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Instances when the involvement is mutually beneficial are acceptable, however, the primary focus and goal should always be to serve the best interests of the ODP and the editing community.
Seems very reasonable to me. I think the new guidelines were due. cudos.
Abuse of editing privileges has always been taken _very_ seriously by those who allocate those privileges (professional staff and volunteer meta-editors).
With thousands of active editors, though, it still occurs, and editors continue to be removed -- perhaps not as many as need to be, but as many as we find out about.
>In some cases, an editor's business affiliation overlaps their involvement in the directory, such as with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals and Professional Content Providers (PCPs), whose participation may benefit both the editor and the directory. Instances when the involvement is mutually beneficial are acceptable, however, the primary focus and goal should always be to serve the best interests of the ODP and the editing community.
Judging from email and forum posts across the internet -- as well as a call-in talk show I was on -- it has been obvious that SEOs in particular had a difficult time getting accepted as editors.
I have heard from numerous SEOs who submitted great applications yet were not accepted. While I'm sure everyone understands the reasons a meta would hesitate when looking at an app that admittedly came from an SEO, it really did begin to appear that some metas would not allow them (us?) in under any circumstances.
Hopefully, this new written statement will put an end to that.
