Open Dictionary
Dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge

Isn't allowing wholesale dictionary-file submission a little bit scary?

Anyone can email any dictionary file to the Open Dictionary, and this could potentially create a mess. However, all submissions are looked at, at least to some extent, before they are installed. In the case of obviously inappropriate submissions, the owning email address and IP address may be barred from future submissions indefinitely.

Perhaps the greatest real danger is the proliferation of different ideas as to how subcontexts should be defined and organized. Even one person can have a hard time deciding this. For now, the Open Dictionary is officially an experiment in subcontext design, and people are initially allowed to create subcontexts in any way they see fit. However, users cannot delete or rename subcontexts (even as the owner) once they have links in them from others.

the Open Dictionary reserves the right to reorganize subcontexts in any manner consistent with current Open Dictionary subcontext modification policy. The subcontext modification policy aims to carry out directory reorganizations which best forge a consensus among all affected contributors (at least those responding to email on the issue). There is also a strong tendency to support decisions made by professional societies which develop taxonomies for their field, such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The choice of subcontext organization is most critical for browsing the Open Dictionary. Since most people use it via searches, and since the context of the search is usually set very high (e.g., "/Science/Astronomy"), the experience of the typical user is little impacted by subcontext organization. However, it is a worthwhile goal to develop a widely accepted classification hierarchy in any field.