View source for DMOZ

{{lead too short|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox website
| name = DMOZ
| screenshot = [[File:DMOZ logo.svg|250px|alt="dmoz" in white on a green background with each letter in a separate square]]
| url ={{URL|http://dmoz.org/}}
| slogan = Open Directory Project
| commercial = No
| type = [[Web directory]]
| registration = Optional
| language = 90 languages, including English
| num_users = 90,000
| content_license = [[Open Directory License]], [[Creative Commons Attribution|Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported]]
| owner = [[AOL]]<br>([[Verizon Communications]])
| launch_date = {{Start date and years ago|1998|6|5|mf=yes}}
| alexa = {{IncreaseNegative}} 12,619 ({{as of|2017|04|06|alt=April 2017}})<ref name="alexa">{{cite web|url= http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/dmoz.org |title= Dmoz.org Site Info | publisher= [[Alexa Internet]] |accessdate= 2017-04-06 }}</ref>
| current_status = Closed
| content license = [[Creative Commons]] Attribution 3.0 Unported, [[Open Directory License]]
}}

'''DMOZ''' (from ''directory.mozilla.org'', an earlier [[domain name]]) was a multilingual [[open content|open-content]] [[Web directory|directory]] of [[World Wide Web]] links. The site and community who maintained it were also known as the '''Open Directory Project''' ('''ODP'''). It was owned by [[AOL]] but constructed and maintained by a [[virtual community|community]] of volunteer editors.

DMOZ used a hierarchical [[Ontology (information science)|ontology]] scheme for organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic were grouped into categories which then included smaller categories.

DMOZ closed on March 17, 2017.<ref>[http://searchengineland.com/dmoz-has-officially-closed-271530 Search Engine Land: DMOZ has officially closed after nearly 19 years of humans trying to organize the web]</ref>  The website became a single landing page on that day.

== History == 

DMOZ was founded in the United States as '''Gnuhoo''' by [[Rich Skrenta]] and [[Bob Truel]] in 1998 while they were both working as engineers for [[Sun Microsystems]]. Chris Tolles, who worked at Sun Microsystems as the head of marketing for network security products, also signed on in 1998 as a co-founder of Gnuhoo along with co-founders Bryn Dole and Jeremy Wenokur. Skrenta had developed [[TASS (software)|TASS]], an ancestor of [[Tin (newsreader)|tin]], the popular threaded [[Usenet]] newsreader for [[Unix]] systems. The original category structure of the Gnuhoo directory was based loosely on the structure of Usenet newsgroups then in existence.

The Gnuhoo directory went live on June 5, 1998. After a ''[[Slashdot]]'' article suggested that Gnuhoo had nothing in common with the spirit of [[free software]],<ref name="SlashdotGnuhoo">{{cite web|url=http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=98/06/23/0849239| accessdate = April 27, 2007|work=[[Slashdot]] | title=The GnuHoo BooBoo}}</ref> for which the [[GNU]] project was known, Richard Stallman and the [[Free Software Foundation]] objected to the use of "Gnu" in the name and Gnuhoo was changed to NewHoo. [[Yahoo!]] then objected to the use of "Hoo" in the name, prompting a proposed name change, to ZURL.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20071223080027/blog.topix.com/archives/2004_05.html Zurl Directory], archived version of Topix.com blog entry dated May 29, 2004 by Skrenta, founder of the ODP.</ref> Prior to switching to ZURL, NewHoo was acquired by [[Netscape|Netscape Communications Corporation]] in October 1998 and became the Open Directory Project. Netscape released Open Directory data under the [[Open Directory License]]. Netscape was acquired by [[AOL]] shortly thereafter and DMOZ was one of the assets included in the acquisition.

