About a year ago, we heard from a brand-new editor who shared his experience of his first month with the project. If you've wondered what's happened since then, wonder no more! Editor laigh is back with a follow-up to tell us all about his first (very busy) year with the ODP!
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Hello again from me, laigh, to all the readers of the DMOZ blog. I hope the last year has been kind to you and it has been a good one.
You first met me when I wrote an article called DMOZ...Why I Joined And Why I Love It away back in the midst of time in October 2007. At this time I was fledgling volunteer who was looking forward to a long and varied career as an editor in the directory. I had just been granted permissions and I shared my experiences as a newly-accepted editor. I would love to share my experiences from then until now and to show how my ODP "career" has progressed.
As I say, at the time of writing of the last article, I had only been an editor for a month or so and at that time I had only completed about 3000 edits. I was editing furiously and was enjoying it thoroughly. I was originally accepted to edit in the category at Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/South_Ayrshire/Ayr/Business_an d_Economy/Shopping but by the time of writing in October 2007 I had been given permissions to edit in Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/South_Ayrshire, Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Business_and_Economy, Society/Organizations/Lineage/Cultural/Clans and Sports/Football/Rugby_Union. The encouragement I was receiving from senior and more experienced editors was vital to my success and I received it in abundance from all concerned.
Where am I now and what am I doing? Well the basics are that I have completed over 41000 edits and I am now listed, as you can see from my profile, as an editor in the top of the categories in Regional/ and Sports/ and also have permissions to edit in Reference/Education/Colleges_and_Universities/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/. You will also notice that I am listed as an editor in Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/, Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/, Regional/North_America/United_States/ and Sports/Football/Rugby_Union/. Although I have achieved permissions to edit higher up in these category trees, I have retained these specific categories as these are the categories I like to concentrate on and the ones I feel most expert in.
What have the 41000 edits consisted of? Well, basically, I have been involved in adding new sites to the directory, I think in the region of 17500, updating existing listings, creating new categories, deleting old ones and much more. For instance, I was involved recently in a revamp of the category at Sports/Football/Rugby_Union where the ontology had become slightly outdated and it required a bit of a face lift. It took over a week to sort it all out, but hopefully the effort was worth it as I believe we now have a category more suited to our visitors.
As you can also see from my profile, I am also involved in several projects that are ongoing for the directory. These projects are set up when ideas are thought up for improvements all around ODP. I am luckily the project manager on one and thoroughly enjoy the interactions these projects bring with my fellow editors. I have made many good friends with people from all over the world during my time here at ODP and indeed even managed to meet up with a member of staff, from Australia, in Dublin over a pint of Guinness when we both happened to be in the city at the same time.
At the end of last year I was nominated for several Mozzie awards, which you can also see on my profile, including Best Ambassador, Most Long Winded Editor and Most Congenial Editor. I also won the award for Best New Regional Editor, Best New Society Editor and came Runner Up in the categories of Best New Editor and Most Improved Category or Reorganisation which was for my assistance in the expanding of the category at Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Highland/ which we managed to add over 200 new localities and nearly 3000 sites to.
I also spend much of my time trying to help and mentor newer editors within the ODP. This is a very important job as helping and encouraging other editors is vital to the ongoing success of the project. It can be a bewildering place to be when you first start but when you have the help of more experienced editors, like I did, it is a much more pleasant and rewarding place to be.
Anyway, I hope that this small précis of what I have been up to has been good reading for you and I would encourage anybody thinking of joining the project as an editor to go ahead and apply to do so. You will find it a very rewarding hobby and you will get a great sense of achievement from it when you help to grow and maintain the world's best internet resource.
Take care and hope to see you soon as an editor at DMOZ.
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Hello again from me, laigh, to all the readers of the DMOZ blog. I hope the last year has been kind to you and it has been a good one.
You first met me when I wrote an article called DMOZ...Why I Joined And Why I Love It away back in the midst of time in October 2007. At this time I was fledgling volunteer who was looking forward to a long and varied career as an editor in the directory. I had just been granted permissions and I shared my experiences as a newly-accepted editor. I would love to share my experiences from then until now and to show how my ODP "career" has progressed.
As I say, at the time of writing of the last article, I had only been an editor for a month or so and at that time I had only completed about 3000 edits. I was editing furiously and was enjoying it thoroughly. I was originally accepted to edit in the category at Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/South_Ayrshire/Ayr/Business_an d_Economy/Shopping but by the time of writing in October 2007 I had been given permissions to edit in Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/South_Ayrshire, Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Business_and_Economy, Society/Organizations/Lineage/Cultural/Clans and Sports/Football/Rugby_Union. The encouragement I was receiving from senior and more experienced editors was vital to my success and I received it in abundance from all concerned.
Where am I now and what am I doing? Well the basics are that I have completed over 41000 edits and I am now listed, as you can see from my profile, as an editor in the top of the categories in Regional/ and Sports/ and also have permissions to edit in Reference/Education/Colleges_and_Universities/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/. You will also notice that I am listed as an editor in Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/, Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/, Regional/North_America/United_States/ and Sports/Football/Rugby_Union/. Although I have achieved permissions to edit higher up in these category trees, I have retained these specific categories as these are the categories I like to concentrate on and the ones I feel most expert in.
What have the 41000 edits consisted of? Well, basically, I have been involved in adding new sites to the directory, I think in the region of 17500, updating existing listings, creating new categories, deleting old ones and much more. For instance, I was involved recently in a revamp of the category at Sports/Football/Rugby_Union where the ontology had become slightly outdated and it required a bit of a face lift. It took over a week to sort it all out, but hopefully the effort was worth it as I believe we now have a category more suited to our visitors.
As you can also see from my profile, I am also involved in several projects that are ongoing for the directory. These projects are set up when ideas are thought up for improvements all around ODP. I am luckily the project manager on one and thoroughly enjoy the interactions these projects bring with my fellow editors. I have made many good friends with people from all over the world during my time here at ODP and indeed even managed to meet up with a member of staff, from Australia, in Dublin over a pint of Guinness when we both happened to be in the city at the same time.
At the end of last year I was nominated for several Mozzie awards, which you can also see on my profile, including Best Ambassador, Most Long Winded Editor and Most Congenial Editor. I also won the award for Best New Regional Editor, Best New Society Editor and came Runner Up in the categories of Best New Editor and Most Improved Category or Reorganisation which was for my assistance in the expanding of the category at Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Highland/ which we managed to add over 200 new localities and nearly 3000 sites to.
I also spend much of my time trying to help and mentor newer editors within the ODP. This is a very important job as helping and encouraging other editors is vital to the ongoing success of the project. It can be a bewildering place to be when you first start but when you have the help of more experienced editors, like I did, it is a much more pleasant and rewarding place to be.
Anyway, I hope that this small précis of what I have been up to has been good reading for you and I would encourage anybody thinking of joining the project as an editor to go ahead and apply to do so. You will find it a very rewarding hobby and you will get a great sense of achievement from it when you help to grow and maintain the world's best internet resource.
Take care and hope to see you soon as an editor at DMOZ.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
More...