Forum Moderators: open
The problem seems to be that the editor of my category is a listed competitor. The editor name is very similar and the comments in the profile seem to point to that end.
All along, we have respectfully been patient and every 2 months or so would email for any reply or comment.
We have now made it to first page Yahoo results in a very competitive field. This is soooo frustrating to be held back from the top 10 now becuase of apparent exclusion for terrible reasons.
My company is in the Better Business Bureau, we get tons of traffic, we provide information and have service awards from Yahoo.
Please will someone let me know if there really is a way to reach a person and have a reply from DMOZ/ODP.
7 months is ridiculous to have waited. We know that we aren't being delayed by the slowness of listings being added because newly registered domains that just were created in November are already listed in our category.
Any help would be appreciated greatly...sorry so long winded--this has been very frustrating and has hurt our search engine climb.
Sincerely,
Tommy
[edited by: Laisha at 2:06 pm (utc) on Feb. 9, 2003]
[edit reason] Removed company name and sig. [/edit]
[edited by: Laisha at 2:23 pm (utc) on Feb. 9, 2003]
[edit reason] per TOS [/edit]
Thank You
The problem seems to be that the editor of my category is a listed competitor. The editor name is very similar and the comments in the profile seem to point to that end.
If you believe that, then you want to make out a watertight case and send it to a meta at DMOZ.
If you can prove that editor abuse is going on, then they need to know about it. It most cases they will react if you have made the case.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld, here's the Terms of Service [webmasterworld.com] this briefly outline's what is and is not allowed on WebmasterWorld. Keeps this place full of news and non commercial.
DMOZ has been going through loads of problems at the moment, and editors are coming and going, the server is up then it is down, etc. Though resource-zone is a good place to get answers, i would suggest moving up the cats to a listed editor above the cat you are trying to currently get the site listed in and ask very politely for a review. Usually if the editor is active, they will review it with no major hassle. If their is no reply, move up another level, say in a week to a more senior editor, and ask again.
Hope this helps. Will run into again around webmasterworld.
Caine
Sadly, forgetting to give the url and category in question means that it's not easily given.
Posting the same message in several different boards on RZ really attracts attention and encourages editors to want to provide help.I want to clarify that we don't encourage people to post their complaint in multiple forums at RZ at the same time. It gets attention but not necessarily good attention.
This particular case, though, has been sorted out amicably. :)
I not only got answers but have also read around the postings and learned a lot today. The overall experience has been a great one and I now am happy to be a member of both forums.
Special thanks to Motsa who put me in my place :) in a constructive manner. She helped explain things and I am less impatient than this morning. Debbie helped direct me as well. I further appreciate Caine's wise words!
Anyhow, this is a helpful concept and I am glad I stumbled across the forums this morning.
I seems to have the same problem as what you face now - receiving biase treatment.
Good thing I came across this post and realise that I am not alone in the struggle.
Thanks everyone for the wonderful advises.
regards
kwngian
I am now the 2nd most visited site in my chosen category (using Alexa data that shows my last 3 and last 6 month trends to be higher than any site in my field period) of all sites online--still overlooked and not placed by the ODP :(
I have subject matter and super inbound linking.
:( I simply want what other sites have--a free listing that should be given unless you have a terrible site or have multiple listings--neither of which applies to mine.
I am being patient again (since July is getting old though) and have been secured by a nice ODP editor that my site is coming up for edit soon...
Enough belly-aching on my part, but venting helps I guess.
Craig
Any luck getting a reply from DMOZ yet?
No luck on my side yet so far.
kwngian
I'm still in a holding pattern and hoping for no more delays. I wouldn't want anyone to have to wait 7 or 8 months for a directory listing. That is my situation though and I can just wait and hope.
Such is common at the ODP. Just yesterday I went through some unrevieweds that had been submitted in 2001. Your situation is not unusual, and doesn't by itself necessarily suggest a biased editor.
Not saying biased, just saying frustrating...
The ODP is the missing link to get top 10 on Google for me...I have gotten as high as 15th without being in the ODP which in my opinion is incredible.