[[File:Odp sitecount top.png|thumb|400px|DMOZ size by date, 1998 to 2015.]]
By the time Netscape assumed stewardship, the Open Directory Project had about 100,000 [[Uniform Resource Locator|URL]]s indexed with contributions from about 4500 editors. On October 5, 1999, the number of URLs indexed by DMOZ reached one million. According to an unofficial estimate, the URLs in DMOZ numbered 1.6 million in April 2000, surpassing those in the [[Yahoo! Directory]].<ref>[http://www.geniac.net/odp/ ODP and Yahoo Size Charts] by ODP editor geniac</ref> DMOZ achieved the milestones of indexing two million URLs on August 14, 2000, three million listings on November 18, 2001 and four million on December 3, 2003. As of April, 2013 there were 5,169,995 sites listed in over 1,017,500 categories. On October 31, 2015, there were 3,996,412 sites listed in 1,026,706 categories.

In January 2006, DMOZ began publishing online reports to inform the public about the development of the project. The first report covered the year 2005. Monthly reports were issued subsequently until September 2006.<ref name="odpreports">[http://freenet-homepage.de/miscellanea/odp_reports/ ODP reports] by ODP volunteer administrator chris2001</ref> These reports gave greater insight into the functioning of the directory than the simplified statistics provided on the front page of the directory. The number of listings and categories cited on the front page included "Test" and "Bookmarks" categories but these were not included in the RDF dump offered to users. There were about 7330 active editors during August 2006.<ref name="odpreports"/> 75,151 editors had contributed to the directory as of March 31, 2007.<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/ ODP Front Page]. Retrieved August 15, 2006</ref> As of April 2013, the number of contributing editors had increased to 97,584.<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/ ODP Front Page]. Retrieved April 2013</ref>

===System failure and editing outage, October to December 2006===
On October 20, 2006, DMOZ's main server suffered a [[catastrophic failure]]<ref>[http://dmozgrunt.blogspot.com/2006/10/dmozs-catastrophic-serverhardware.html "Dmoz's Catastrophic Server/Hardware Failure"] October 27, 2006. Retrieved November 15, 2006.</ref> that prevented editors from working on the directory until December 18, 2006. During that period, an older build of the directory was visible to the public. On January 13, 2007, the Site Suggestion and Update Listings forms were again made available.<ref>[http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45325 dmoz.org technical problems] at resource-zone.com (Retrieved January 13, 2007).</ref> On January 26, 2007, weekly publication of RDF dumps resumed. To avoid future outages, the system resided on a redundant configuration of two Intel-based servers from then on.<ref>[http://www.miscellanea.de/newsletter/2006Winter/new_servers.html ''The Hamsters' New Home''], in: Open Directory newsletter issue Winter 2006. Retrieved December 26, 2006.</ref>

The site's interface was given an upgrade in 2016, branded "DMOZ 3.0" but AOL took it offline the following year.

===Competing and spinoff projects===
As DMOZ became more widely known, two other major [[Web directory|web directories]] edited by volunteers and sponsored by [[Go.com]] and [[Zeal (web)|Zeal]] emerged, both now defunct. These directories did not license their content for [[open content]] distribution.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20020202210117/http://www.zeal.com/about/terms_of_use.jhtml Zeal Terms of use] taken from Archive.org</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20000510161046/info.go.com/doc/policy/terms.html GO Network Terms of Service and Conditions of use] taken from Archive.org</ref>

The concept of using a large-scale community of editors to compile online content has been successfully applied to other types of projects. DMOZ's editing model directly inspired at least three other open content volunteer projects: music site MusicMoz, an open content restaurant directory known as [[ChefMoz]]<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/newsletter/2003Autumn/chefmoz-column.html ''ChefMoz Fine Dining Menu''], in: Open Directory newsletter issue Autumn 2003</ref> and an encyclopedia known as [[Open Site]].<ref>[http://open-site.org/help/ help] on open-site.org</ref> Finally, according to [[Larry Sanger]], DMOZ was part of the inspiration for the [[Nupedia]] project, out of which [[Wikipedia]] grew.<ref>{{cite web|author=Glyn Moody |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2006/jul/13/media.newmedia |title=Interview of Larry Sanger in '&#39;The Guardian'&#39; |publisher=Theguardian.com |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref>

===Logotypes===
<gallery>
GnuHoo logo.png|Original logo as from June 1998
NewHoo logo.png|Logo after rebranding as ''NewHoo''
Open Directory Project logo.png|Logo after acquisition by Netscape
DMOZ Open Directory Project logo.png|Logo from 1999 to 2014 with the name ''DMOZ''
DMOZ logo.png|Logo from March 2014
DMOZ logo.svg|Logo from June 2016 until the closing in March 2017
</gallery>

