- What is Nomoz, and how did you arrive at the name?
- What is Dmoz.org, and what ties it into this project?
- What are the motivations behind starting Nomoz.org?
- What are you offering, and what Goals are you planning to achieve?
- What are the current and long-term goals of the directory?
- Why are you charging a fee for submissions?
- Are there any websites that qualify for a free listing?
- What are the Costs associated with Link Submission?
1- What is Nomoz, and how did you arrive at the name?
Nomoz is a web directory that puts the control back in the hands of Webmasters and website owners. The name Nomoz is a play on the name Dmoz (of Dmoz.org) switching the D with a NO, Spanish phrase "no mas" meaning "No More!" was also on mind when the name was considered, due to the frustration of webmasters at the bad policies and total control of Dmoz over their listings. And besides, we also think the name is simple, easy, memorable, enduring, and of course "very cute".
2- What is Dmoz.org, and what ties it into this project?
- Dmoz.org also known as ODP (the Open Directory Project) is a web directory project that is considered to be the most important web directory online today, it is even argued that it is more important than the more famous Yahoo directory by many webmasters and Internet experts alike.
- The Nomoz.org Web Directory data is based on that of the (Open Source) ODP directory dumps. The Dmoz data is open to anyone to use providing that they use it according to the licensing terms of AOL/Netscape the parent companies of ODP.
3- What are the motivations behind starting Nomoz.org?
Dmoz.org is a great web Directory which is being used in one way or another by many online search engines and other content providers. Search engines and web directories like Google, Lycos, HotBot, Netscape, and AOL among many others have utilized/adopted the ODP data for their own directory, search engines reward websites according to how many other websites link to them and this in turn helps in promoting your website and giving it the exposure it needs to conduct business online. It has also been argued that Search engines like Google and MSN are giving more weight to websites that are listed in Dmoz. So, from a webmasters and online Marketers perspective, a link from Dmoz is considered one of the most important links a site can have. (if you manage to get listed that is).
All this is great, but is Dmoz and its editors being fair and ethical in their editorial standards and in their treatment of webmasters and site owners? We can bet that many of them are honest and dedicated Editors and do a great job bringing this valuable directory online "and keeping it some what functional". But there has been many critical voices and accusations leveled at the Directory and the way it is being run, and at the absolute power of some of its editors.
Judging from the many complaints and Editor's responses to them on the Dmoz Editor forums, at the resource-zone.com, one comes out with the feeling that you are powerless in adding, changing or even removing your website listing from Dmoz no matter what you say or do. Many webmasters feel afraid to even ask certain questions, or make enquiries that may be perceived as an attack on the Editors, or even questioning their editorial practices.
Editor's egotistical Control and disregard to webmasters:
* Below are some of the most repeated statements by Editors regarding webmasters/Owners:
(some times said in the most rude and unfriendly manner)
All this is great, but is Dmoz and its editors being fair and ethical in their editorial standards and in their treatment of webmasters and site owners? We can bet that many of them are honest and dedicated Editors and do a great job bringing this valuable directory online "and keeping it some what functional". But there has been many critical voices and accusations leveled at the Directory and the way it is being run, and at the absolute power of some of its editors.
Judging from the many complaints and Editor's responses to them on the Dmoz Editor forums, at the resource-zone.com, one comes out with the feeling that you are powerless in adding, changing or even removing your website listing from Dmoz no matter what you say or do. Many webmasters feel afraid to even ask certain questions, or make enquiries that may be perceived as an attack on the Editors, or even questioning their editorial practices.
Editor's egotistical Control and disregard to webmasters:
* Below are some of the most repeated statements by Editors regarding webmasters/Owners:
(some times said in the most rude and unfriendly manner)
- "We have no obligations to webmasters"
- "We will NOT do a status check on your link suggestion" (they used to do that but stopped), this seems to be their most repeated answer in avoiding to answer to some of the most valid questions)
- "Editors are free to edit whenever they feel like it without any pressure". They say that even though the list of (waiting to be reviewed) website is at times THREE years old or longer. and the number of editors is stagering.
