Forum Moderators: open
Is this allowed?
Yes, it's allowed, and no, you can't assume that because the editor is a competitor that your site won't get listed or that the editor is ignoring your requests.
<caffeine fix> ;)
[edited by: digitalghost at 5:57 am (utc) on July 21, 2003]
If your website has changed dramatically a new more accurate description can usually get edited as well.
If you are looking to get a better (more commercially appealing description or more keywordy description) forget it. This has nothing to do with a competitor who is an editor - just a good editor.
One of ODP's longstanding practices is to recruit subject matter experts to edit in their fields. Inevitably, some of this expertise is related in the real world to some vested personal venture in a particular topic-- a real estate broker who knows a lot about the local market and industry, or a new initiate into a religious sect, or a climate researcher advancing a particular school of thought on cloud formation. In the interest of keeping subject matter experts active in the areas of their specialty, such editing is permitted so long as any personal affiliations are disclosed in the application, and so long as no discernible preference is shown to affiliated sites.
To mitigate against potential abuse, expansion of category privileges are closely controlled by a group of senior volunteers called meta-editors, and all editing activities are logged. Some actions which are considered abusive and can lead to dismissal, as well as methods of reporting, can be found at inelegant.org/ddp/03014/ (an unofficial guide maintained by one of the ODP meta-editors, but with the endorsement of the other metas and of the ODP staff).
The problem comes if the editor treats competitors sites differently than their own.
Technically, if a listing is factually correct, my experience has been that update requests don't often go through.
We don't discuss individual sites here but if you feel that your site is being treated differently or unfairly, a search on Google for "resource zone" will bring up a site where you can ask about your site specifically. Often you can get feedback on whether the update requests have been processed.
If its been a month or more since the request was submitted they'll usually provide an update. The answer may or may not be one ya like, but its a place to get an answer.
That would be my perspective also. Most update requests aren't even close to guidelines-compliant (understandably, it takes time to read the guidelines, and a bit of experience to use them effectively), and it ends up sort of like asking for the moon AND a small coke -- you get turned down flat.
A request that starts with the current listing and adds non-obvious but significant detail probably has the best chance of getting serious consideration.
