DMOZ SCAMMED ME
Ok maybe they did not but I have started seeing posts from people claiming that they have.
The people who claim they have been or are being scammed by DMOZ get a letter claiming if they do not receive $x within a certain time period then their listing will be deleted from the DMOZ open directory.
Well firstly this is not DMOZ sending out these requests. A part of the problem with DMOZ is that anyone (and I mean anyone) can become an editor for them. An editor is responsible for a certain category of the open directoy, they can add, edit and remove listing from it. Why is this a problem, well as in the case above it attracts rogue editors. That is who is responsible for the extortion attempts.
DMOZ in a sense is flawed from the start. Why would someone wish to become a DMOZ editor, well here are my suggestions:-
- Power (to have power over people and to dictate what goes where).
- Genuine need of wanting to help (this in my opinion is rare).
- To ensure that their site is listed and given a prominent position.
- Lastly the SEO expert might want to be able to ensure they can get their customers included in a timely manner.
- Personal or financial gain.
All bar number 2 are for the wrong reasons. They all ave the potential of clouding the persons judgment as they have something to gain when deciding to accept or deny an inclusion request (I know of editors who actively block their competitors from being listed).
Out of these number 5 is what is happening here. The people who send out these emails are purely editors for financial gain.
If you have been contacted by someone making these claims (or even deleted from the directory) then you should immediately report the matter including any email address or other details you were given 9including where in the DMOZ directory you are listed and what the URL for your site is) using the Report Abuse system.
As a side note on 1 of the forums where saw this activity being posted about someone suggested they should stop using DMOZ and use Google Directory instead. Google directory is based upon the DMOZ and to submit a site to the Google directory you are in fact submitting it to DMOZ.