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.

A while back I wrote a post called, How To Stop WordPress From Auto-Creating A Htaccess File.

I figured out I messed up. I told you to comment out all 5 lines for this block of code:

generate_page_uri_index();
delete_option('rewrite_rules');
$this->wp_rewrite_rules();
if ( function_exists('save_mod_rewrite_rules') )
save_mod_rewrite_rules();

But i realized you only need to do this:

generate_page_uri_index();
delete_option('rewrite_rules');
$this->wp_rewrite_rules();
/*if ( function_exists('save_mod_rewrite_rules') )
save_mod_rewrite_rules();*/

I found this out earlier when I went to create a new page and couldn’t figure out why I kept getting 404 errors. Apparently the first few lines tell WordPress how it should handle rewrites, and the last two lines are the ones that actually write to .htaccess.

Whoops

Earlier I wrote a post comparing the problem of buying links to buying Diggs. This is part 2 of that post.

Google (and the other SEs) do one thing right. They keep the playing field fairly fair. The little guys have as much of an opportunity as the big guys.

Paid links basically take search engine arena and greatly tilt it toward people with lots of cash. All Google is doing is saying “hey, your links won’t count toward your SERPS”. Purchased links can, however, still be a way of advertising and they should be used as such.

When someone buys a link it is counted as an extra link no matter what. Even if the site has crap content they have an extra link. But when someone buys an ad space they have to offer a good website to make people want to link to them.

That is the difference.

Paid link that gets counted = extra link even if the site is lame. Paid link that doesn’t get counted = the site better have kickass info or else they are wasting money. It is much more fair.

If you are someone who still can’t see the difference let me explain it one more time - Buying an advertisement doesn’t guarantee anything. Buying a text link that counts in the SEs guarantees extra juice.

So, why not take the link juice away and force those who buy text links to make good content and offer good services in order to get better rankings? A huge problem I’ve seen with paid-for links is most of them link to borderline spam sites, and I have a feeling that same issue is what made Google decide to offer a “report paid links” service.

I truly hope the other SEs soon follow.

If you are wondering these two posts were in response to comments on one of Shoemoney’s posts.

Think about this for a second - the issue of purchasing links and diggs are huge problems for Google and Digg.

Purchasing a link is basically gaming the system. It shouldn’t count for SEO. People with lots of capital shouldn’t be allowed to get ahead in the SERPS just because they have a lot of money. It should be noted I think links are a great way of advertising, but I don’t think they should pass link juice. Even a link that doesn’t pass link juice can still be clicked on and more links to the site and more sales can still result.

This is exactly like the problem Digg is facing. Stories on Digg shouldn’t be allowed to get on the front page just because the submitter has money. Purchasing diggs is gaming the system.

Google is trying to keep it slightly fair by not letting purchased links pass link juice. Digg is trying to keep it fair by not letting people get ahead in the game by buying diggs.

It is the same exact issue.

According to the Yahoo Search Blog, Yahoo is now offering a new service in Site Explorer that will let you dynamically rewrite URLs for Yahoo Search.

I am not 100% sure how it will work, but from what I can see if you use a CMS that uses GET variables (like example.com/bla.php?var=this&h=b&f=5033) you can set, from within Site Explorer, how Yahoo should rewrite the URLs into more search engine friendly ones. Yahoo even goes as far as saying it offers “Better aggregation of link juice to your sites, which can help your pages rank better.” I love their use of “link juice” - something you never see SEs use.

Basically you set up any static variables, and tell it which parts of the URL are dynamic.

Found via BlogStorm