==Content==
[[File:dmoz.org.png|thumb|right|250px|DMOZ front page, January 2006]]
Gnuhoo borrowed the basic outline for its initial ontology from [[Usenet]]. In 1998, Rich Skrenta said, "I took a long list of groups and hand-edited them into a hierarchy."<ref>Danny Sullivan, [http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2166381 NewHoo: Yahoo Built By The Masses], [[Search Engine Watch]], July 1, 1998</ref> For example, the topic covered by the comp.ai.alife newsgroup was represented by the category Computers/AI/Artificial_Life. The original divisions were for ''Adult'', ''Arts'', ''Business'', ''Computers'', ''Games'', ''Health'', ''Home'', ''News'', ''Recreation'', ''Reference'', ''Regional'', ''Science'', ''Shopping'', ''Society'', ''Sports'' and "World". While these sixteen ''top-level'' categories have remained intact, the ontology of second- and lower-level categories has undergone a gradual evolution; significant changes are initiated by discussion among editors and then implemented when consensus has been reached.

In July 1998, the directory became [[multilingualism|multilingual]] with the addition of the ''World'' top-level category. The remainder of the directory lists only English language sites. By May 2005, seventy-five languages were represented. The growth rate of the non-English components of the directory has been greater than the English component since 2002. While the English component of the directory held almost 75% of the sites in 2003, the ''World'' level grew to over 1.5 million sites as of May 2005, forming roughly one-third of the directory. The ontology in non-English categories generally mirrors that of the English directory, although exceptions which reflect language differences are quite common.

Several of the top-level categories have unique characteristics. The ''Adult'' category is not present on the directory homepage but it is fully available in the RDF dump that DMOZ provides. While the bulk of the directory is categorized primarily by topic, the Regional category is categorized primarily by region. This has led many to view DMOZ as two parallel directories: ''Regional'' and ''Topical''.

On November 14, 2000, a special directory within DMOZ was created for people under 18 years of age.<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/newsletter/2000Nov/press.html Kids and Teens Launches!] Open Directory Project Newsletter, November/December 2000</ref> Key factors distinguishing this "Kids and Teens" area from the main directory are:
* stricter guidelines which limit the listing of sites to those which are targeted or "appropriate" for people under 18 years of age;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/kguidelines/ |title=Kids&Teens Guidelines |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref>
* category names as well as site descriptions use vocabulary which is "[[age appropriate]]";
* ''age tags'' on each listing distinguish content appropriate for kids (age 12 and under), teens (13 to 15 years old) and mature teens (16 to 18 years old);
* Kids and Teens content is available as a separate RDF dump;
* editing permissions are such that the community is parallel to that of DMOZ.

By May 2005, this portion of DMOZ included over 32,000 site listings.

Since early 2004, the whole site has been in [[UTF-8]] encoding. Prior to this, the encoding used to be [[ISO 8859-1]] for English language categories and a language-dependent character set for other languages. The RDF dumps have been encoded in UTF-8 since early 2000.

===Maintenance===
Directory listings are maintained by editors. While some editors focus on the addition of new listings, others focus on maintaining the existing listings and some do both. This includes tasks such as the editing of individual listings to correct spelling and/or grammatical errors, as well as monitoring the status of linked sites. Still others go through site submissions to remove spam and duplicate submissions.

Robozilla is a [[Web crawler]] written to check the status of all sites listed in DMOZ. Periodically, Robozilla will flag sites which appear to have moved or disappeared and editors follow up to check the sites and take action. This process is critical for the directory in striving to achieve one of its founding goals: to reduce the [[link rot]] in web directories. Shortly after each run, the sites marked with errors are automatically moved to the unreviewed queue where editors may investigate them when time permits.

Due to the popularity of DMOZ and its resulting impact on [[Web search engine|search engine]] rankings (See [[PageRank]]), domains with lapsed registration that are listed on DMOZ have attracted [[domain hijacking]], an issue that has been addressed by regularly removing expired domains from the directory.

