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Trouble with ODP/DMOZ

cannot submit to or join ODP/DMOZ

         

geoffw

10:18 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I am new to posting at WW so not sure if the answer here is obvious.
I have been trying to submit sites to ODP/DMOZ for a few weeks but constantly get the error message;
'Sorry, we could not determine your IP address for this submission. This may be because your browser or ISP has cached the previous page. Your submission has been redirected to the misplacd submissions folder. We apologise for the inconvenience. '
I don't have a clue what they mean. I have sent them an E Mail to ask but they have not responded.

I had also noticed that lots of their categories have no editor. So I applied - and got rejected. No reason, no suggestions, nothing.
Any ideas what the problems might be

salmo

10:27 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have recently been seeing the same error and am very interested to discover why.

ukgimp

10:28 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Hello Geoffw

Welcome to WebmasterWorld

Could you try and submit your site from someone elses machine?

WRT becoming and editor it is unlikely you will be accepted without first having proved yourself. To do this you could try and suggest 2-3 sites that fit into your category along with good descriptions. What the ODP are trying to do by not allowing anyone to be come and editor is stop site owners submitting their site and doing a runner or unfairly promoting theirs. You have to be impartial or it least shoulf look that way. :)

These people are busy, so I would not expect to get a writen reason why you were declined.

Cheers

[typo]

[edited by: ukgimp at 10:57 am (utc) on Nov. 11, 2002]

shelleycat

10:34 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I've had that exact error when submitting forms to other websites. I went back and refreshed the page with the submission form on it while holding the control key down to ensure it was loaded fresh rather than served from my cache, then resubmitted. This fixed the problem. I'm not sure if it will fix your problem with ODP but it's worth a try.

danny

10:48 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I have the same problem and I'm pretty sure it's because
I'm behind a proxy server. I suspect too many people were
spamming submissions so they're trying to do some kind of rate-limiting which requires IP address determination.

Iguana

10:54 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I have had this problem recently. All submittals from my home PC (ISP in the UK) got this message even though the page was not cached in any way.

I recently submitted from a work PC (where the proxy server is in New Jersey) and it was fine.

steveb

11:26 am on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



1) Disable your firewall

2) Empty your temporary Internet files, lower your Internet Explorer security settings

3) Submit using Netscape

choster

5:39 pm on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



A little while ago, automated submission robots were crushing dmoz.org, so the submission process was reengineered. Unfortunately, this appears to cause problems when submitting forms (such as site submission or editor application). No one has been able to pinpoint the exact combination of firewall, proxy, cache, and browser security settings which triggers the problem, and the problem may lie with the ISP.

I have been advising people to try submitting with a browser other than Internet Explorer, especially if they have customized security settings. However, it was reported on the Google board that a Norton firewall was to blame. In any event, steveb gives a reasonable course of action (try sending the form after each step).

WebManager

7:03 pm on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)



geoffw

Are you using Norton Personal Firewall - if so, which edition?

geoffw

7:28 pm on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks for the responses. I am not using firewall software. I am having other problems with mails being blocked and returned because of my IP address ( dynamic). I have recently changed ISP (also UK based) and am now suspecting this to be the cause.

victor

7:46 pm on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



geoffw:
....I have recently changed ISP (also UK based) and am now suspecting this to be the cause.

Could be. I've just done some submissions for someone whose set up sounds just like yours. They couldn't get DMOZ to talk to them either.

geoffw

8:12 pm on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Confirmed -
I have just set up a new ISP ( also UK based )as a test and have submitted to DMOZ without a problem.
The original ISP has caused the problem.
Thanks for helping me solve it :)

WebManager

8:32 pm on Nov 11, 2002 (gmt 0)



Great news!

ollie1a

7:09 am on Nov 12, 2002 (gmt 0)



Hello,

I'd just like to point out that if you get the 'Sorry, we could not determine your IP address for this submission' message, it does not mean your submission has been rejected. It simply means that your submission will be double checked by ODP editors before being put into the main submission queue.

As for the editor application, you should at least have received a confirmation email with a link that you must click on. If your application is rejected, it should have been accompanied with a list of generic reasons for rejection.

