DMOZ Open Directory Project

DMOZ Open Directory Project – Why Bother?

Ever wonder what happens behind the scenes at DMOZ? I kind of assumed that nothing happens there. Why would I make such an assumption?

Well… three years ago I submitted my website to them for inclusion in their “open directory”… and I still haven’t heard word one from them… for all I know my request fell into a big black hole.

In one of my previous blog articles I asked the question… Is there anybody out there in DMOZ land?… and a person named John responded to my article… providing a link that summarizes what DMOZ did in 2009.

Here is an excerpt from the DMOZ article:

“In terms of the directory itself, we added more than 2500 new editors and more than 7000 editors contributed to the project this year. Editors made nearly 2 million editing actions, including more than 700000 URLs added or updated, and created more than 26000 new categories.”

Let’s take a closer look at these numbers… 7000 DMOZ editors… making a total of 2,000,000 editing actions in 2009… for an average of 285 editing actions by each editor in 2009. DMOZ doesn’t explain what constitutes an “editing action”… however in the Frequently Asked Questions page of their blog they provide this information:

“DMOZ is developed and managed by a constantly growing community of net-citizens who are experts in their areas of interest. Given this vast community of subject expertise and the global nature of the directory, there is always someone working on the directory: processing submissions, resolving dead links, culling out the bad and keeping only quality information, and discovering new topics to add.”

So now we know what the DMOZ editors do… they process website submissions, resolve dead links, cull out the bad and keep only quality information, and discover new topics to add. I’m not sure about you, but being a DMOZ editor sounds like a full-time job to me… but wait, the DMOZ blog says:

“Unlike small paid staffs, DMOZ editors are Web searchers creating a directory for other Web searches. This kind of philanthropy and passion creates a directory that is directly relevant to what people are looking for on the Web, and how they search the Web for information.”

In other words, unless they happen to be retired, a DMOZ editor has a day job in addition to performing 285 DMOZ editing actions a year. Try and envision how this might affect the inclusion of your website in the DMOZ directory. You have an overworked DMOZ editor reviewing your website to see if it is worthy of being included in the directory. What if the DMOZ editor happens to be having a bad-hair day?… and there is no question that overworked people have plenty of bad-hair days.

Keep in mind that the DMOZ editors are experts in their areas of interest… ever wonder how the 7000 DMOZ editors were selected?… ever wonder who the very first expert was?… ever wonder if the experts have personal websites that are already included in the DMOZ directory?… ever wonder what might happen to your website submission if the DMOZ editor assigned to review your website happens to have a personal website that markets the same product as yours?… ever wonder if a conflict of interest might keep your website from being included in the directory?… ever wonder if an expert really reviewed your website?… ever wonder why DMOZ doesn’t bother to let you know if your website has been reviewed?… ever wonder why you should bother to submit your website to DMOZ?

Should the “DMOZ Open Directory Project” really be referred to as the “DMOZ Closed Directory Project”?

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