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6 months later Im not listed on either. Its sad, because my site is one of the few sites that gives reliable information for the subject at hand. The sites they currently have are loosely related and some are links to sites that dont exist anymore.
Its really sad. I noticed how the category was hurting and tried to apply to be a DMOZ editor but they rejected me! Its outrageous cuz the category is filled with only a few sites and half of them are broken links! It just doesnt make sense why my site hasnt been put on!
Not sure why you were rejected as an editor, but DMOZ doesn't like people who only want to add their own site with a nice description. And it is easy to understand why they have that policy.
Often the best place to apply as an editor when starting is a small regional category. Once ya get in there and get the hang of the system its not to tough to work up to larger categories. This may mean starting out as an editor where there are no affiliations but that's how lots of editors got started.
Recent related discussion. [webmasterworld.com]
one of the most important factors in getting high rankings on search engines is to get listed under your category on sites like Yahoo and the DMOZ
Are you unhappy with your Yahoo listing too, or is this just an anti-ODP thread?
The guidelines don't necessarily prohibit editing in a category where the editor has affiliated sites.
My site has very specific targeted content and theres no reason why it should take more than a year to get into these directories.
Its impossible to build page rank when theres no high PR sites that have any reason to link to you.
Which is totally irrelevant to ODP editorial policy.
>My site has very specific targeted content and theres no reason why it should take more than a year to get into these directories.
Last I checked there were over a million submissions in the ODP unreviewed queues. Thus, that represents a huge amount of person hours that will be needed to review those. And the ODP editors are volunteers, and there is no way to force them to edit faster. In fact, there is nothing in the guidelines that says an editor can't ignore the unreviewed queues, and just add sites they find themselves.
>Its impossible to build page rank when theres no high PR sites that have any reason to link to you.
Try harder. Buy links on high PR pages of other sites if you feel this is necessary. Also, if yours is a commercial site, most likely the ODP cat your site would be properly placed in doesn't have a very high PR. Which is further diluted by the fact there are a lot of sites listed, so each gets little PR from the link. Unless your site would happen to fit best in some atypical ODP cat with high PR, and few sites listed, you are grossly overestimating the benefit in Google SERPs getting listed would have.
Insofar as this is true, the Google algorithm is working.
Some might say -- and I repeat this incredible concept not so much as to support it as to marvel at the extent to which some people might take elementary logic -- that the way to build page rank, then, might be to create the sort of content that other sites would have a reason to link to.
It's been my impression that ODP editors don't really give a hoot what effect adding a listing has on sites' rankings and/or profitability, and it's very hard for me to imagine people deciding to volunteer to become editors and give freely of their time for the purpose of helping site owners (other people) make money.
That's not how life is, and not what volunteerism is about, as far as I understand it. Hospitals have volunteers, schools have volunteers, certain non-profit groups have volunteers; General Motors does not and department stores do not. People do volunteer to make the communities they live it a better place, but they do not work gratis as greeters at the local WalMart to create a more hospitable community environment for the shopping center.
It's a given that a listing does help, and that important categories should be well maintained and that some people do have a high interest in some topical areas, even commercial ones, but the reality has to be that regardless of motivation and even the best of intentions, not everyone who applies can qualify for even the neediest of categories. And it has to be a reality that some people who actually do qualify in some way disqualify themselves when they fill out the application.
Not being an editor I can only see things as an outsider, although an outsider who understands the underpinnings of being a volunteer through almost a lifetime of volunteer activity, but it's plainly evident that there are plenty of sites out there that are doing just fine without either ODP or Yahoo listings, some of them highly successful affiliate sites.
The bottom line as I see it is that one person's need doesn't constitute any type of obligatory demand on the part of any other person, and that goes for not only volunteer and personal situations but business situations as well.
To rely on any outside source or influence for the success of an enterprise, whether it's free search engine listings which can come and go, or an ODP listing which may or may not ever happen, is shaky ground for a business model that can be relied on for financial survival. We all have to be made of tougher stuff than that and take more independent action. We can't rely on other people or institutions, we all have to take personal responsibility for our own successes and failures.
[edited by: skibum at 5:22 am (utc) on Jan. 13, 2004]
If you know you have a good site, I guess there is only one thing to do - Submit and Wait. Instead of moaning about DMOZ, and wasting your precious time, I guess there are heaps of things you could achive, for instance, have a look at your own site as an editor's point of view and see how you like it. Ask a friend to review your site, or even, read your own Alexa reviews (if you have any) to see what people think about your site.
Eventually, as you grow, you will become automatically noticed by an editor, and then you'll feel proud that you didn't waste your time moaning about it!
Sid
That is the impression we really try hard to give.
>That's not how life is...
Truly.
>The bottom line as I see it is that one person's need doesn't constitute any type of obligatory demand on the part of any other person, and that goes for not only volunteer and personal situations but business situations as well.
Truly.
>To rely on any outside source or influence for the success of an enterprise, whether it's free search engine listings which can come and go, or an ODP listing which may or may not ever happen, is shaky ground for a business model that can be relied on for financial survival.
Well spoken for an outsider! If your other contacts run out of needs for volunteers, you know where to find us...
Just do what I said in post.#13, don't bother about DMOZ, just finish your content and be happy with it. Afterall, visitors are more important than DMOZ!
Sid
Yes they do, and when they get tired of it they should quit. In my opinion DMOZ is fast becoming irrelevant because it is not keeping up with the changes that are ongoing on the web. Uncommitted editors need to be dropped and replaced. Frankly I think it should add an express inclusion option and start supporting a different model. Clearly the volunteer model is not working.
The DMOZ is a good idea, but not working for my category
That seems to indicate a specific un-named category in the Directory is being discussed.
>>Clearly the volunteer model is not working
Not working for whom?
There is nothing prohibiting multiple editors of a category. In fact, this isn't at all unusual at the ODP. That someone does minimal editing causes no harm.
>Frankly I think it should add an express inclusion option and start supporting a different model.
The social contract would forbid this.
There's very little content on there.
Get some content. Then you'll have a far easier time getting into DMOZ as well as general better performance in the search engines.
TJ
Sid
