Most webmasters already know of DMOZ (Open Directory Project) and Zeal http://www.zeal.com and I have been an editor in small sections for quite some time (under the same nickname). However good it is for your site to appear in the DMOZ directory for appearing in search engines like the formidable google, I prefer Zeal.

I have my reasons for this such as the fact it is intended for non-commercial sites and so the corruptive influence is much less even though some people do attempt to slip in things where they shouldn't. The other reason is that you can submit one page rather than a whole site e.g. if you have found a really good article on something particularly specific like: who shot JFK conspiracy.

So my offer to lurkers on the GIDForums site or current members is; if you have (or know of) a site which is of good quality and non-commercial, I will submit it to Zeal if you sign up as a member and post the site on the websites reviewed section (or where appropriate), with a short non-promotional synopsis. Obviously I am bound by the guidelines of Zeal and if the site does not fit this in any way then I cannot submit it. If you are unsure of your site then look here: http://www.zeal.com/guidelines/user/

Your probably thinking what is his motive, well you may not believe me when I say that I do it because I enjoy it as well as a way to "repay" people for good quality content that they have given to me for nothing. Have you ever thought about the colossal amount of information you receive from the internet that you are not paying for? Obviously if you are willing to search you can get everything for free.

So that is my offer take it or leave it, but it is both our losses if you don't help yourself

[edited by JdS]
Check out: [gid=http://www.zeal.com/users/contributed_sites.jhtml?uid=93413]jrobbio's CURRENT contributed sites[/gid].

Thank you Rob, that's a very generous offer... anytime you feel like it, feel free to submit some of my articles

I owe you buddy.

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

Yes I thought I might submit your Apache articles as a collection as I think only they are good enough

You forgot GIDForums™. It must be good enough since you're on it!

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

Wow! That was FAST. GIDForums™ is already in Zeal:

[gid=http://www.zeal.com/category/manage.jhtml?cid=10118697]Home > United States > New > Computing > Internet > Site Administration > Forums[/gid]

Thank you Rob and just to show you our appreciation, you have been promoted to Resident Zealot on these boards.

That is another reason why I like Zeal since instead of looking at months or even a year for some DMOZ categories to even get an acceptance or refusal to a submission, the longest I have ever experienced is 2 weeks with the reasons for why the action was chosen.

Thank you for the promotion, I suppose that means I now have to live up to my name!

Look who is number 7 on MSN search (from msn.com) for the phrase: webmaster forum

Number 10 for msn.co.uk

If you type in webmaster forum in your address bar in IE6 its hiding in there at number 8

Number 9 in Looksmart.com

Can't think of the other search engines that use the Zeal database at the moment but I think that has been a really quick update with some positive results.

U da MAN!

I think HotBot, since I am getting hits off it a lot more these days...
<correction>Hotbot is doing the Inktomi list</correction>

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

I was surprised and shocked even that you included whole sections of the site to Zeal! Thank you...

I edited your first post above, to include a (link) to the current list of submitted sites (by you) to Zeal - tell me if you prefer not to have it linked from here.

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

When did you notice? Did you get some traffic already or was it the robots showing up in your logs?

About the link to my submissions, well there's nothing wrong with a bit of self policeing. I haven't been abusing the system so that may help people see that I have posted bits of my own site, only when I'd be happy to see them rather than a half job or anything like that.

As for JDS's articles, I think they are very good. I was still selective about what I posted so I can justify my reasons for what I added.

Rob