While corporate funding and staff for DMOZ have diminished in recent years, volunteers have created editing tools such as linkcheckers to supplement Robozilla, category crawlers, spellcheckers, search tools that directly sift a recent RDF dump, [[bookmarklet]]s to help automate some editing functions, mozilla based add-ons,<ref>[https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/176740 "ODPExtension"] Mozilla based add-on, ODP Magic.. formerly known as ODP Extension</ref> and tools to help work through unreviewed queues.

===License and requirements===
DMOZ data was previously made available under the terms of the [[Open Directory License]], which required a specific DMOZ attribution table on every Web page that uses the data.

The Open Directory License also included a requirement that users of the data continually check DMOZ site for updates and discontinue use and distribution of the data or works derived from the data once an update occurs. This restriction prompted the [[Free Software Foundation]] to refer to the [[Open Directory License]] as a non-free documentation license, citing the right to redistribute a given version not being permanent and the requirement to check for changes to the license.  

In 2011, DMOZ silently changed its license to a [[Creative Commons]] Attribution license{{cn|date=May 2016}}, which is compatible with the FSF.<ref>Gnu Project: [https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#NonFreeDocumentationLicenses Non-Free Documentation Licenses]</ref>

===RDF dumps===
DMOZ data is made available through an RDF-like dump that is published on a download server, older versions are also archived there.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rdf.dmoz.org/ |title=Open Directory RDF Dump |publisher=Rdf.dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> New versions are usually generated weekly. An DMOZ editor has catalogued a number of bugs that are encountered in the DMOZ RDF dump, most importantly that the file format isn't RDF.<ref>[http://rainwaterreptileranch.org/steve/sw/odp/rdflist.html ODP/dmoz Data Dump ToDo List]</ref> So while today the so-called RDF dump is valid [[XML]], it is not valid [[Resource Description Framework|RDF]] and as such, software to process the DMOZ RDF dump needs to be specifically written for DMOZ data.

===Content users===
DMOZ data powers the core [[directory service]]s for many of the Web's largest search engines and portals, including Netscape Search, AOL Search, and [[Alexa Internet|Alexa]]. [[Google Directory]] used DMOZ information, until being shuttered in July 2011.<ref>{{cite news|title=Google Streamlining: Say Goodbye to the Google Directory and Labs!|url=http://www.pandia.com/sew/3963-google-streamlining-say-goodbye-to-the-google-directory-and-labs.html|accessdate=July 25, 2011|newspaper=Pandia Search Engine News|date=July 21, 2011}}</ref>

Other uses are also made of DMOZ data. For example, in the spring of 2004 [[Yahoo! Search Marketing|Overture]] announced a search service for third parties combining Yahoo! Directory search results with DMOZ titles, descriptions and category metadata. The search engine Gigablast announced on May 12, 2005 its searchable copy of DMOZ. The technology permits search of websites listed in specific categories, "in effect, instantly creating over 500,000 vertical search engines".<ref>[http://www.gigablast.com/prdir.html 500,000 Vertical Search Engines], a press release from May 12, 2005</ref>

{{as of|2006|9|8}}, DMOZ listed 313 English-language Web sites that use DMOZ data as well as 238 sites in other languages.<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/Open_Directory_Project/Sites_Using_ODP_Data/ Category: Sites Using ODP Data] on www.dmoz.org. Retrieved September 8, 2006.</ref> However, these figures do not reflect the full picture of use, as those sites that use DMOZ data without following the terms of the DMOZ license are not listed.

