Forum Moderators: open
On 1/2/2001 I made a site submission to an ODP category. As advised, I waited at least 2 weeks before making another request after I was certain the site hadn't been already added. I feel confident I selected the most appropriate category and met the submission criteria in part because I have successfully submitted a number of sites to ODP over the years.
It's been suggested that if waiting at least 2 weeks between each request fails, I should next try submitting the site to the category directly above the one I have been unsuccessful with. Since it's now been nearly a month since my last request, I feel as a last resort I must try this suggestion. My concern is that submitting this site to the incorrect, higher category would be frowned upon and risk outright rejection instead of being listed in the correct category as I've been trying to do all along. There is no area on the Add URL form to explain why this site is knowingly being submitted to the wrong category and although there are 2 editors listed for each of the categories I'm referring to, I am hesitant to directly contact any editor without their invitation.
I'll be happy to Sticky Mail information to an ODP editor about the site I am trying to submit and the categories I'm referring to above for any assistance they can provide.
Thanks!
Use the description area.
After your well written description place a note:
[editor please note that.............]
I can't imagine this being good information. Perhaps contacting the editor in the category directly above the one you were unsuccessful with (assuming you've already emailed the editor listed on the one you submitted to -- or that there is none).
Thanks to everyone for your time and advice.
Kfander has excellent judgement and taste. :) He is also an ODP meta, and his lovely and gracious wife is an editall. ;)
Good luck, and keep us posted here.
Just a reminder that this forum is global... both dd/mm/yy and mm/dd/yy formats are in common usage.
I'm not carping or looking for arguments on the relative merits of either format... just quitely reminding you good people to be clear when tying dates, especially if the date has some particular significance.... eg 5th March 01 leaves no room for doubt.
Living in a dd/mm/yy country and working for a mm/dd/yy American company, I can assure you I have witnessed some real doozies arise through this.
Thanks!
After 2 submissions, two emails, and 4 months of waiting, I finally got a site listed. I had to go up up 2 categories to reach the editor that did it.
I was emailed back immediately, and my site was added within two weeks.
The only advice I can offer is this-
Keep emailing different editors, go higher up if you need to.
Also, if you've documented anything you've done like submissions or former emails, that may help. On the final (successful!) email I sent, I copied and pasted everything I had done over the last four months to the bottom of the email.
Good luck!
I do agree with this >>.If they need more editors, then why do they turn down so many people who apply?<<
I am and editor, and I was turned down the first time. So was a fellow co-worker of mine who is very intellegent and had a ton of knowledge in the category he applied for.
I re-applied. He did not. I would imagine they lose a lot of good people this way.
This gets trickier, but is directly releated to the above-
>>>>All it takes to put in a site into the directory is for the editor to sign on, look at the listings waiting, review it, and if needed, change description or title, and click...your in. A matter of a few minutes. <<<<
The editor who got my site in told me in the email that she had 1,200 sites to review, hence the delay.
1,200 sites??? If this is the case, (why would she lie?), something DOES needs to change.
Edited by: mona
I think too many folks are confusing being a volunteer editor with a paid one. Editing is not supposed to be a 'job.' Some people rarely login, and some never login after being accepted as editors. Some only want to tend their own pet sites, and some just drop in for no apparent reason without editing a thing. Some editors only handle a single category even though they could easily handle more. If we accepted everyone (as opposed to being selective) would those trends really change? No. There would still be aggravation even if everyone who wanted to edit got accepted.
Oh horror of horrors! This sounds like Go Guides all over again.
I'm a relatively new editor at the ODP with one very small category. The vast majority of my work is not done in adding submitted sites to my cat, but in shifting sites to their correct categories after they have been wrongly submitted, or tracking down mirror and spam sites. After all, who want's to do a keyword search only to be served pages of the same irrelevant garbage over and over again. Garbage in - garbage out.
The biggest problem with the OPD IMHO, is that there are far too few people committed to the ideal of a maintaining a quality directory. Not to mention a *free* quality directory. I agree there is a need for more *good* editors. I agree the ODP should relax *some* of their standards in accepting new editors, or giving existing editors more responsibility. But I also agree that I don't want to be the one to have to go in and clean up the mess after some push-button-happy (person) logs in and adds everything with a URL.
ODP editors care. What kctipton didn't mention is that there are also editors who spend most of their ODP time cleaning up after editors who have left a mess. The less mess they have to clean up, the more those editors can review submissions.
Just a gentle reminder, hello, that this forum is for questions and answers about the directories, not complaints. If we turn the board into a complaint board, it reduces the value for those who wish to learn.
There are many forums on the web which are for complaints about directories in general and ODP specifically. Any of them can be found on any search engine.
>I think it is discraceful that it
>should take weeks to get a site listed
If you have a problem with the ODP rules and regs, you should take it up with them via those channels. Problems with specific sites should certainly be taken up with the ODP.
We are *not* an official or endorsed ODP support forum. Yes many editors read here (thank you), but trying to get a site listed via a public forum is not what we do.
For my 2 cents, I am sympathetic to the frustrations on both sides. I believe most people are simply not aware of the scale of work editors/directories are attempting to manage. I realize there are no perfect systems or solutions for directories, or search engines for that matter, and certainly no guarantees. Despite some frustration in this one case, I'm not angry with anyone at ODP. I could elaborate, but suffice it to say I truly appreciate those editors that work hard to live up to the ideals of the ODP. I have had some editors go very much out of their way to assist me when I’ve asked (via posting on this board) and that is the often untold other side of the coin.
I’m only hoping through this thread I can learn of other possible avenues to help me get listed with ODP. I’m confident that with patience and help such as the advice mona suggested (Thank you mona!), I will succeed.
Thanks again
