I've got a proposition for someone, and no I don't mean that kind of proposition. I need someone to drive on over to the DMOZ offices (currently owned by AOL) and pull the plug on their poor excuse of an existence. Seriously... any takers? Someone really needs too.

DMOZ, for those of you who don't know, is a very powerful online directory (human-edited). It has a very large index of websites, lots of daily visitors / users, and offers huge rewards for those websites lucky enough to be included. However, lately they've really been sucking it up. Actually, they've been sucking for quite some time now, but it's only been recently that I've become bothered by their suckiness (I know "suckiness isn't a word - Microsoft Word already pointed that out - but work with me).

For the past few months now, DMOZ hasn't been accepting submissions. This is to say that they're not allowing new websites into their directory by way of their "submissions" page (who knows what actually goes on behind the scenes). When trying to access the directory's "suggest a URL" page the following "Service Temporarily Unavailable" error comes up instead:

As you can see from this screen-shot... this scheduled down-time was only supposed to last a day or 2. DMOZ was supposed to take a little nap while the team solved their technical problems. Ha... looks like that nap turned out to be a 3 - 4 month coma! Serves them right!

For years now, I've been submitting sites to the DMOZ directory. I do so in accordance with our SEO strategies at All Web Promotion, and also with many of my own projects too. I can honestly say that out of the 100 - 150 or so websites that I've submitted in my 3 year run in this industry that not one of them has ever been approved. That's not good. At first, I used to think that it was due to an error on my part. However, after reviewing several online articles and resources, including DMOZ's own editorial guidelines, and speaking with others in the industry regarding the matter, I've since changed my point-of-view and now point my finger directly at DMOZ. They're to blame.

The general consensus seems to be this: in order to have a website included within the DMOZ directory, one either needs to know an editor... or bribe one. Well I say to hell with that! Who needs that kind or corruption? If that's how things are going to be with DMOZ, than maybe its best that they remain in their current coma state... we'd certainly be better without them.

On a side note... I guess it just goes to show that maybe human's don't do it better!