The definition of “backlog” is :
An accumulation of jobs not done or materials not processed that are yet to be dealt with”
It is a myth that DMOZ has a backlog of submitted sites. The reason this is a myth, is that the sites that are submitted via the public interface are not guaranteed inclusion. In fact, they are nothing more than suggestions for the editors to use if they choose to, for the purpose of building the directory. There is no backlog, only a surplus of resources available to editors for their use in building the directory. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don’t know where this myth started, nor the reasons behind it. I can say in all honesty though, that in some categories public suggestions are a complete waste of time and a poor resource for the category. In other cases, they are an invaluable resource for the category. It depends solely on the category in question, the quality of the suggestions, and the editors choosing to edit there. For me, when editing in a small Regional locality for example, the public suggestions can be very helpful and save a lot of time searching in most sub-categories. The exception to that is Real Estate and Automotive categories. I find the vast majority of publicly submitted sites to these regional sub-cats are very poor resources and usually won’t look at them. On the flip-side of things, in certain topical categories for example, I will rarely if ever look in the public suggestion pools for possible inclusions. Its far more productive to search out sites on my own than to wade through the muck in the spam ridden unreviewed pools there.
There is no guideline that requires an editor to ever enter the unreviewed pool. I can tell you from experience though, that the suggestions are sometimes very beneficial and an editor usually gets a feel for which areas are better than others as their own experience grows. There are literally dozens of different resources available for building the directory, from site suggestions and personal searches, to bill boards, phone books, and bumper stickers. There is room for all of these resources and they are all welcomed help to the editors trying to build categories. Lets just not think of one of them as a backlog, simply because there is a large quantity to choose from. 
[Off Topic] They just reported another after shock this morning, didn’t feel this one but they said its the largest one yet.[/off topic]
