 |
Dummies Guide to DMOZ Forum
Questions about DMOZ/ODP
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
tgrigsby
Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Manteca, CA
|
 Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 7:30 pm Post subject: My site never gets added to DMOZ -- why? |
 |
|
I've submitted my web site, www.tgesoft.com, several times. It's a clean, decently constructed site advertising my company, products, and services. I have submitted it numerous times over the last 2 years and I've never received any feedback, and it has never been added to the DMOZ directory. Is there a way to contact the editor directly to find out what the problem is? How would I find out who the editor is for a given category?
The category in question is Computers: Software: Industry-Specific: Salon Management. The last submission happened on 8/1/2006.
At one point, about a year ago, I even applied to be the editor of that category, thinking that perhaps it was languishing with no one to manage it, but that application was refused.
Is DMOZ still active? If so, is there some step or detail I've overlooked?
Thank you for any advice you can give.
Todd Grigsby
TGE Software
http://www.tgesoft.com
_________________
TGE Software
888-873-8434
http://www.tgesoft.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
gboisseau
Friend
Joined: 07 May 2006
Posts: 55
Location: New York
|
| Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2006 11:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I do not see that your site was ever reviewed - it is still waiting for a volunteer editor to look at it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tgrigsby
Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Manteca, CA
|
| Posted: Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:04 pm Post subject: Why is that? |
|
|
Ok, so since I've submitted it multiple times over the last 2 years, can you see multiple submissions in the queue? Is it possible for me to contact the volunteer editor directly to help this person get through the queue in a more efficient manner? Can a section of DMOZ have more than one volunteer editor? Do you have any suggestions for expediting this process?
Thanks so much for the reply!
Todd Grigsby
TGE Software
_________________
TGE Software
888-873-8434
http://www.tgesoft.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
spectregunner
Friend
Joined: 11 Jun 2006
Posts: 66
|
| Posted: Tue Sep 26, 2006 4:44 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | , can you see multiple submissions in the queue? |
Nope, suggestions to the same category overwrite one another, so all your multiple suggestions have done is make it appear as though the site were submitted the date of your most recent suggestion.
| Quote: | | Is it possible for me to contact the volunteer editor directly to help this person get through the queue in a more efficient manner? |
Several answers: You are free to contact anyone you wish, but don't expect a response as few eidtors will respond to someone who has suggested a site. There is absolutly nothing you can do that will help an editor be more "efficient" other than leave the editor alone. What could you possibly do other than suggest that the editor pay attention to your site at the expense of the others? Basically, what you are asking is: how can I manipulate the editing process so as to gain an unfair advantage?
| Quote: | | Can a section of DMOZ have more than one volunteer editor? |
More than 200 different editors can edit any given category.
| Quote: | | Do you have any suggestions for expediting this process? |
There is, realistically, nothing you can do that will help more than it will hurt.
_________________
ODP Editor Spectregunner
I do not respond to private requests for information. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tgrigsby
Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Manteca, CA
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:12 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
Quote: can you see multiple submissions in the queue?
Nope, suggestions to the same category overwrite one another, so all your multiple suggestions have done is make it appear as though the site were submitted the date of your most recent suggestion.
|
Well, that's just great. Since it's been several months between submissions, and since the list in that area doesn't seem to change, I have to assume that very little gets done there, and that's not likely to change anytime soon. I'm positive there aren't 200 editors working on that section.
| Quote: |
What could you possibly do other than suggest that the editor pay attention to your site at the expense of the others? Basically, what you are asking is: how can I manipulate the editing process so as to gain an unfair advantage?
|
Well, that certainly wasn't my intention. What I'm actually trying to ascertain is whether there is an editor working on that section at all. It certainly doesn't seem that way. And if I was able to contact the editor, I could correct the impression that my submission is only a few weeks old; that in fact I've been trying to get listed for over 2 years now.
So two questions: 1. How do I determine who the editor for a section is, and 2) in your opinion, does a system work when it takes so long to activate a listing that it's quite likely the company in question may have gone out of business?
_________________
TGE Software
888-873-8434
http://www.tgesoft.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
spectregunner
Friend
Joined: 11 Jun 2006
Posts: 66
|
| Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 2:04 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | 1. How do I determine who the editor for a section is |
Perhaps I was not clear. So now you get stuck with the long answer. 
There are more than 200 editors who have permission to edit in any given category. Most, in their lifetimes, will never vist category "X". If, when looking at a category, you do not see an editor name listed at the bottom, then no editor has chosen to have permissions specificaly for that category, however, any named editor of a category that is "higher up" in the directory tree can edit there. In addition, there are a large number of eidtors who have directory-wide editng permission, they, too, can edit there.
Even if a given editor is named as the editor of a category, that does not mean:
That is the only category where the editor edits
That the named editor is the only editor who edits there
Now, let's give you a real example:
Regional/North_America/United_States/Arizona/Localities/C/Chandler has 9 direct subcategories and many of those have subcategories, yet none have a named editor.
Regional/North_America/United_States/Arizona/Localities/C has 26 direct subcategories, one of which is "Chandler", but does not have a named editor.
Regional/North_America/United_States/Arizona/Localities has 26 subcategories, including "C" and does not have a named editor.
