A very nice idea DMOZ gone bad? DMOZ more quality or monopoly of editors??

Thanks for the clarification on editorial powers. I'll be looking for the application form to be back online.

The Bun has this right. I have the power to control whether _I_ think a given category is "comprehensive enough." But I have no power over whether anyone ELSE thinks so. And nobody else (editor or non-editor) has the power to impose their ideas of what constitutes "adequate comprehensiveness" on me.

And that is as it should be.

I've never heard an editor try to tell someone else what they should think about a category. And THAT is as it should be. Unfortunately, I've heard the other situation quite often. And that is NOT as it should be.

When you join as an editor, I can unfortunately promise you that all the good sites WILL be buried in sludge, no matter how you look: search engine clutter, suggestion spam, whatever. And it will be a challenge to find them.

Some people enjoy the challenge, though, and may their tribe increase!

I may have this wrong, ("for all PRACTICAL purposes", was said) but i don't think a group or single editor should have the power to decide when a topic has been covered enough. No catagory should ever be "finished". New information is always coming to lite on the web on any topic you could think of evaluating as "edited well enough".

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That might be true if you had editing permissions in one or two small categories (which is what you have in your mind, I think), but, many of us have higher/wider editing permissions and we may roam through thousands of categories and subcategories.

For instance, I have US level permissions, which means I can edit in every locality in any of the 50 states, and every subcategory located in them. That means thousands and thousands.

I may be passing through a state and notice an area that really needs some serious work. Perhaps a former editor got a little sloppy with the proper Titles and descriptions, and it bugged me so much that I decided to stop and fix them, or there were a lot of sites that needed to be sorted to the proper sub catagories, or that I needed to create those sub categories. (editors do lots of different jobs besides reviewing site suggestions).

So, I'll stop there long enough to do those specific things because I feel they can't wait and I'll say good enough for now, but, I won't neccessarily stay there and go over the category with a fine tooth comb, I'll move onto the other jobs I set out to do.

I think that might possibly be what editor hutcheson was refering to in that quote, and he is a meta editor with much higher/wider editing permissions and duties to fulfill than I have, .

If you're editing in one or two smaller categories, then you have the time to really spiff them up, find new sites on your own, and if you feel like it, go through all of the site suggestions that may have been submitted to those categories.

Added: Gotta learn to use all ten fingers, I'm slow.

It's not the scope of catagories so much as the comment sounded like there was a singular or group power or method, not to close a catagory (as i've never seen one presented that way on DMOZ) just collectively ignore it as being "All Set".

It seems that could happen if you edited 1 or 1,000 catagories. But i understand the coment better now for all the responses i've gotten and certainly look forwrd to experiencing it!

All warnings aside

There is always a singular power to not work on a category. Every editor has it, and you have it also -- even if you don't have the power to work on a category, you always have the power not to work on it.

But that isn't and can't be a "group decision." It's always every individual who chooses what's worth doing -- that is, in his judgment.

just collectively ignore it as being "All Set".

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I created a small category for a specific topic, and I edit it:
http://dmoz.org/Arts/Crafts/Woodcraft/Furniture/Refinishing/

It's a very limited topic, with few site suggestions being submitted to it. Occasionally, I find a new site for it, or one shows up, there's very little action going on in it.

Even though I created it and edit it, I don't own it, I just have permission to edit there. It isn't closed, as many other editors can also edit in there, and it's open to site suggestions from the public or other editors, so, I don't consider it as "all set", as in nothing more needs to be done with it.

I created it for the web surfers who might be interested in the topic, so for them, it's valuable information, and that's who we're interested in helping, the web surfers looking for information, and no one else.

All editors have the freedom to edit in any areas that they have an interest in, as long as they are qualified and are granted permission to edit there.