Was this in the exact same cat you submitted your site to? Also, because multiple editors will be able to edit in a cat, this can happen. For example, let's say that you submitted to Health/Foo/Bar/Something, that cat has an editor, and there is a backlog in the queue there. Now, assume I am the editor of Health/Foo. If someone incorrectly submits a site to Health/Foo that belongs in Health/Foo/Bar/Something, I'll check it out. If I immediately recognize that it belongs in Health/Foo/Bar/Something, and is suitable for that cat, I may just add it immediately to that cat. Because of possibilities like this, sites recently submitted may get added long before sites submitted long ago. Even within a specific cat editors may not review sites by oldest submission first. For example, an editor may pop in, spot in the queue a site that is a no brainer to add such as site from a large government organization, add it and then just move on to another cat. This is no more unfair than the fact some cats have active editors where sites always get reviewed in a week, while in other cats the queue is backlogged by over a year. Such is reality.
And tommyleef, you may be greatly exaggerating the importance with Google of an ODP link. It really isn't worth that much with most ODP cats.
About the importance...all I know is that when I look at the inbound links that the sites above me have--most are nothing more than those directories that use the ODP.
Those are the majaority of their quality links inbound.
Give me those links and I do feel a few spots to close the gap would be realized.
Put it like this, rather have ODP than not :)
Their code and content pales in comparison. The quality of those sites linking to them is less too.
I think the primary enemy to my site is just it hasn't been good long enough to reap the reward.
Your words are wise though that we all should always be improving our sites.
PR is only one part of the equation that Google uses. We have several pages with lower PR than our competitors, but they show up much higher on most keywords.
Content is a major factor. Without content you will never (well, usually) rank very high.
The more I have thought about this rise over the past months I am convinced we are on our way to the top.
I really feel for you and I can certainly understand your frustration. I'll take a little different approach here and instead of just ranting and giving you some anectdotes of what maybe is going on let me suggest one thing you shouldn't do for sure. Out of your frustration don't keep resubmitting your site in hopes that it will get noticed, because then it will fall to the bottom of the queue and you'll be starting the wait from scratch. Now I'm not saying that this is what you're doing, but I know some people who experienced similar problems to yours and kept resubmitting because of their frustration. Needless to say they were just hurting their case even more. That's just my two pennies hope it helps in some little way.
Good luck to you and I hope it finally works out. Going to an editor above your category like someone previously mentioned is probably your best bet in resolving your problem.
Not likely. Do you have any statistics to back up your intuition?
However, what I did see to my dismay is that there are not that many people waiting and some same-companies have multiple listings.
I have as editor to editor addressed this yesterday in hopes those abusing the listings will be purged and that the few URLs in waiting be reviewed.
I don't want any special treatment--just a fair shake.
You all have made great arguments, but those apply to crowded categories and inactive editors.
This is not the case with the category or my submission.
That's something 100% against the very nature of a webmaster. We believe in building it, perfecting it and gaining the rewards of that work in a reasonable timeframe.
The shame is most people do not know about the R-Z and forums like this one. In fact, I only learned of webmasterworld and the resource-zone 2 weeks ago.
I used my knowledge to take things into my own hands. I see the problems with not enough editors in the ODP and I have given my time and added listings and rejected URLs that are not appropriate.
When you apply to become an editor the ODP sends you an auto-reply. I feel that should apply to URL submissions as well. That reply should include instructions and contact info for advised use after 2 months or so.
Those individuals submitting URLs are only wanting information. When you inform someone they can wait and not feel the frustration so many people needlessly feel at the hands of a human directory that has a very mechanical feel when you go without word for months on end.
This suggestion for an auto-reply is being submited to DMOZ this week after I properly and respectfully offer the suggestion.
Human editors do, 'do it better'. Still, an auto-reply can help those humans on the submission side of things.
As for the backlogs, we do know that some are done in hours or days, others wait for years. I once listed something ten minutes after it was submitted; I just happened to log in at that time, and just happened to look in that category.
Since I am new to being an ODP editor I am still learning protocol and do not want to rehash heavily beaten paths.
My submission has not been delayed by too many submissions in the cat or an inactive editor. There may be another issue beneath the surface and without discussing that further I am addressing the concern editor to editor with the other party.
I have yet to break the dmoz shell yet, and I'm sure I have the most extensive site on the net for my topic, hands down. How do I find out if maybe my editor might be a bit hung over... for 3 months :)
