Dmoz Editors deserve contempt!

I thought I should make a post about the Dmoz Editors. Dmoz prides itself on having "an army" of editors, current as of today the published number of editors are 70,927 editors, editing 5,182,325 sites in over 590,000 categories. Very impressive numbers indeed. In my opinion, a very small fraction of that number can handle editing a directory of this size, providing that a better set of tools are made available to those editors and a little more control over the website submission form or as they like to call it "suggestion form".It seems that becoming an editor is a huge undertaking, from all the the forum posts I've read it is a daunting task, maybe not because of the over-whelming intricacies of the "job" but it seems that politics and self promotion butt kissing, back stabbing are all part of the daily reality of the day to day operation of the directory. From the numbers of Editors posted above, you would think that they would be able to easily handle any number of submission to the directory, after all, each normal editor is only responsible for very few categories, so the load is distributed in a fair way. Yet waiting time in some cases has approached 3 years! You heard it right, that's 3 Years, not months or days. Even if this is a free and volunteer driven directory this is still unacceptable. I say that because Dmoz has gained popularity with search engines, Google and recently MSN two of the top 3 search engines online are using Dmoz Title and description of websites, Google gives more weight to sites listed in the directory since they theoretically have been reviewed thoroughly by qualified human editors. Dmoz is "syndicated" around the web by other search engines and web directories utilizing the freely available Dmoz directory dumps or accessing the data live through the many php and cgi scripts available to scrap from the directory. At present the number of sites that are using the ODP data and are listed in the Dmoz directory stand at 380, though the real number is in the thousands. Which translates to a lot of unique links for listed websites. Webmasters are flocking to get listed in the Directory because of the above reasons. and some of them flock to the resource-zone (those who know about it) to check on the status of their submissions. This service was in my opinion the only decent thing that the resource-zone was good for, but this has been abandoned now, and editors would jump on you in seconds if you post anything resembling an enquiry of the status of your submission. I believe that the resource-zone is worthless now and should be avoided like the plague unless you are in need of a heartache or can't wait to be spat at and kicked in the face by one of the kings and queens of Dmoz. After announcing that status checks queries will no longer be answered, they claim to be there now to answer to other more important issues. Wake up monkeys, No other issue is more important than that to any webmaster. I (though I have never been an editor at Dmoz) and many other people can do exactly what you do now, which is answer to irrelevant questions with a list of what to do and what not to do when submitting and when communicating blah blah blah... All this information is already available on the main website, you can just point to it and save your breath. But I think the real reason for the resource-zone website is to feel important, with the ego trip that answering helpless webmasters can bring you, you are the one in charge, you are the one who decides who gets in and who gets out. I tend to never mention any names so it does not get personal, but I can't help but to thin of one editor with her/his small avatar in the forums as a a queen/ fairy/witch whatever it is, but with a big crown. This is avatar sums it all up.

A lot of posts on the website in answer to why it takes so long to review websites, or why a category has not changed for years though it does have editors listed, would start with a lesson on how Dmoz editors are God's gift to the web, editors are not obligated to edit or review anything if they choose not to, they don't even have to login more than once every 3 months i believe, so in reality the number above is hardly true, and I came to believe that the great majority of those editors are applying for the sole purpose of adding their own websites and then calling it a day. They at the same time try to maintain editor status so they can control their chosen categories, and remove or add anything they choose. Of course not all editors are corrupt or only edit for their own self interest, but this has been a hot topic at most forums that deal with SEO issues.

An editor recently tried to list one of 3 editorial accounts he holds at Dmoz for sale at eBay.com. The auction was quickly removed by eBay, but not before the auction received a few bids, with the highest of which closing on US $1000. Why would anyone be willing to pay $1000 for an account that you can get free? strange but true. As mentioned above, it is very hard to get an editor account, and even though the folks at Dmoz constantly ranting that if your website will not succeed without a Dmoz listing then you should go and do something else! I agree with that statement, yet a decent and honest listing of a quality website in Dmoz is by far the most important link a website can get today. That's why people are willing to pay $1000 to get it.

Another issue with editors has been seen in some requests where a few webmasters asked for their website to be removed from the Directory. I have read a few posts and blogs about this issue. and I do understand that no one is obligated to remove links to other websites if they chose not to, yet I can't help but to think that Dmoz should make this available to people upon request. If any webmaster feels (rightfully or not) that a listing in Dmoz is hurting his business, he/she should have a recourse to have that listing removed. After all Dmoz was created for helping everyone and its a volunteer based, non-commercial with a "social contract" and fair treatment, and and and... So, its only fair for Dmoz to accommodate this.

I am sure the above may sound a little harsh, and I am sure the majority of those who do actually edit, not just sit at their thrones at the resource-zone, are decent people, but the few rude, corrupt and and selfish and controlling Editors are making a case for the whole project to be put in the trash as a failed attempt at a decent project. Unless of course AOL/Netscape or whoever the true owner of Dmoz can step up, clean it up, or just out-right sell the damn thing.
And for the sake of the web I hope that Google and MSN abandon any affiliation or reliance on anything that is Dmoz.

DmozSucks.org