No additions to DMOZ category in 4 months

Should I try an email approach

[charliecon]

Hi

The category I have submitted to on DMOZ, has had no additions in the last 4 months when I first submitted my site.

Can I take a pro-active approach and email the category editor?

Any feedback appreciated

[pagode]

We (the DMOZ editors) ca not predict when a suggested site will be reviewed. Could be within a few days, could take several years. Normaly something in between.
Mailing an editor will not get your site reviewed any faster. And because of some very bad experiences in the past editors are adviced not to answer emails.

[hutcheson]

I think you'll find that most categories haven't been updated in the last four months, so that statistic is not informative.

[McMohan]

What about a category that is not updated for nearly a year?

Will a reminder mail to update the category help? (Not requesting a specific website to be reviewed.)

[cbpayne]

>Will a reminder mail to update the category help?

Unlikely.

[tschild]

It's your submission itself that will, eventually, make an editor (of a higher category) look at the category.

[Essex_boy]

I got a link from DMOZ in weeks its the first time in around 5 years ive ever had anysuccess.

Around 5 people a month come from DMOZ so you have to ask yourself is it worth it?

[hutcheson]

essex_boy, worth WHAT?

Worth spending twenty minutes to find a good category, then submitting the site? I'd say yes.

Worth doing anything more? Worth obsessing over? Worth checking twice a week, or twice a year, to see if it's listed yet?

I'd agree with you, NO, it's not.

[girish]

After how many months can I re-submit a site to a different category without being penalized for "multiple" submissions?

I submitted the site in my profile 8 months ago to a cat that has not changed since August 30, 2004 . I'm thinking it's time to submit to a different cat.

Should I add a note in the submission form description field saying I submitted to X cat a while ago and now I'm submitting to Y cat, please retract my prior submission? I want to avoid any penalties.

I originally submitted to
Personal Finance: Retirement: Annuities

Now I'm thinking my site may get a better chance in
Recreation: Collecting: Paper Money: Certificates

What's the correct way to make this change?

[podman]

There is no way of asking for retraction of a submission.

It's highly unlikley the same editor edits both categories, and one editor cannot delete a suggestion in the other category. However, if senior editor sees it, they could do that.

Attaching a note might indicate to an editor that you thought the category was more appropriate. Otherwise, it might get deleted from the second category if the editor was aware that it had been submitted to the first one (and that's unpredictable)

Although I'm not sure how your site could fit in those categories that seem very different - did you read the categroy descriptions?

[ogletree]

It is volenteer and there does not seem to be any penalty for taking lots of time off. I know editors that have told me they have just not messed with it for months at a time some even a year. Some work on it a little every day some more some less some work real hard when they become an editor and just lose interest. And of course some add their sites and quit but I don't think that is the norm.

[pagode]

girish, you might not have noticed but your site is already listed in [dmoz.org...]

[girish]

Pagode- Yes - unreal - It just got in literally today. Hmmm. Did someone here put in a good word? If so I am hugely appreciative!

[hutcheson]

I very much doubt if anyone here said anything. I suspect an editor's attention was drawn by the category being out-of-date: there were several changes.

Bear in mind that an editor is TYPICALLY working on a category, not on a site suggestion (or in fact on any number of site suggestions). The site suggestion is just one possible tool to help make the category better.

[amol_v_naik]

I faced the same problem with my site. I was not getting listed in the specified cat. I tried for one year, then I resubmitted in the regional specific section of the same category and my site got listed within two months. I think you must do the same, because once you get listed in the regional cat. afterwards you can apply for the global one.

[hutcheson]

No, don't re-apply for the global one. That suggestion has either been rejected (in which case you're 99% likely to be spamming) or it hasn't been reviewed yet (in which case you're 100% likely to be wasting your time but fortunately not ours.)

The two suggestions (global and regional) are reviewed on different schedules by different editors. Both may be accepted (for some kinds of businesses) -- or either or both rejected (for some kinds of sites). (Usually but not always, the regional suggestion gets reviewed first. Your mileage may vary.)

Because of this, the editors typically appreciate business and organizational sites being suggested twice if possibly appropriate -- and yes, this is an exception to the submittal policy.

Examples of doubly listed sites: manufacturers with local plant but global customers, symphony orchestras, fill-in-the-sect-name-here congregations, universities (unless they have their own category).

Examples of singly (regional) sites: salons, hotels, real estate agents, elementary schools.

Examples of singly (topical) sites: international hotel chains, business sites with insignificant information of local relevance.

Examples of non-listed sites -- local florist, but the site is only about FTD affiliate order taking; local chiropodist, but the site is only nutritional supplement affiliate advertising; local real estate site, but no more information about the local business that would fit on a business card--in 14-point font. (Note: these examples are partly drawn from local businesses of whom I've been a customer.)