I found this thread at the resource-zone recently where someone apparently paid 20% of $4,500 for a Dmoz listing. Poor sap! Here's brief summary of the conversation.
Poor sap: Why isn't my site listed? I was charged a management fee of $4,500 with 20% upfront to have my website reviewed and it's been two weeks already and still nothing. This is too much for a "management" fee and too long to wait for a review. How can I get a refund, and is it possible to get a refund after my site has been reviewed? In fact, I'd like my money back and my site reviewed for free since I've waited so long. I was also told that I'd get a few million hits from the directory within the first month. How can/will this happen? Also, the Dmoz guidelines states that inclusion is FREE, so why am I being charged this exorbitant "management" fee?
Editor 1: You're such a fool. You've just been scammed! We don't offer a paid listing service. Good luck getting your money back.
Non-editor: Looks like you've been scammed by someone who's not an editor.
Editor 2: You're such a fool. You've just been scammed! But, just in case this person is an editor why don't you fill out an abuse report and give us all the information you have so we can look into this and remove this person if s/he is an editor. While your at it, include the website that you paid to get listed so we can make sure it's banned for trying to pay for inclusion.
Me again, okay, I'm alway taken aback by those who are desperate enough to pay for a FREE Dmoz listing. The first question in my mind is 'who in their right mind thinks Dmoz is worth a freakin' $4,500!!!!!' You can buy a listing in the Yahoo! directory for 15 years for that amount of money. Or, you can buy a years worth of listings for 15 of your sites in the Yahoo! directory. At least with the Yahoo! directory you might get some hits and some conversions. With Dmoz, you're lucky if you get one hit a year - and hope it's not from one of its link checking bots or an editor checking current listings, haha.
The guy completely missed the obvious, maybe out of desperation to get listed. Hint #1: A Dmoz listing is NOT worth $4,500! Hint #2: If the Dmoz official documentations tell you that a listing is FREE, but someone wants to charge you to be listed, then it's most likely someone looking to part a fool with his money - the fool being you and the money being yours! Hint #3: If it sounds too good to be true then it is! The guy is now asking how Dmoz will generate one million hits for him within the first month? Um, isn't this something he should have asked when this deal was first initiated by he or the "editor?" I don't know of any website that can generate a million hits in a month via referrer. That notion alone should have made him think twice and run the other way!
Why do I think this guy has been scammed by someone who's not an editor? Well, lets see, an editor who's trying to make a part-time job out of scamming gullible Dmoz submitters AND keep his editing position would take the money and list the site, because not listing the site would bring unwanted attention to himself when the scammed speaks up. A corrupt editor would have to list the site if he doesn't want to get caught and removed from Dmoz for breaking the editing guidelines, thus relinquishing his part-time job of scamming desperate people. Once the site gets listed then the webmaster most likely won't say anything because then he risks his site being removed for paying for a listing, and, he probably wants to stay quiet so he can pay to have other sites listed in the future by the same corrupt editor. This is just my presuming what a corrupt editor would do, as I don't know any. Also, most editors are probably decent and won't accept bribes or try to scam you out of your money. You're more likely to get your site banned for trying to bribe an editor than actually finding a corrupt editor.
The poor sap's initial post at the resource-zone should have went something like this:
Poor Sap: OMG! I've been scammed by someone pretending to be an editor! I paid $900 to be listed in the Dmoz.....even though the Dmoz documentation says it's a FREE listing; even though he promised me that I'd get at least one million hits during the first month; even though this is an exorbitant amount for a Dmoz listing; even though this deal is too good to be true.....I was still foolish enough to put down 20% of $4,500 for the listing! Now, I'm out of $900 and my website is still not listed. I'm not posting at the resource-zone to bitch and complain about corrupt editors for my foolish mistake of believing anyone who tells me he's an editor and will list my site for some money. A word to other webmasters - DON'T BE A FOOL LIKE ME!
Source: http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52582
Friday, November 14, 2008
I'm Baaaak....with a few Dmoz/ODP tidbits.
OMG! I cannot believe how long it's taken me to get around to posting again. I've had this post hidden away for awhile waiting for the right time to publish. Yeah, yeah, I've been that darn lazy that I couldn't find that time to publish a post that has been waiting for about 6 months, haha. I might begin to take interest in blog once again and post regularly. I already have some post waiting in the wings for me to push that "publish" button. I'll start this post off with a few things I finally want to mention.
Firstly, I receive e-mail from submitters, and non-submitters alike. In fact, my editor profile used to encourage feedback. Hey, if I had a question then I'd want to find someone who was willing to answer them, or, at least, point me in the direction in which to find them. I don't mind getting feedback from the public and will answer any questions as best I can with my editor-dedicated e-mail address, but I don't answer them all. In fact, I might post another round of the feedback I've received.