==Policies and procedures==
[[File:Rich Skrenta.jpg|alt=|thumb|DMOZ was co-founded by [[Rich Skrenta]] (depicted in 2009, age 42).]]
Restrictions are imposed on who can become an DMOZ editor. The primary gatekeeping mechanism is an editor application process wherein editor candidates demonstrate their editing abilities, disclose affiliations that might pose a [[conflict of interest]], and otherwise give a sense of how the applicant would likely mesh with the DMOZ culture and mission.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/apply.cgi |title=Become an Editor at the Open Directory Project |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> A majority of applications are rejected but reapplying is allowed and sometimes encouraged. The same standards apply to editors of all categories and subcategories.{{fact|date=December 2016}}

DMOZ's editing model is a [[Hierarchal structure|hierarchical]] one. Upon becoming editors, individuals will generally have editing permissions in only a small category. Once they have demonstrated basic editing skills in compliance with the Editing Guidelines, they are welcome to apply for additional editing privileges in either a broader category or else another category in the directory. Mentorship relationships between editors are encouraged, and internal forums provide a vehicle for new editors to ask questions.{{fact|date=December 2016}}

DMOZ has its own internal forums, the contents of which are intended only for editors to communicate with each other primarily about editing topics. Access to the forums requires an editor account and editors are expected to keep the contents of these forums private.<ref name="commguide" />

Over time, senior editors can be granted additional privileges which reflect their editing experience and leadership within the editing community. The most straightforward are ''editall'' privileges, which allow an editor to access all categories in the directory. ''Meta'' privileges additionally allow editors to perform tasks such as reviewing editor applications, setting category features, and handling external and internal abuse reports. ''Cateditall'' privileges are similar to ''editall'', but only for a single directory category. Similarly, ''catmod'' privileges are similar to ''meta'', but only for a single directory category. ''Catmv'' privileges allow editors to make changes to directory ontology by moving or renaming categories. All of these privileges are granted by admins and staff, usually after discussion with ''meta'' editors.{{fact|date=December 2016}}

In August 2004, a new level of privileges called ''admin'' was introduced. Administrator status was granted to a number of long serving metas by staff. Administrators have the ability to grant editall+ privileges to other editors and to approve new directory-wide policies, powers which had previously only been available to root (staff) editors.<ref name="adminguide">{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/admin/ |title=Open Directory Project Administrator Guidelines |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref>

All DMOZ editors are expected to abide by DMOZ's Editing Guidelines. These guidelines describe editing basics: which types of sites may be listed and which may not; how site listings should be titled and described in a loosely consistent manner; conventions for the naming and building of categories; conflict of interest limitations on the editing of sites which the editor may own or otherwise be affiliated with; and a code of conduct within the community.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/ |title=ODP Directory Editorial Guidelines |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> Editors who are found to have violated these guidelines may be contacted by staff or senior editors, have their editing permissions cut back, or lose their editing privileges entirely. DMOZ Guidelines are periodically revised after discussion in editor forums.{{fact|date=December 2016}}

==Controversy and criticism==
There have long been allegations that volunteer DMOZ editors give favorable treatment to their own websites while concomitantly thwarting the good faith efforts of their competition.<ref>[http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum17/94.htm How To: ODP Editor Is Competitor] posted on Webmasterworld.com in 2000</ref> Such allegations are fielded by ODP's staff and meta editors, who have the authority to take disciplinary action against volunteer editors who are suspected of engaging in abusive editing practices.<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/meta/abuse.html ODP Meta Guidelines: Editor Abuse and Removal]. Retrieved October 9, 2008.</ref> In 2003, DMOZ introduced a new ''Public Abuse Report System'' that allows members of the general public to report and track allegations of abusive editor conduct using an online form.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/ |title=Open Directory Project: Public Abuse Report System |publisher=Report-abuse.dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> Uninhibited discussion of DMOZ's purported shortcomings has become more common on mainstream Webmaster discussion forums. Although site policies suggest that an individual site should be submitted to only one category,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/add.html |title=How to suggest a site to the Open Directory |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> as of October 2007, Topix.com, a news aggregation site operated by DMOZ founder Rich Skrenta, has more than 17,000 listings.<ref>[http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=topix Open Directory Project Search: "topix"] (Retrieved October 18, 2007)</ref>

Early in the history of DMOZ, its staff gave representatives of selected companies, such as ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' or [[CNN]], editing access in order to list individual pages from their websites.<ref>[http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum17/1330.htm Multiple URL's in DMOZ] posted on Webmasterworld.com in 2003</ref> Links to individual CNN articles were added until 2004, but were entirely removed from the directory in January 2008<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dmoz.org/News/ http://www.dmoz.org/News/], taken from Archive.org</ref> due to the content being outdated and not considered worth the effort to maintain. There have been no similar experiments with the editing policy since then.

