DMOZ sure isn’t perfect, but the main problem is that not enough people volunteer to edit categories where they want to submit sites. Medieval architechture might just need one editor, but a general affiliate info category likely gets thousands of submissions. That means multiple people need to volunteer to edit it, and work their way up the responsibility ladder tio be trusted with that much responsibility. [/B]
I can understand why more people don’t volunteer. When you volunteer, submit perfectly worded descriptions of sites and an intelligent well-written application, and you get a form letter rejecting your application within a couple of hours with NO comments about why you’ve been rejected, then you become disillusioned.
Had I been given ANY idea in my form letter of why my application had been rejected, I would have a lot more of the “warm and fuzzy” than I do now. There is a section in the form rejection letter for specific comments regarding why my application wasn’t accepted, but it wasn’t used.
That’s just plain discouraging for most people.
I’m not beating up on DMOZ, but I think the general impression that a lot of webmasters have of DMOZ is on the negative side, which certainly can’t help DMOZ become increasinly important.