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Jeremy Schoemaker, aka Shoemoney, posted on his blog that he's been extorted by a corrupt DMOZ editor. Without naming names, he was told that he'd have to pay $5000 to keep his website in the ODP.
There's been a big stir at DigitalPoint Forums (in two posts) about this, with many individuals suggesting that there's no benefit in being in DMOZ since it's nothing special. Still, however, a good number of people (and Google) put weight on the DMOZ listings and a lot of tools still put weight on it.
However, as forum members notice, DMOZ is pretty much dead and it's impossible to get your site listed there. And with corruption that dates back two years, why give juice to DMOZ at all?
Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums (thread #1) and DigitalPoint Forums (thread #2).
Update: Joost De Valk, a former DMOZ editor, adds more about the DMOZ corruption to his blog.
Comments:
Rhea
08/28/2007 03:21 pm
My educated opinion - dmoz sucks. I've had one good experience with them in the past three years and that experience took months before progress was made.
Michael Martinez
08/28/2007 03:52 pm
People are blowing this out of proportion. He has been asked repeatedly to share the alleged extortion email and has not done so. Until he puts up everyone else should just ... keep asking for the email.
Michael Martinez
08/28/2007 04:18 pm
Phillip Lenssen has pulled the rug out from under Shoemoney. http://blogoscoped.com/forum/106601.html Until Shoe produces that email with full headers intact, people need to stop rage-mongering over an apparent linkbait attempt.
Rhea
08/28/2007 06:00 pm
Eh, regardless of the validity, I still think DMOZ sucks.
Mike
08/29/2007 02:50 pm
I have no problem believing it... It's not like this is the first time it's happened. And yeah, DMOZ does kinda suck.
Bob
08/29/2007 10:37 pm
Its been hard to get listings on DMOZ for a while now but Google still ranks it fairly high.
kman
08/30/2007 01:34 am
Doesn't matter if the allegation is true or not. DMOZ has sucked for a LONG time. Volunteer editors and entire editor structure wrought with BS politics. No higher authority in charge. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I would be happy to see it shut down or taken over by a commercial entity.
g1smd
08/31/2007 08:53 pm
The truth is out there somewhere. I think you will find that after he offered the ODP a bribe back in 2005 to get his sites listed, his stuff was banned from the ODP for good. There are many sites that record the offer of that bribe. He has been aware of the ODP listing ban for at least a year. Several editors still have copies of correspondence. Any claim, now, about a "threat of removal" is completely bogus. He already knows his sites will never be listed. If you inspect archive.org to see if anything at all was ever listed, you will only find a feed URL that was in the ODP for a couple of weeks at the beginning of 2007. It seems like one editor had listed it in spite of a "do not list this site" note being attached, and then another de-listed it a few weeks later to comply with the editor consensus about that site. The fake extortion story has been one giant link-bait exercise, and you all fell for it. Is this the new trend? Report Fidel Castro as dead to get traffic before the event has happened? Invent fake extortion threats for traffic and links? If this is becoming the acceptable face of the web you can shove it.
g1smd
09/01/2007 01:24 am
Actually, I am even more amazed that this just gets reported by you and hundreds of other sites as: "Shoemoney Gets Extorted by DMOZ Editor", without anyone adding "allegedly" to the post, or even questioning: 1. whether any sort of communication ever actually existed (unlikely). 2. whether said commiunication actually came from an ODP editor, or just from some random scammer (moot). 3. whether there was anything ever listed in the ODP that could have been removed (there wasn't). It is time that the blogosphere woke up and started questioning stories rather than blindly repeating stuff as fact. Blogoscoped does a good job of pulling it apart: http://blogoscoped.com/forum/106601.html Other people question other things about that site: http://www.vanhara.com/2007/01/21/is-jeremy-shoemaker-aka-shoemoney-scam/
Eric-the-Bun
09/01/2007 09:14 am
From Shoemakers discalaimer 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...
Eric
02/07/2008 08:17 pm
DMOZ is about as true as a $3 bill. No longer trust them. I have the 2nd largest site on our subject (Automotive site). but still can not get listed. but 100's of sub quality sites are listed and most are just blank type ad pages.
FAH-Q DMOZ
12/02/2008 07:03 am
Lets face it folkd DMOZ is nothing but junk Dmoz suck and they are just plain bad all around. I should have listen to others about their corruption. DMOZ is horrid, they are slackers and do nothing good. DOWN WITH DMOZ!!!!