How hard is it to administer a DMOZ catagory?

spidersam · 03-08-2004, 03:38 PM

How hard is it to administer a DMOZ catagory?

Is it time consuming?

Thanol · 03-08-2004, 03:42 PM

It can be as time consuming as you want. the higher level editors don't give you quotas or anything.

spidersam · 03-09-2004, 07:38 AM

Hmm. I wonder how they go about accepting people.

kwvarga · 03-09-2004, 08:00 AM

they dont ;P

Emancipator · 03-09-2004, 09:43 AM

yeah i applied for some really really small categories that had no editor and never recieved a reply. DMOZ is a bit of a joke in my opinion.

spidersam · 03-09-2004, 01:32 PM

That stinks. I was hoping to get a listing out of it.

kwvarga · 03-09-2004, 01:36 PM

hah, you might be able to.. if you ever get accepted.. but wow... there a unorganized group of people

Online Printer · 03-09-2004, 07:14 PM

You should ask the administrator of this website, I believe he used to be a DMOZ editor.

John Scott · 03-09-2004, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Online Printer

You should ask the administrator of this website, I believe he used to be a DMOZ editor.

I was for a while. It was very, very time consuming.

dave conz · 03-09-2004, 11:09 PM

I have recently become an editor of a small category. It is more work than I had imagined but with a small effort at least once a week I am making progress toward sorting out the mess. There are sites in my category that were submitted years ago and have never been looked at. I have to say that even my small category will take me months to clean up.

In the defence of DMOZ, I have been following the editor forums and they seem like a genuine group of people who are trying their hardest. Unfortunately some categories just get neglected.

It's also very interesting to see how people make life difficult for DMOZ - the lumbering speed of reviews is not all the editors fault. I'd say 70% of the sites waiting for review in my category are ridiculous submissions which are wasting my time. My category is video resources - today I reviewed a submission from a mermaid pornography site. Yep, there is such a thing as mermaid pornography. The amazing this is that I actually had to choose from several categories where mermaid porn would fit perfectly. It's a weird world.

spidersam · 03-10-2004, 09:10 AM

Why do so many people use them if they are such a mess?

spidersam · 03-10-2004, 10:11 AM

Well, I signed up to be one anyways (a very, very small category). We'll see if they get back to me.

Thanol · 03-11-2004, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidersam

Why do so many people use them if they are such a mess?

The other directories are newer and don't have databases large enough for search engines to use. Also they aren't really in a big mess, just a few hiccups every now and then. They do have massive amounts of sites that are waiting to be reviewed, but that's what happens since it's currently the most important directory.

kwvarga · 03-11-2004, 07:54 AM

the problem is that theres no editors and they basically refuse to do anything about it

spidersam · 03-11-2004, 10:23 AM

Haven't heard back yet...it's only been just over a day though

dave conz · 03-11-2004, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theSpear

the problem is that theres no editors and they basically refuse to do anything about it

How do you figure that?

stoner3221 · 03-11-2004, 05:03 PM

DMOZ has a very large editing team but by no means will they ever have enough to catch up and maintain the daily submissions. You can blame spammers and less then honest web profiteers who flood free submission services with total garbage. You would have to be an editor to believe the submissions and foolish garbage that gets submitted. Unfortunately it all has to be reviewed using their present editing standards. There are solutions but they would not be at all popular.

donaldb · 03-12-2004, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spidersam

Haven't heard back yet...it's only been just over a day though

Did you receive and reply to the confirmation e-mail? Your application doesn't hit the queue until you reply to that e-mail.

Johan007 · 03-15-2004, 02:33 AM

Quote:

I'd say 70% of the sites waiting for review in my category are ridiculous submissions which are wasting my time.

This is very true and I have to deal with multiple domain spamming and cloaked sites it takes over an hour one day and 10 minutes another day!

However Zeal manages to cope as they have far more active members who are guided by a Looksmart team - why don’t Google do this? Maybe cos DMOZ is a Netscape product.

Brian · 04-03-2004, 10:57 PM

If I was DMOZ I would clear out the submission database. It would be unpopular, but it wouldn help in the long run.

Or I would quit my day job and go on an 'approving" binge for 4 months.