|
|
DMOZ And The adult Webmaster
DMOZ or "The Open Directory Project" started
with the best of intentions a web directory with volunteer human editors.
The ODP has grown into a backwards beauracy that exist to please a few who
manage the business on AOL. Like a hippy commune straight out of the sixties
it was intended to make the internet a happy place that the web community
would get along in perfect harmony. The goal of DMOZ was to provide a place
where "Big Brother" was held in check and humans had control over the
machine. It only took a couple years for this noble human based project to
disintegrate into what it has become today, A cluster fuck beyond
all proportions.
Relevance:
In the past a DMOZ listing was the most
important link back you needed in order to get some sort of web presence. It
used to be an anchor for a keyword and a DMOZ listing for that important
keyword category could be found fairly prominent in GOOGLE or YAHOO. Now you
are lucky to see an article like this one listed in your main keyword
search. In all fairness Google still uses the DMOZ directory to mirror their
own, but who goes to the Google directory to find something they are
searching for?
Corruption:
The past four years DMOZ has sort of waged a
battle against corruption, however it has turned out to be an empty gesture.
To become a human editor at DMOZ you must have some experience in the
category you wish to edit. Since there is a business or political aspect to
every website on the internet, the human editors bank account seems
to always come first. In the adult section of DMOZ whole editor purges have
alleviated the problem of corruption and have left many categories without
editors. The other issue with corruption is the DMOZ system of Mentors and
Meta editors. The theory with this system is senior editors would guide
newbie's through the maze of policies and help them determine what is an
appropriate website or not to the ODP. Many editors who signed on have quit,
citing Meta editors adding sites to their respective categories, to promote
his or her interest or having removed listings without any consent of the
editors respective categories.
Technology:
The DMOZ is nothing more than a simple PHP
search program anybody can buy for $60.00 and hosted operated on old servers
AOL has no use for. Think about it, AOL is dying and bankrupt and the ODP
is using the stuff they couldn't sell at the AOL flea market.
Attached to ODP is there forum called "The
Resource Zone". This concept is to explain who, how and why they add sites
to their directory. Actually its a complaint board monitored by well meaning
editors who spend the whole day explaining how screwy the system has become.
If you really want to know what DMOZ is all about scroll through the
resource zone and you will soon be as confused as the people who run it are.
I will say this much about the folks at DMOZ they do hang out all the dirty
laundry. The problem is they do not look at all that is posted and learn
from there own mistakes. Its the blind leading the blind.
For Profit?:
DMOZ is supposed to be a volunteer organization,
but when the powers that be feel a little heat or cant answer a tough
question they refer you to the legal staff at AOL. I doubt there is a legal
staff, if I didn't know any better I would think a bunch monkeys run the
show. Humor aside, AOL owns the ODP and like AOL it doesn't turn a profit.
Maybe that's why they declare it a DOT ORG. Why does AOL keep DMOZ around?
God only knows, maybe a senior AOL manager enjoys the humor of it all, but
it could be the aforementioned monkeys.
Solutions:
Does a DMOZ listing really matter? No, Google
pays it little relevance and Yahoo has its own directory, which you pay for
inclusion. It can run up to $600.00 to be listed in the Yahoo directory, but
at least it gets listed and usually in less than five business days. Another
benefit of paying for directory inclusion is as long as your check clears
and meets yahoo guidelines, your site is listed without the bullshit. Google
may use the directory for its own, but that is a matter of convenience, I
predict GOOGLE will do the same as Yahoo. It just makes good business sense,
Google seems pretty adept at turning a buck.
Conclusion:
The internet is a business and needs to be
treated like one. The days of it being a hobby are long past and any new
technology is now profit driven, if it wasn't we all still use Commodore
64's. There will be a day very soon when DMOZ will be relegated to "old
days" stories at the Senior Center.
|
