Aug
28
Jeremy Schoemaker, who most of you probably know as Shoemoney, recently revealed that he has been the target of a corrupt DMOZ editor. Basically, he was told by the editor that he would have to pay $5000 to keep his ODP listing. Where I come from, that is called extortion.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t stop there. Joost De Valk reports that that his DMOZ editor account was disabled because he asked why Shoemoney’s URL was removed.
So I posted something like that in the commentthread to the above post, and I added a note to Shoemoney’s URL in DMOZ asking why the URL was removed.
Now pay attention: within 36 hours after doing that, my account was disabled!
And this is not the first time that DMOZ editors have been linked to some rather shady activities.
When you consider the corrupt editors and the fact that it’s impossible to get a site listed anymore, why does Google and others still put so much weight on being listed there? I just don’t get it.
DMOZ is dead but apparently nobody bothered to tell Google.
Popularity: 24% [?]
For something with such a big web presence, this is how you say…AMAZING.
That’s crazy! I can’t believe that they’d target a blogger with such a good reputation….that bites.
Google needs to get hip to that already…
Anybody else feel a google vs. blogger war coming on? What with paid links and now this?
DMOZ should die. It’s a pointless service
By saying blogger do you mean the site Blogger (which is owned by Google) or do you just mean us bloggers?
Us bloggers
DMOZ, whats that? hahaha … Seriously though, I forgot about that project a long time ago. Especially when they totally forgot that updating their web design has always been ‘in’. I’m not surprised that it would get exploited, but I am surprised they tried to pull that crap with such a popular blogger.
When i read this the post about this on Shoemoney I was shocked that they were asking for that much, I mean I knew they were corrupt, but that is just absurd. Google definitely has to do something soon.
Wow, that’s all I can say. I’d never heard that dmoz was corrupt, just that it takes months and months to get a site listing….what a disheartening story….
[...] I first read about this on Pure Blogging, I simply couldn’t believe [...]
Or has anyone thought that … Google Has Hung on to DMOZ for so long because … their might be a connection … Google, AOL, DMOZ … things that make you go hummmmm….
Darin
DMOZ is the largest human edited directory
Being an any level editor gives you privileges to add/remove any site
I am also a DMOZ editor.It isn’t dead yet
Though I take around 1 month to apporove submissions…you should have patience
Below is a link where you can find some really helping tips to get site listed in DMOZ even within hours
http://webtalks.blogspot.com/2007/04/tips-for-getting-site-listed-in-google.html
I agree that google doesn’t really care about DMOZ listings some times
They haven’t updated the listings since a year…
I can’t imagine paying that much for a directory listing.
1 month to approve a submission? I think most can say that it takes much longer than that…if at all.
I think because it takes so long to hear back from DMOZ or obtain a listing, they are starting to lose a bit of value and most are starting to ‘forget’ about it.
I’m am talking about only my section….
yep I agree few other bloggers are lazy…
anyways,when u submit your site, each second you can have the official word from resource-zone.com
Well, that’s crazy. But now I know in online world there are corruption too, just like the offline world. I don’t thnk Dmoz is dead yet, just there is a bad guy who make money in illegal way that make the trust of the largest directory listing looks really bad.
Dmoz is dead -_-
Always hate to see reality ruin a good story, but the site Shoemoney claims he was extorted to keep in the directory wasn’t in it… which wouldve made it hard to yank.
His site was banned in 2005 from inclusion for a reason you might appreciate… he offered publicly to pay for us to list it. As you might hope, the directory discourages bribes as well as extortion, and has a strict death penalty for infractions from either direction… editors OR webmasters.
The site had a red note that came up with it until the big 2006 server crash, and we lost the text of the rednote in that crash. Subsequently it was added briefly until someone discovered the error and yanked it. Very simple, no mystery.
That happened 6 months prior to his rather wild (and oddly unsupported) allegation about the $5000 threat. One wonders why he will not provide proof of the email to Dmoz staff, as they’ve publicly offered to remove the editors IF he had such a letter during the one month he was listed since 05.
The editor that got removed over this issue was breaking several guidelines in the process of trying to get Shoemoney’s site included despite the ban. He has since admitted in his own blog that he’s a “close friend of a friend” of the webmaster.
Assuming you all WANT Dmoz to avoid bribes rather than take them, the policy should be good news, as should the immediate removal of an editor that tried to circumvent it to help a friend.
That said, the truth isn’t near as interesting as the idea that Dmoz is corrupt, so the story will go on despite the fact that he won’t provide evidence and noboddy in their right mind would ever think a Dmoz listing was even close to worth $5000.
