Enough is enough. This is getting ridiculous.
So many of the “DMOZ is dead, kill DMOZ, DMOZ is evil” people are morons. While I agree DMOZ has seen better days, it is far from being dead. The mere fact that so many webmasters and SEOs keep using it (despite the fact they say it is dead) confirms that it is still alive and kicking.
If you think something is dead stop using it. Don’t even mention it. If someone asks you “should I submit to it?” say “No” and end it at that. Why is it the “DMOZ is dead” folk insist on repeating it over and over? Why is it those same people keep on trying to get their site in even after they claim it is dead?
That is a bit like the people who run around screaming “Apple sucks”, “Microsoft sucks”, etc, if you hate something 100% to the point of calling it dead then don’t ever mention it. Ever. Don’t even acknowledge its existence.
It is true that any publicity is good publicity, and I have a feeling this whole situation with DMOZ will prove that. About a week ago Shoemoney wrote a post about DMOZ corruption, and I tend to believe him (as I said above, it has seen better days, but it’s far from being dead). However, I also bet in the last week or so DMOZ has seen a vast increase in the number of submissions they get. Why is that? 1 reason - publicity.
And just so people here don’t think I’m in bed with a DMOZ editor, as far as I know I don’t know any editors, and personally I don’t think the benefits of DMOZ are that amazing. It is one of those things that if you submit and get in, great, but if you don’t then don’t go around whining like a baby crying “DMOZ is evil, those bastards!”
Oh, and just a tip to the webmasters out there, stop getting pissed at them for not accepting your affiliate niche sites. I’ve read probably 50 posts in the last week on blogs and forums about people not getting their sites listed. The funny thing is I go to their site and it is nothing more than affiliate links and stolen content from Wikipedia. What idiots 
.
Please share this post with everyone and help expose the idiocy of the “DMOZ is dead” folks. There are few others that are willing to go against that common belief, and I have no problem doing so.
Please subscribe, or else I will cry. Do you really want to make a programmer cry?
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Hmm, just checked and I’m no longer in there after about 5 years or so. DMOZ is dead!
Ah well, who cares.
September 3rd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
At least it doesn’t seem like you care too much about it, a lot of people who say that keep trying to get in.
If something is “dead” then why keep submitting your site to it? I’ts mind boggling.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Very good post! There’s no other truth than you mentioned above. People (affiliates usually) don’t understand that their sites don’t bring any quality to the visitor.
I am an DMOZ editor myself (even for a small subcategory) and everyone who’s in there knows what’s going on.
A friend of mine searched DMOZ in order to contact webmasters who own quality web sites. After exchanging few links, his traffic increased 3x. Just because of few quality links… Of course, this is not the only benefit of DMOZ.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Indeed, as I mentioned on that other post you just commented on, I didn’t see a big boost directly from DMOZ, I think the benefits really came from contacting other webmasters.
I think one of the big problems with most directories (even paid-for ones) is they accept everyone - they aren’t picky enough. So if you’re a webmaster and go through looking for link exchanges or even if you want to talk to some other webmasters, it is hard to do with regular directories. 99% of the sites are either spammy or of very low quality.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Jeremy, thanks for your replies:), and I agree that it is true about directories. I run my own directory where I accept quality sites only. However, I wish I had more time for it. It is a free directory and it is not my primary business… So I check only about 10-20 submissions every week.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Wow, this post has made it in like 10 forums in the past few days. Scary.
Just so people know, I wrote the post after getting almost 30 e-mails and IMs from people about DMOZ, and nearly 20 of them were people complaining about it being dead. And I want to make my stance very clear:
I don’t care if you think DMOZ is dead, I really don’t. But you are a bit of a hippocrate if you go around saying it constantly and at the same time complain that they don’t accept your site, as is the case with many of those who e-mailed me (not to mention all the posts on forums on the subject). If it is dead just ignore it, it isn’t that difficult.
As far as I know DMOZ still puts in thousands of links per week, they have thousands of editors, and it can be a useful tool for finding related sites. While I agree there is some corruption (isn’t there with everything these days?) I don’t think it is dead.