Forum Moderators: open
We have been in the ODP since 2000 and we have one of the hight traffic sites in our category.
What are legitamate reaons we could have been removed? I've heard of editors that use their authority to take out competitors. Could this be true?
Has anyone else had a site removed from the ODP?
[dmoz.org...]
Is there anything in that which would make your site not qualify for inclusion? If you suspect abuse, check out [report-abuse.dmoz.org...] Alternatively, as mentioned at the bottom of that page, you can contact staff AT dmoz.org.
It's possible that your site was included erroneously and an editor corrected the mistake.
If you inquire about the reason why over at the ODP Public Forum, you'll probably be directed to the guidelines as the editors there will not discuss specific reasons why a site was removed and/or why the site no longer qualifies for a listing.
And as noted above, you can file a report if you suspect abusive editing. [report-abuse.dmoz.org...]
Most are human and if your site should be there it will get back in, if the editor has removed your site or is being unfair he may get booted out.
Editors don't care about motives of submitters. We care about quality.
You may have the ulterior motive of making money with your site. You may still submit it, and we will consider whether it's worth listing. Some happy customer of your competitor may submit their site, out of sheer altruism or gratitude. We don't care: we will just ... consider whether it's worth listing.
You may think your ex-employer's site is no longer worth listing, and ask that it be removed. We don't care why you think so: we will consider whether its listing needs modification. Or any visitor may suggest that any site be re-reviewed. We don't care why: anything that improves the directory quality is help gratefully received.
If you think your site qualifies according to the ODP guidelines -- which, note well, is not at ALL the same as "is not much worse than some other listed site"! -- then you can resubmit it, and/or ask about it in the public forums.
You know exactly why you were removed.
Yep. As an ODP editor, someone could use the editor feedback form to point out a site listed in a category I edit that shouldn't be there per the guidelines. If I were to look at that site and find that it indeed should not be listed according to the guidelines, I'd delete it because that is what the guidelines say to do. And, doing so before some meta may notice it is an incentive. I could not care less if the editor feedback was submitted by the site owner's mortal enemy, or even if it was sent by a super-intelligent lemur that escaped from some mad scientist who was experimenting with intelligence boosting. All that counts is the guidelines and quality.
Thanks for your help.
"Sites affiliated with known spammers may also be removed from the directory and/or blocked from submission"
Once again, I personally had nothing to do with your site being removed; you did. Apparently one of the others whose sites (in addition to mine) were put at risk in your scheme took appropriate action.
If I have a site www.serachweb.com and this is a directory of websites - is it allowed to have additional sites such as www.subcategory1.com and www.subcategory2.com which point at www.serachweb.com/subcat1 and www.serachweb.com/subcat2 and have all listed in the open directory?
Well, there is one distinction. Both are spam, of course. But the former may be considered "ignorant spam" while the latter is considered "deceptive spam with a priori evidence of malicious forethought" -- and reflects much more gravely on the reputation of the submitter AND potentially on the site being so promoted.
Has anyone else had a site removed from the ODP?
Yes, by an ego driven editor (that spoke to me behind the safety of his / her screen name like I was a filthy criminal) who insists beyond all obvious and clear evidence that I am an affiliate deep linking site.
I smell a rat and will be reporting it to the abuse department! It happens a lot, the idea of the ODP is fantastic until you mix the editor with the hidden agenda into the recipe.
