4 ms·

And the purpose of this is...

by cloud36 11y ago

baby 11y ago
I have no idea why people would upvote this story. It is a book containing a bunch of links sorted by categories. Anyone can submit, it has to be approved by some people and then you are on it and maybe other search engines will use it. Although, I doubt anyone is using DMOZ nowadays. It is pretty old... I'm surprised it is still up. If I had something interesting to say about that, I ran into their list of cryptographers: * http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_Theory/Cryptography/People/ http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_... * http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_Theory/Cryptography/Research_Groups/ http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_... I have no idea how they made it. It seems pretty random.
gpvos 11y ago
This is one of the first open content projects. A precursor of Wikipedia in a way. I'm surprised it still exists. It was fairly popular, but mostly because there weren't any really better directories, and Google wasn't all-encompassing yet.
- chaostheory 11y ago
  It's not really a a precursor to Wikipedia. It's just a more open Yahoo; the old version of Yahoo before it became a media site.
  - dredmorbius 11y ago
    It's Wikipediaesque in that it's a collaboratively produced redference. No it doesn't have the content element of Wikipedia, but the idea that random netizens could take on Yahoo was novel.
    - chaostheory 11y ago
      It's still a bad argument. Just because it's collaborative, it doesn't make it Wikipediaesque since it's obviously just a directory and not a wiki. It's like calling a bicycle, automotive; just because it has wheels and can move. Moreover (I don't know if this has changed but) back then, you'd have to apply and be approved to actually edit content on dmoz vs just being able to register and being able to edit content on wikipedia.
      - gpvos 11y ago
        I edited my comment from "A precursor of Wikipedia" to "A precursor of Wikipedia in a way" pretty quickly after I posted it, but maybe you reacted to the first version? I wanted to refer to the fact that it's open content (see first sentence) and collaborative, not that the content itself is similar. You do have a point about the having to be approved to be able to edit. It wasn't very hard to get approval though.
cloud36 11y ago
Pretty much how you navigated the web before search engines. Also, something all SEO'ers tried to get their sites into as search engines used to use this as seed site for their crawling process. But, yeah, I don't know why anybody would post it. Maybe they were feeling nostalgic.
- peter_l_downs 11y ago
  I submitted this because, although it might be hard to believe, I'm young enough that I hadn't heard of it, and only found it during a random link deep dive. It felt like some eldritch internet horror that the people on HN might know about and be able to explain!

And the purpose of this is...

by cloud36 11y ago

And the purpose of this is...

baby 11y ago

I have no idea why people would upvote this story. It is a book containing a bunch of links sorted by categories. Anyone can submit, it has to be approved by some people and then you are on it and maybe other search engines will use it. Although, I doubt anyone is using DMOZ nowadays. It is pretty old... I'm surprised it is still up. If I had something interesting to say about that, I ran into their list of cryptographers: * http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_Theory/Cryptography/People/ http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_... * http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_Theory/Cryptography/Research_Groups/ http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Applications/Communication_... I have no idea how they made it. It seems pretty random.

gpvos 11y ago

This is one of the first open content projects. A precursor of Wikipedia in a way. I'm surprised it still exists. It was fairly popular, but mostly because there weren't any really better directories, and Google wasn't all-encompassing yet.

chaostheory 11y ago
It's not really a a precursor to Wikipedia. It's just a more open Yahoo; the old version of Yahoo before it became a media site.
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  It's Wikipediaesque in that it's a collaboratively produced redference. No it doesn't have the content element of Wikipedia, but the idea that random netizens could take on Yahoo was novel.
  - chaostheory 11y ago
    It's still a bad argument. Just because it's collaborative, it doesn't make it Wikipediaesque since it's obviously just a directory and not a wiki. It's like calling a bicycle, automotive; just because it has wheels and can move. Moreover (I don't know if this has changed but) back then, you'd have to apply and be approved to actually edit content on dmoz vs just being able to register and being able to edit content on wikipedia.
    - gpvos 11y ago
      I edited my comment from "A precursor of Wikipedia" to "A precursor of Wikipedia in a way" pretty quickly after I posted it, but maybe you reacted to the first version? I wanted to refer to the fact that it's open content (see first sentence) and collaborative, not that the content itself is similar. You do have a point about the having to be approved to be able to edit. It wasn't very hard to get approval though.

cloud36 11y ago

Pretty much how you navigated the web before search engines. Also, something all SEO'ers tried to get their sites into as search engines used to use this as seed site for their crawling process. But, yeah, I don't know why anybody would post it. Maybe they were feeling nostalgic.

peter_l_downs 11y ago
I submitted this because, although it might be hard to believe, I'm young enough that I hadn't heard of it, and only found it during a random link deep dive. It felt like some eldritch internet horror that the people on HN might know about and be able to explain!