Regional/North_America/United_States/Arizona has 18 subcategories, one of which is "Localities" and has two named editors: spectregunner and jwmoore. This does not mean that those are the only two editors who edit in all the subcategories below Arizona.
Regional/North_America/United_States has 53 subcategories, including "Arizona" and has 19 named editors (including both spectregunner and jwmoore).
Regional/North_America has four named editors, etc.
Regional/ has 10 named editors.
So, if your interest was in Chandler/Mud Wrestling, which editor would you contact? What are the odds that the editor you chose to contact "actively edits" the category, as opposed to just "watches over" things -- or may have been veyr active in the category two years ago, but keeps their name on the eidtor list for sentimental reason. Case in Point: I can edit at the United States level, which menas in every state, but I keep my name on Arizona because that is where I live. I don't take up any space by doing so, I don't block any editor who has permissions from editing, and since no one "owns" a category, it does no harm to indulge myself with keeping my name there.
Now let's talk frankly about why editors don't want to be contacted. I need to be blunt at this point and say that I am not talking about YOU but I am talking about webmaster sand site owners "in general."
I've been an editor for about 4 or 5 years (time flies when you are having fun) and I am usually amused when someone writes to me. About half the time I trash the mail unread. There is absolutely nothing that an e-mail can contain that wil help me be a better editor. Nothing. If there is information I do need from a webmaster, I use a second e-mail address, so as not to confuse it with the unsolicited mail. Most such e-mails are, when you get right down to it, pleas to list their site. some a threats. We have had editors stalked, someone once called my real life boss and complained that I would not list their site. Mu boss' reply was classic: "He'd damn well best not list anyone's site while at work, and I don't give a blankety-blank-blank what he does on his own time." Continuing, eidtors have been offered bribes, threatened, insulted beyone words, etc. As a result, experienced editors now routinely caution newer editors to avoid contact with wembasters as it is fundamentally unhealthy.
I mean, think about it, how could you possibly help the editor when you don't even know if that editor acively edits there, you don''t know if the editor is consumed in a major project, when you don't even know if the editor ever even looks at the pile/heap of submissions.
Test yourself. Pretend that I am an editor in the category that you care about. Make your next reply the content of the e-mail that you want to send the editor who edits there. (you can leave our your URL and the category name). Give me your best pitch, and if you do, I promise to be candid and tell you how I would respond (privately and publicly) had I received the e-mail in real life.
_________________
ODP Editor Spectregunner
I do not respond to private requests for information. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
oneeye
Site Admin
Joined: 27 Apr 2006
Posts: 68
|
| Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 12:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
I thought I would take a look at tgesoft.com. Twice I got a "this page cannot be displayed" message - had I got that when I was an editor then there is a fair chance I would have rejected the site. I would have had no way of telling how long the site had been down or when it was coming back. And with a million other sites waiting for review it would not be worth spending more time over. Bad luck really, the ODP gets so many sites where the URL is submitted before the site is ready or, because of the wait for a review, have completely gone.
Third time lucky. Looks a fairly unusual and unique product, nothing obvious I could spot on first impressions that would make it unlistable. I don't like the absence of an address on a business site as it would make me wonder if it was a legitimate business or some form of affiliate site. When I was an editor such wondering would have took time that I could have spent reviewing and listing half a dozen other sites with no such concerns. Therefore I may have just left it for another day when I had nothing to do. And in the ODP such a day never comes. See the section "Is it easy to assess the site's trustworthiness?" on http://dmoz.org/guidelines/include.html
| Quote: | | At one point, about a year ago, I even applied to be the editor of that category, thinking that perhaps it was languishing with no one to manage it, but that application was refused. |
There is nothing to stop you trying again. Be totally honest about your affiliations, whether related to the category concerned or not, demonstrate a willingness to list competitors (by giving them as examples) and an ability to be objective about their sites and your own (by the descriptions given which should be guideline compliant). But if your reason for becoming an editor, or the impression your application gives, is simply to list your site and move on then the application is likely to be refused. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Eric-the-Bun
Friend
Joined: 09 May 2006
Posts: 21
Location: Bognor Regis - Hub of the Universe
|
| Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2006 11:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
Taking up oneeye's point about a Business address.
Hopefully you have a bricks and mortar location where your main office is, so I would advise putting that on your contact page. [I note on the careers section you state: 'Todd Grigsby Enterprises is always seeking talented Delphi and Java programmers in the Central California area, preferably in and around Manteca.']
So you may also suggestt the site to the locatlity category where that address is (once an editor can see it on the site). This is the only legitimate way of increasing your chances of being listed - you are allowed 1 suggestion to a topical category and 1 suggestion to a regional category if you have a physical location.
The same timescales apply but your chances of a listing have doubled.
regards |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
tgrigsby
Joined: 22 Sep 2006
Posts: 4
Location: Manteca, CA
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 3:08 am Post subject: FINALLY! |
|
|
I noticed a while back that it finally got posted, and even though it took 3 and a half YEARS, I'm not complaining, I just want to thank the moderator that worked through that list.
_________________
TGE Software
888-873-8434
http://www.tgesoft.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
 |
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