- "We don't care if our link to your website is hurting your business and we will NOT remove it just because you've asked us to"
- "If your business relays on Dmoz linking to it, then maybe you should not be in that business". Of course the importance of being listed in Dmoz is explained above, and this is only meant to frustrate webmasters and make them feel powerless, and give those annoying editors their required daily dose of power trip.
- Many webmasters have requested that links to their websites be removed, (feeling that the incorrect listing is hurting their business in the search engine results) because of the total control over their Link Title and Link Description by Editors. The Answer is usually NO.
- There has been instances of Editors trying to sell their editorial privileges (made famous by a listing on eBay).
- Many accusations of Editors being unethical, because editors control listings in categories where they have business interest, which can and does lead to unethical editorial practices. Meaning editors can remove their own competition, or make them wait for years to be listed, on occasions, elevate their own website websites or those of their business associates to be "starred" meaning being listed as an Editor's Pick, a feature that triggers the website to be listed on top and stand out with a star beside the link. Most of these starred websites are legitimate, but it has been argued that many are not worthy of this "honor" of being listed as an Editor's Pick.
- Web sites that have been listed for years in some categories are being removed without any warning, although the website is still functional and its theme/business offering is largely unchanged. (once you are removed, you are powerless. The only thing you can do is send a complaint that usually is not answered).
- Some websites in the directory have hundreds of listing, where as all others can only have ONE (they make an exceptions for a few) but that is the generally well known policy. This gives a few websites more exposure than others. Other sites are powerless in leveling the playing field i their business niche because of this practice.
- Heavy Submission/Suggestion load: The huge amount of SPAM submissions/Suggestions that they receive seems to be one of the most problematic and an often sited reason of Editor's frustration.. There are many ways of combating SPAM but the Directory is very slow or completely rejects implementing any of them. One helpful solution would be implementing some of the existing technologies that can makes it hard and sometimes impossible for automated link submission bots.
- Internal conflict: There are a few Meta Editors/Edit All who can change or rearrange an editor's years of work without consultation, it has been reported by many ex editors that a category that they spent years taken care of has been changed beyond recognition by a higher status editor (Meta/Edit All) without any consultation, The lower level editor who knows this category better than anyone else, may not have any recourse to fix it, and if they voice their objection they may loose their editorial privileges and be kicked out also without any notice.
- Although Dmoz has an old automated bot (Robzilla) that is suppose to clean the directory form any dead links, yet the Directory is infested with dead links and links that do not belong in the category they are listed in because those sites have changed their business offerings years ago. So, due to the laziness of some Editors, and the heavy load on other, these dead websites may go on being listed for years to come. There is no known plans to solve this in the near future.
Technical problems with the Directory as a whole:
4- What are you offering, and what Goals are you planning to achieve?
We aim at giving back to the people who are responsible of creating the Internet, namely the webmasters and web site owners. the respect that they have been denied by Dmoz Editors who control the addition and removal in the directory without any control from the webmasters/site owners. Our plan is to revamp Dmoz in every way that when we are done with it, it will not be recognizable.
Depending on how successful our Idea is, and how favorable it will received by webmasters in due time (we hope not too long):
- Make submission simple, affordable and timely
- Eliminate all the dead and obsolete links in a more efficient way
- Clean up the directory from improperly added websites, (conflict of interest websites) and eliminate all problem areas.
- Give more control to webmasters. They are the Internet's most valuable resource and Nomoz will treat them as such.
- When we are done with it, we hope that we revamp it as a whole so we can end up with a totally new web directory including data and structure that is more representative of the Intent as seen from a (free market) sense.
- We plan to make the new directory data available to all members and supporters of Nomoz to use as they see fit. Though, we don't forecast that the new data be released until a substantial portion of the original data has been changed and locked
The rules and procedures will be outlined in time as we go along and see where this takes us. We may adjust the operation and direction according to your feedback and as pro-active measures in order to arrive at our goal as soon as possible.
5- What are the current and long-term goals of the directory?
- To change, remove old dead links, and lock all links in the directory, as we add new ones.
- The directory will be open to all webmasters and site owners and SEO companies, and web site marketers/promoters. They will be able to add their website anywhere they like (of course it has to fit into the chosen category).
