hutcheson - 1:56 am on Dec 20, 2006 (gmt 0)

>I don't get it... It seem to me (opinion), the SE algorithm is its only present day usefulness.

>Most people "google", not "dmoz".

This could be said about almost any site: most people don't visit it from one year to the next. Are all the sites in the world EXCEPT the Alexa top 100 "of no usefulness?" Do we dump all the llama-breeders' sites because most people will never buy or rent a llama? Are all the books in the library except the top-10 bestsellers "of no usefulness"? Should we go through and discard volume "V", "X", and "Z" of the encyclopedia because the top five volumes get 80% of the use? Should we take all the classical music radio stations off the air because only 2-5% of the population cares about that?

There's an attitudinal difference here. If the ODP can be the best internet resource for some task for just 2-5% of internet users, how many sites on the web can say more? A hundred? A thousand? absolutely not more than that. That's still in the top one-thousanth of one percent of all websites.

And each person who doesn't use the ODP -- doesn't impact its value positively or negatively. All that affects its value are the people who use it.

This is true for any site: and even in the real world a rarely-read book doesn't detract from the value of the library (unless the library runs out of shelf space, which is not an issue online).