===Ownership and management===
Underlying some controversy surrounding DMOZ is its ownership and management. Some of the original GnuHoo volunteers felt that they had been deceived into joining a commercial enterprise.<ref name="SlashdotGnuhoo" /> To varying degrees, those complaints have continued up until the present.

At DMOZ's inception, there was little thought given to the idea of how DMOZ should be managed and there were no official [[Internet forum|forums]], guidelines or [[FAQ]]s. In essence, DMOZ began as a free for all.<ref>Laisha, [http://www.laisha.com/zine/odphistory.html The History of the Open Directory Project] in ''Search Engine Laisha's List'', June 1999.</ref>

As time went on, the ODP Editor Forums became the ''de facto'' DMOZ parliament and when one of DMOZ's staff members would post an opinion in the forums, it would be considered an official ruling.<ref name="commguide">{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/communication.html |title=ODP Communication Guidelines |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> Even so, DMOZ staff began to give trusted senior editors additional editing privileges, including the ability to approve new editor applications, which eventually led to a stratified hierarchy of duties and privileges among DMOZ editors, with DMOZ's paid staff having the final say regarding DMOZ's policies and procedures.<ref name="adminguide" /><ref name="metaguide" />

[[File:DMOZ Closed.png|thumb|Screenshot taken on April 2017 showing DMOZ website to be closed.]]

Robert Keating, a principal of Touchstone Consulting Group in Washington, D.C. since 2006, has worked as AOL's Program Manager for DMOZ since 2004. He started working for AOL in 1999 as Senior Editor for AOL Search, then as Managing Editor, AOL Search, DMOZ, and then as Media Ecosystem Manager, AOL Product Marketing.<ref>[http://blog.dmoz.org/2009/01/08/meet-aols-dmoz-staff-team/ Meet AOL's DMOZ Staff Team], DMOZ Blog, January 8, 2009</ref><ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-keating/2/457/424 Robert Keating] LinkedIn</ref>

===Editor removal procedures===
DMOZ's editor removal procedures are overseen by DMOZ's staff and meta editors. According to DMOZ's official editorial guidelines, editors are removed for abusive editing practices or uncivil behaviour. Discussions that may result in disciplinary action against volunteer editors take place in a private forum which can only be accessed by DMOZ's staff and meta editors. Volunteer editors who are being discussed are not given notice that such proceedings are taking place.<ref name="metaguide">{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/meta/ |title=Open Directory Project Meta Guidelines |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> Some people find this arrangement distasteful, wanting instead a discussion modelled more like a trial held in the U.S. judicial system.<ref name="yahooxodp">XODP Yahoo! Group [http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xodp/messages/1 Message Archive]</ref>

In the article "Editor Removal Explained", DMOZ meta editor Arlarson states that "a great deal of confusion about the removal of editors from DMOZ results from false or misleading statements by former editors".<ref>Arlarson, [http://www.dmoz.org/newsletter/2000Sep/removal.html Editor Removal Explained], Open Directory Project Newsletter (September 2000).</ref>

The DMOZ's confidentiality guidelines prohibit any current DMOZ editors in a position to know anything from discussing the reasons for specific editor removals.<ref name="metaguide" /> However, a generic list of reasons is for example given in the guidelines.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/accounts.html#removal |title=Guidelines: Account Removal |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref> In the past, this has led to removed DMOZ editors wondering why they cannot login at DMOZ to perform their editing work.<ref>[http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19936 Thread: Editor account expired] on Resource-Zone</ref><ref>[http://www.resource-zone.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3655 Thread: Can't Login] on Resource-Zone</ref>

===Allegations that editors are removed for criticizing policies===
David F. Prenatt, Jr., former DMOZ editor ''netesq'', and another former editor known by the alias ''The Cunctator'', both claim to have been removed for disagreeing with staff about changes to policies, particularly DMOZ's [[copyright]] policies. According to their claims, staff use the excuse of uncivil behaviour as a means to remove bothersome editors.<ref name="yahooxodp" /><ref>David F. Prenatt, Jr., [http://www.traffick.com/story/06-2000-xodp.asp Life After the Open Directory Project], Traffick.com (June 1, 2000).</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=CmdrTaco |url=http://slashdot.org/articles/00/10/24/1252232.shtml |title=Dmoz (aka AOL) Changing Guidelines In Sketchy Way |work=Slashdot |date=October 24, 2000}}</ref>