- The newly added website will then be locked and can not be removed by anyone including the Nomoz staff, unless the website is no longer available. (We will mark it as offline for 2 months and then deleted it if it doesn't come back online)
- We wanted to give back to the webmasters the power over their listings that is now in the hands of the infamous and very egotistical Dmoz Editors.
- We hope in due time we will have removed, changed, all existing listings and added new ones. Which will make all the listings unique and more accurate and representative of the current state of the Internet
- Keep adding new features and social network aspect to the directory to keep it fresh and relevant. There are many new features being worked on right now and we will be announcing it as we go along.
6- Why are you charging a fee for submissions?
The reason we added a monetary value on submissions:
- To recover the costs of running the service and ensures a long and healthy life for the directory.
- To weed out websites that are not supported or endorsed by their owners.
- Most webmasters will see value in being listed with us at this minimal price while having control of their listing.
- Fees guarantee long life and stability of the directory.
- Website owners who are willing to pay this minimal fee, show responsibility about their site, and most likey will not abuse it the directory.
- We needed a Web Directory with clear and simple rules away form the control and abuse of the infamous Dmoz Editors.
- We wanted to see how long it would take us to change all listings. Meaning all websites will have to be changed in one way or another, even if a listed website owner elects to secure their listing (lock it), they will need to make changes to the listing to reflect the current state of their website link.
- To continue investing time and effort in order to produce a quality and fair directory, and continually add new features to the directory
7- Are there any websites that qualify for a free listing?
You can add any website for free if:
- The site is registered as a non-profit organization.
- The site is the official website of an Educational, Religious, Charity, Public Service, or Governmental institution
- The site is a non-profit website with no commercial activities of any kind (including ads, affiliate links etc...)
- The site is a very popular resource that should be listed. We look at both Google Pagerank and Alexa rankings among other variables to determine if it is worthy of being listed. A very small percentage may qualify here.
- We may occasionally offer promotional codes (coupons) for a free or reduced price listing. To visitors for reporting bugs and or dead links in the directory.
Important notes for the free listings:
- You have to include a note to the editors explaining why the site should be listed for free.
- You can not request a featured listing for a free website (although editors may and will feature them at their own discretions)
- If the free listing is not yours you will not be able to control it (editing it, removing it changing it in any way)
- If the free listing is yours, then the email used for submission has to be an authority email from the domain.
Example: help, support, webmaster, info, @YourSubmittedDomain.com. - The approval of free submissions is at the complete discretions of our editors, and due to SPAM issues, you may not always recieve a reason for rejection if the editors deem your submission to be pure spam. Otherwise you will be notified as to why your submission has been rejected.
8- What are the Costs associated with Link Submission?
Many webmasters have always suggested that Dmoz institute a symbolic submission fee. This would allow for hiring editors who will treat editing the directory as a job and in turn be diligent responsible and not abusive to webmasters. This has always been rejected on the basis that the directory is an "open" and "transparent" volunteer editor based project. Yet it clearly is neither open nor transparent.
We felt that a symbolic nominal fee for adding your website won't matter much if you care about your website PR promotion, traffic and visability. So make sure that your site/business is listed here at Nomoz.
| These are the directory submission and listing locking fees we tried to keep the fees as small as possible. |
||
|---|---|---|
| For New websites: | ||
 | Add your site as featured listing | $19 |
 | Add your site as regular listing | $09 |
| For already Listed (unlocked) websites: | ||
 | Lock & Upgrade Regular listing to Featured | $14 |
 | Lock your Featured Listing | $10 |
 | Lock your Regular Listing | $05 |
 | Upgrade a Regular Locked Listing | $09 |
9- What are the Benefits of Featured/VIP listing? And are you offering any incentives to webmasters?
- Featured websites (if any) will be listed on top of all other websites in the category.
- Featured websites will have a permanent thumbnail of the website. Drawing more attention to the listing Note: Regular listing will also have (smaller) thumbnails, but only when viewing the listing's own detailed page.
- Featured listings will automatically rotate on the front page under the VIP corner.
- Featured Links owners, (if needed and upon request) may request an access to XML feed of the category they are listed under. Note: Conforming to the Dmoz license will apply, unless all sites listed in the category have all been locked/changed.
- Ability to upload their own thumbnails (could be a product or website picture thumbnail). *coming soon*