- Oliver.

cjtripnewton

1:24 pm on Nov 12, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Don't worry if you get the error message "'Sorry, we could not determine your IP address for this submission..."

Those sites are sent to a temporary location where there are several active editors reviewing and placing them.

cornwall

9:54 am on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



For anyone interested in Dmoz, I can give you some info that at least points to part, if not all, of the solution.

1. I got the error message "Sorry, we could not determine your IP address for this submission ..." And asking me to re-submit

2. Disable my firewall - still got message

3. Tried another computer, no firewll installed - same message

4. Cleared all caches - same message

5. Tried switching to Netscape from IE - same message

6. Logged on via another ISP - was able to submit using original configuration

7. Therefore ISP was the problem - or perhaps more precisely DMOZ not being able to cope with ISP caching

8. FYI the "problem" ISP is Freeserve Anytime in UK, on of the largest UK ISPs

Hope someone at DMOZ can use that. I would hate to think that your punters were going through the sort of ritual that is being recommended in caches, browers, etc

I am persistant if nothing else :)

WindSun

8:29 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



The basic problem is bad programming on the ODP side. Since they have no full time programmers, much of what does get done is done by volunteers. They get no support from AOL.

cornwall

9:13 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



WindSun

As someone with a long, or at least medium term, memory, I think I recall you were a DMOZ editor once and had a bit of a spat with them. Blood all over the place if I remember correctly. :)

hutcheson

9:31 pm on Nov 20, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thanks, cornwall, I haven't seen so many of the gory details splashed on the sidewalk before. I'll make sure our programmers know about it.

BTW, Netscape does hire professional programmers for the actual dmoz.org site; some editors volunteer to create editors' tools, and some of those tools are superseded by new official tools: but at this point no volunteers are being utilized for dmoz.org programming.

cornwall

9:58 am on Nov 21, 2002 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



hutcheson

Hope that helps - probably not to many submitters who are sitting with multiple computers/ISPs/browsers, to narrow the options on where the "problem" lies :)

Another part of the problem that you yourself may be able to look at, is that the error message, whilst telling the submitter that the submission has gone to a home for lost submissioms in cyberspace it also asks the submitter to go back and resubmit. I think you need to look at that message, submitters are presumably, like me trying the various options of clearing caches, changing browsers, changing computers, etc, and there must be a lot of duplicate submissions building up.

A tightening/clarification of the wording of the error message would help

Cornwall

PS I really don't like the sight of blood on the sidewalk, makes me feel quite ill :)

Dumpy

2:29 pm on Nov 21, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I can create a search database for DMOZ in six hours using htdig. I did one for this site in 50 minutes as an example for the powers that be. (sticky me for the URL)

It can even be done on a home computer, however I use a freebsd server.

HTDIG is capable of dealing with databases many times larger than dmoz, by using the merge feature. HTDIG is an open source search engine and used by thousands of colleges, government, and business sites. The stable versions are STABLE!

I will admit that the learning curve in setting it up is steep! However, I could talk someone though it in an hour. In the DMOZ case all they need it is someone to show them the set up for DMOZ and it would flow. The programmer would think she was retired....like me!

WindSun

2:40 pm on Nov 21, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



"Blood all over the place if I remember correctly..."

Yup, among other things. No love lost between us. And I have seen nothing in the six months since I got fired to change my opinion of DMOZ, except to possibly make it even lower.

rycrostud

10:15 am on Nov 27, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Just for the record, this is how I fixed it for me. This is on a Mac.

1. Switched from my broadband connection to a standard dial-up with another ISP.

2. Set my broswer cache to zero

3. Used Netscape

Sorted!

Matt Pearson

3:21 pm on Dec 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi everyone,

Glad it's not just me :)

can anyone say if those of us who keep going back and trying again after the error message are getting penalised for repeat submissions?

There must be an awfull lot of repeated submissions in that "misplaced" folder!

I must also add my voice to those requesting a better error message, as well as being misleading, part of it was also misspelt :(

rafalk

3:41 pm on Dec 11, 2002 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



can anyone say if those of us who keep going back and trying again after the error message are getting penalised for repeat submissions?

No, you definately won't be penalized.