Controversy
and criticism Of Open Directory Project
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Allegations of abusive
editing practices: |
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There have long been
allegations that volunteer ODP editors give favorable
treatment to their own websites while concomitantly
thwarting the good faith efforts of their competition.
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. In 2003, ODP
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. |
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Ownership and management: |
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Underlying some controversy surrounding
ODP is its ownership and management. Many of the original
GnuHoo volunteers felt that they had been deceived into
joining a commercial enterprise.Most of that controversy
died down when the project was renamed NewHoo. Moreover,
when Netscape acquired the project, renamed it ODP, and
released ODP's content under an open content license,
criticism of the ODP all but disappeared. However, as
ODP's content became widely used by most major search
engines and web directories, the issue of ODP's ownership
and management resurfaced. |
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Editor removal procedures: |
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ODP's editor removal procedures are overseen
by ODP's staff and meta editors. According to ODP'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 ODP's staff and meta editors, and volunteer editors
who are being discussed are not given notice that such
proceedings are taking place. Some people find this arrangement
distasteful, wanting instead a discussion modeled more
like a trial held in the U.S. judicial system. |
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Blacklisting allegations: |
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Senior ODP 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.
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