The most type of feedback I get is regarding status checks. Is my site listed? I submitted 4 months ago, did I do something wrong? I've submitted my site several times, and I'm just wondering if it was ever received. Well, I'm happy to provide status checks. If I were in their shoes then I'd want to know whether or not my site was received also, especially when submitters most likely do not know what causes the long delay before listing/rejection/no action; sometimes I also take the time to explain this. Keep in mind that many editors don't like to be contacted, so if it says in their profile not to contact them or that e-mails go unread, then heed the warning.
The second most type of feedback I received caught me a little by surprise when I started receiving them. Where is the submit URL link? Huh??? Oh, they must be trying to submit to a category where the submit URL function is turned off. This happens when most sites would easily fit into a subcategory. Lets take a look at a random category that does not accept submissions: Games: Video_Games: Shooter. Now, if you go to this category in the Games section and look at the top then you will not see the submit URL link. Why? Because a majority of sites should be submitted to a letter/number category, or one of the other categories available. So, to keep submitters from wasting editors' time from having to find the proper category for their sites, this actually forces submitters to make the choice themselves. And, please, follow the guidelines!
An uncommon type of feedback I get is by the directory users asking that I create a subcategory, not because they have a site to submit, but because this is the type of information they are looking for. I'll be honest, I have no interest in their subjects, but I do let them know that I will look into creating the category if there are enough sites to be added there; I also let them know that I'm not interested in finding such sites. But, hey, if you ever feel a category should be created for your favorite subject then by all means find some sites on that topic and submit them to the most relevant area, an editor might come along and create the needed category. Unfortunately, there is no official way to request that a category be created.
Editor Notes:
I've gained some additional categories lately, some spam prone, hmmm, might be the topic of my next post, and others that I applied to because I was bored out of my mind. Some categories that I've had for about two years and haven't edited in for the last year I decided to drop. Also, after 2 1/2 years of editing I have finally made it over the 5,000 edit mark. Yey! Took a heck of a long time to achieve this. In fact, I've had some kind of renewed energy in editing over the last month. Before this I felt burned-out where my number of edits was slowly dwindling from over 200 to less than 20 per month. Hmmm, whatever.
Editing Stats
I'm very close to three years as an editor, so here are my stats. I swear, I think I saw an editor whose been editing for a whole two months have more than 10,000 edits, haha.
5774 [total edits] / 1765 unique adds / 1543 deletes / 1087 unreviewed
Firstly, I receive e-mail from submitters, and non-submitters alike. In fact, my editor profile used to encourage feedback. Hey, if I had a question then I'd want to find someone who was willing to answer them, or, at least, point me in the direction in which to find them. I don't mind getting feedback from the public and will answer any questions as best I can with my editor-dedicated e-mail address, but I don't answer them all. In fact, I might post another round of the feedback I've received.
The most type of feedback I get is regarding status checks. Is my site listed? I submitted 4 months ago, did I do something wrong? I've submitted my site several times, and I'm just wondering if it was ever received. Well, I'm happy to provide status checks. If I were in their shoes then I'd want to know whether or not my site was received also, especially when submitters most likely do not know what causes the long delay before listing/rejection/no action; sometimes I also take the time to explain this. Keep in mind that many editors don't like to be contacted, so if it says in their profile not to contact them or that e-mails go unread, then heed the warning.
The second most type of feedback I received caught me a little by surprise when I started receiving them. Where is the submit URL link? Huh??? Oh, they must be trying to submit to a category where the submit URL function is turned off. This happens when most sites would easily fit into a subcategory. Lets take a look at a random category that does not accept submissions: Games: Video_Games: Shooter. Now, if you go to this category in the Games section and look at the top then you will not see the submit URL link. Why? Because a majority of sites should be submitted to a letter/number category, or one of the other categories available. So, to keep submitters from wasting editors' time from having to find the proper category for their sites, this actually forces submitters to make the choice themselves. And, please, follow the guidelines!
An uncommon type of feedback I get is by the directory users asking that I create a subcategory, not because they have a site to submit, but because this is the type of information they are looking for. I'll be honest, I have no interest in their subjects, but I do let them know that I will look into creating the category if there are enough sites to be added there; I also let them know that I'm not interested in finding such sites. But, hey, if you ever feel a category should be created for your favorite subject then by all means find some sites on that topic and submit them to the most relevant area, an editor might come along and create the needed category. Unfortunately, there is no official way to request that a category be created.
Editor Notes:
I've gained some additional categories lately, some spam prone, hmmm, might be the topic of my next post, and others that I applied to because I was bored out of my mind. Some categories that I've had for about two years and haven't edited in for the last year I decided to drop. Also, after 2 1/2 years of editing I have finally made it over the 5,000 edit mark. Yey! Took a heck of a long time to achieve this. In fact, I've had some kind of renewed energy in editing over the last month. Before this I felt burned-out where my number of edits was slowly dwindling from over 200 to less than 20 per month. Hmmm, whatever.
Editing Stats
I'm very close to three years as an editor, so here are my stats. I swear, I think I saw an editor whose been editing for a whole two months have more than 10,000 edits, haha.
5774 [total edits] / 1765 unique adds / 1543 deletes / 1087 unreviewed
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