The_Contractor - 8:49 pm on Jan 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

Several cateogories I watch have not been updated for months, in some cases years.

Yes I'm sure that's true, but you also have to take into consideration that there are almost 600,000 categories with 100's/1000's being updated daily.

Many of these categories still contain dead or outdated links to sites that were eligible for inclusion in the nineties, but do not seem to be appropriate today any more, while other new relevent sites are not listed.

Well dead links are automatically being removed from public pages for editor inspection as far as I know, and this occurs every time robozilla runs. As far as relevance this has and always be in one's own opinion.

Relevance for a human-edit directory for humans should be: list the best sites for a given topic (=category).

Again, this has and always be in one's own opinion. I have never heard one submitter state they are submitting their site and it is the worst of the bunch - have you? I have always heard from those that complain that they have or know of the best sites for every category in dmoz and it's their sites that deserve an immediate listing...

If you are a site owner that is into SEO etc you will almost always hate the ODP or disagree with the editors and what the actual project is and/or should be about.
They could shut down submissions and I think the directory would actually get into better shape and grow at a faster rate. I believe editors could find relevant sites in any given category that actually belong in that category without having to move,delete, or note sites.

The largest misconception is that editors/dmoz cares what Google, Alexa, or any other SE thinks of it - good or bad.

If AOL closed it down tomorrow it would still continue in one fashion or another by the editors.