It was of course a clever marketing ploy… type “Dmoz extortion” into Google and see how many pages reference his site now. The story is link bait, and it worked.
If you really want things like this cleaned up… insist that Dmoz staff pursue legal action against the guy making a false extortion claim that so many have fallen for to the distinct advantage of the liar in question.
That’s all… I wont hang around to argue… but weigh the facts and you’ll agree. He went for a predisposed bias and it worked. That’s all.
fair enough, I see your points
Thanks for taking the time to provide additional information.
I’ve seen a lot about this recently. I think almost everyone feels that Google should cut its ties to DMOZ.
Rob Jones, thanks for posting your side of the story. I just don’t know what to think now….I’d like to think that DMOZ is on the up and up (even though I’m discouraged because I submitted my site 4 months ago… ) however no matter which story is the truth, it’s disheartening all the way around.
“insist that Dmoz staff pursue legal action against the guy making a false extortion claim”….is this what is happening now?
JoLynn – Will they pursue it? Hope so. I’m one of several thousand editors, but now that staff publicly offered to can the extortionist if Shoe provides the evidence he claims to have… a lot of us are pushing for ‘em to nail Shoe in court if he can’t..
.
Falsely alleging a crime for personal gain IS actionable defamation. .
.
QUESTION:
Does anyone appreciate him trying to make dupes of those who in good faith flock to his defense while he profits from their goodwill ?
[...] story was covered by Pure Blogging and within the comments, one Rob Jones who purports to be a DMOZ editor, states that the facts are somewhat different: [...]
From Shoemakers disclaimer which he says everyone should read before acting on the post:-
‘You should assume everything written on this blog is a lie. You should assume I have motivation for linking to everything on this page and will benefit from it somehow. …. You should question everything. You should come up with your own thoughts and opinions and not trust some stupid blogger.’
Looks like there are a lot of stupid bloggers out here…
Hi Eric,
Apposing points of view are always appreciated… name calling is not. I’ll let the “stupid bloggers” comment go this time because it is directed at me.
Whether Shoemoney is telling the truth or only a partial truth isn’t important… I don’t really care if they tried to bribe him or not. Allegedly corrupt editors is only part of the overall problem. The fact remains that DMOZ is out-dated and irrelevant and should be dropped by Google.
Even if this “big” story isn’t true, I’m sure there is some level of extortion going on with the directory. I think they need to do an overhaul on how the whole thing works.
If you observe some corruption in Dmoz, there are easy ways to report it.
Lol, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read about this topic in the past week. It really doesn’t matter how much attention people bring to it or how much people hate it, the fact is that it makes people money by helping their rankings/trust factor/etc., as long as Google uses DMOZ as their paid directory this will continue (and it looks like it’s going to be a long time). What I’m trying to say is that the only people complaining are the ones that aren’t in DMOZ.
I’m not complaining, but I still think that DMOZ is dead and that it needs a makeover. I currently have 2 sites in DMOZ and at somepoint I stopped caring if my sites were there. The project was suppose to be an unbaised directory based on quality of a website, it is not that anymore. I don’t think it is their fault entirely though, I mean dude … its really hard to human edit a directory of the entire Internet.
I ask, when was it ever unbiased? Seriously.
[...] popÃrá Rob Jones v komentářÃch postu vÄ›novanému kauze na Pure Blogging. Údajný editor DMOZu [...]
It’s disgusting. The editor who spoke out about it got his account deleted as well. I think eventually google will do there own if at all. I haven’t seem them export the data recently though so who really knows!?! Either way not a good day for the directory industry.
[...] DMOZ Editor Accused of Extortion – A somewhat controversial post about an allegedly corrupt DMOZ editor. [...]
wow … talk about backing up a story!
Darin
Fortunately I have my largest site listed at DMOZ, but that was submitted around 2001 I think!
I have tried getting my blog listed, along with other sites I run but to no avail.
When will sites such as Google wake up to this and stop placing so much relevance on DMOZ listings?
- Martin Reed
It’s impossible lately to get much of anything listed.
I was a DMOZ editor back in the 90s and I cannot even begin to tell you how much power is traded in htat community of editors. It is often a thankless job and you have to jump through hoops to be given additional sections. Self interest runs rampant, for sure. Money definately changes hands.
I have thought for a long time that DMOZ is not a needed entity in our current online climate.
[...] DMOZ Editor Accused of Extortion [...]
[...] DMOZ Editor Accused of Extortion [...]