Forum Moderators: open
There are several categories that are relevant to my site. Should I choose one with the least number of entries? I ask this as my site would be way down on the category list alphabetically!
Thanks in advance.
gtodell
I can think of quite a few editors, myself included, who do it for fun. Many of these people don't run commericial sites at all, or don't make money off the net (myself included). Others are into commercial sites, but don't have access to the cats that their sites should be in, and leave it in unreviewed there and wait. Personally, myself, even if I can edit a cat my site belongs in, I will leave the site in unreviewed.
If I've gained anything from this conversation, its to watch editors more closely under the tree I mainly edit. Regardless, have a little more faith in people.
You want the ODP to make your day by listing your site? Then make sure to give a proper description free of hype and concise as well as not keyword stuffed and submit it to the proper cat and make *our* day.
If this were a true statement there would be a lot fewer frustrations here. But the fact is that the rules ARE NOT applied evenly or consistently. ... Sigh ...
It is legitimate to be frustrated with DMOZ for its inconsistencies (been there, done that), but once those frustrations are vented your energy and time would be more profitably spent working to promote your site in other ways, rather than continuing to vent.
The good news is that it IS possible to prosper without DMOZ (am there, doing that!) A DMOZ listing is not a make-or-break factor for success, unless you let it be.
If this were a true statement there would be a lot fewer frustrations here. But the fact is that the rules ARE NOT applied evenly or consistently...
Enforcing the editing guidelines even among the editors is an ongoing process, and it will never be finished. Many of the more than 3.5 million listings were added before the guidelines have taken their current shape, by inexperienced editors, or by the occasional abusive editor. It is simply impossible to fix all the known problems overnight.
Where an outsider finds two bad listings, an experienced editor will likely find two dozen. Removing those two bad links immediately just to please you would often mean to put a fig leaf in front of the real problem. That doesn't mean that your report will be in vain, it will create a mental note in someones mind, and it may even trigger a discussion in the internal forums about the category. As time and resources allow, the problem will then eventually be addressed.
Now back to the original topic:
If you want to find the perfect category for your site, then the best thing is trying to understand how the directory is structured, and why. This may sound trivial, but it really isn't (all this assuming that your site actually qualifies for a listing, of course).
Any directory structure is just one out of an infinitive number of possible ways to catalog "the world". You will find that in many areas the ODP is organized radically different from what you would consider optimal or logical. That doesn't necessarily mean that it is wrong (nor that you are wrong), it just uses a different way to look at things.
If the organization of a specific area makes sense to you, then it's relatively easy. The only thing you need to do after you have found the category you consider to be a match is to check if sites similar to yours are already listed there. If yes, then you might already be a winner! If no, then this is not necessarily an obstacle for a listing there, but you probably want to try the second approach as well to verify your choice.
The second approach applies if the category organization doesn't make sense to you, or if you simply disagree with the way things are arranged. In this case, you'll have to ignore your own views for a moment, and try to figure out where the ODP wants to see your site. After all, it's still better to have a "wrong" organization than an inconsistent one. As a method, you'll have to start with a search for sites similar to yours. If your site sells products, try to find sites that sell similar products. If it publishes poetry, find sites that publish similar poetry, and if it criticizes some kind of organization, find sites that criticize similar organizations.
If your search is successful, lucky you! If it isn't, if you're still unsure because the sites you found seem misplaced, or are distributed all over the place, go to resource-zone.com and ask the editors who hang out there. Those folks know the directory inside out, and will be able to point you in the right direction.
It would be a lot more encouraging to hear that there was actually a formal process for checking out complaints and dealing with problematic listings.
would be a lot more encouraging to hear that there was actually a formal process for checking out complaints and dealing with problematic listings.
There is. Send feedback to any Meta Editor [dmoz.org] and you can be sure your complaint will be investigated.
