I Resigned from Dmoz Today

I’m no longer sure when I originally wrote this. It may have been around 2010. I did leave for years and then came back in 2016, I think. But, the whole thing was dumped by AOL (Verizon/AOL) and became Curlie. You can visit the directory, still being updated by volunteers, at the new site. Curlie.org

It stopped being fun or interesting. Tired of getting email from sploggers who think I should list their great site full of ads. Tired of attitude from editors who don’t seem to care about the sites they edit just being right or better than anyone else. I salute the old Dmoz and the people I knew then. It’s not here any more and now neither am I.

I joined the Open Directory Project in November of 1998 so November of 2007 seems like a good time to leave. Sort of rounding out the date. I really enjoyed the first few years. The years after that were kind of like dealing with a bitchy old relative you just seem stuck with for some reason. I couldn’t quite give up being an editor. I loved finding new sites, new ideas and new things to try and learn about on my own. But, the pettiness and back biting was always there. I felt I was always being judged and nit picked at. I had not felt appreciated or welcome even for a long time.

So now I’m gone. Maybe I will amass my own mini directory for the rural exploration sites. Not sure I want to take on another project though. I don’t need to. I have the Flickr group and that is enough. It’s really all I wanted, a local bunch to share photos and locations and maybe get together for coffee. So, it’s all good.

A good time to leave when the categories I cared about most have pretty much fallen into dust or splog. Writers Resources is mainly splog, not much of real quality there any more. ASCII Art is covered in dust bunnies. It gets me sadder each time I have to delete an old listing gone by the wayside. Urban exploration is growing but I was told by another editor that I don’t know what I’m doing there. She deleted a bunch of subcategories and listings I had done. That rankled me.

Anyway, the end of the Dmoz era has cometh upon me. I won’t miss it. I won’t look back. I sure won’t miss the old shedragon moniker either! I outlived that several years ago. 🙂