===Blacklisting allegations===
Senior DMOZ editors have the ability to attach "warning" or "do not list" notes to individual domains but no editor has the unilateral ability to block certain sites from being listed. Sites with these notes might still be listed and at times notes are removed after some discussion.<ref>[http://www.dmoz.org/urlnote.html Add Note to URL Feature], in ODP Documentation</ref>

===Hierarchical structure===
Criticism of DMOZ's [[hierarchical]] structure emerged by around 2005. Many believe hierarchical directories are too complicated. With the emergence of [[Web 2.0]], [[folksonomy|folksonomies]] began to appear, and some editors proposed that folksonomies, [[network (mathematics)|networks]] and [[directed graphs]] are more "natural" and easier to manage than hierarchies.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hriţcu|first=C.|url=http://hritcu.wordpress.com/2005/04/08/folksonomies-vs-ontologies/ |title=Folksonomies vs. Ontologies |date=April 8, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Shirky, C. |url=http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail470.html |title=Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags and Post-hoc Metadata |work=ITConversations |date=March 15, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Hammond, T. |author2=Hannay, T. |author3=Lund, B. |author4=Scott, J. |url=http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april05/hammond/04hammond.html |title=Social Bookmarking Tools (I) |work=D-Lib Magazine |date=April 2005}}
</ref>

==Software==

===Search===
The ODPSearch software is a derivative version of [[Isearch]] which is [[open source]], licensed under the [[Mozilla Public License]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dmoz.org/docs/en/searchguide.html |title=Open Directory Search Guide |publisher=Dmoz.org |accessdate=2014-06-18}}</ref>

===Editor forums===
The ODP Editor Forums were originally run on software that was based on the proprietary [[Ultimate Bulletin Board]] system. In June 2003, they switched to the open source [[phpBB]] system. As of 2007, these forums are powered by a modified version of phpBB.

===Bug tracking===
The bug tracking software used by the ODP is [[Bugzilla]] and the web server [[Apache HTTP Server|Apache]]. [[Squid cache|Squid]] web proxy server was also used but it was removed in August 2007 when the storage servers were reorganized. All these applications are open source.

===Interface===
The DMOZ database/editing software is closed source (although Richard Skrenta has said in June 1998 that he was considering licensing it under the [[GNU General Public License]]). This has led to criticism from the aforementioned GNU project, many of whom also criticized the DMOZ content license.  The content was later released under a Creative Commons license, which is compatible with the GNU license.<ref>[https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#OtherLicenses Licenses for Works of Practical Use besides Software and Documentation]</ref>

As such, there have been some efforts to provide alternatives to DMOZ. These alternatives would allow communities of like-minded editors to set up and maintain their own open source/open content Web directories. However, no significant open source/open content alternative to DMOZ has emerged.

==See also==
{{Portal|Internet}}
* [[List of web directories]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{sisterlinks|commons=Category:DMOZ |species=no |m=no |mw=no |v=DMOZ |s=no |wikt=no |b=no |n=no |d=Q41226 |q=no}}
{{wikidata property|P998}}
*{{Official website}}
*{{Dmoz|Computers/Internet/Searching/Directories/DMOZ}}
*[http://dmoztools.net/ DMOZ static mirror]
*[http://opendirectoryproject.org/ OpenDirectoryProject.org]
*[http://resource-zone.com/ Resource-Zone message board]
*[http://curlie.org/ Open Directory Project members message board]

{{Netscape}}
{{AOL Inc.}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2012}}

[[Category:1998 establishments in the United States]]
[[Category:AOL]]
[[Category:Collaboration]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1998]]
[[Category:Mozilla]]
[[Category:Netscape]]
[[Category:Open content projects]]
[[Category:DMOZ| ]]

[[Category:Web directories]]
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[[Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2017]]