Please?
Cheers - Tina
Posted at 12:42AM on Jul 20th 2008 by Tina