Anyway to have a description changed?

I'd like to try and have my listing description changed, as we have grown a lot since our site was first listed here. I don't see anyway to contact the editor of the category we are in.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

That's what "update URL" is for.

Note that the description will almost certainly not be changed if it is not actually erroneous. And even if erroneous, an attempt to correct errors combined with an attempt to add advertising hype will almost certainly cause neither change to be made.

But if the description as is really is wrong, we want to fix it.

Thanks so much

Greetings,

This thread actually has some relevance to me. A site of mine is listed in the category:

http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Singapore/Society_and_Culture/Personal_Pages/

with the title "Hwebb Singapore" . There are a number of things I don't like about this listing. For the record, quite some time ago I put in a request for change but to no avail.

1. The title: It really is bad; the real title is Images of
Singapore's National Orchid Garden.

2. The description: Misleading as the images relate to orchids and other flora in the Gardens, not just "landscape" images.

3. The current url redirects to http://members.fortunecity.com/asiatrav/sg/nog.htm

For the sake of accuracy, I would hope someone could take a few seconds to update this listing.

Thanks for your time, HW.

It would seem you have a number of other listings in ODP:

http://shark.dls.net/~hwebb/
http://hwebb.freeshell.org/slideshow/aus/syd.htm
http://hwebb.freeshell.org/slideshow/macau/macau.htm

That's not necessarily unusual for sites where the webmaster can actually create unique content, and give it away "free".

It just seemed that if the entry for http://hwebb.freeshell.org/slideshow/sg/nog.htm in http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/Singapore/Society_and_Culture/Personal_Pages/ is redirecting to a fortunecity URL, that maybe the others are going to be doing the same thing at some point.

Yes, when one page in a site begins to redirect, we'd remove all deeplinks of the site immediately.

"It would seem you have a number of other listings in ODP:"
The last time I counted I had 5 sites listed.

"Yes, when one page in a site begins to redirect, we'd remove all deeplinks of the site immediately.
Freeshell.org is the main site, and my intention is for it to remain that way. The issue for me is one of bandwidth; the orchid page occasionally draws a significant amount of traffic relative to my total allotment that I felt the need to find an alternative host in this case. I doubt the problem will repeat for other pages; maybe people just like flower images more than others?

Since the "shark" url was mentioned, it also needs a change to hwebb.freeshell.org if anyone is in the mood. This is another site I had requested for an update but nothing was done.

One of my web sites is Citi Habitats, llc.

The first time I requested a description change was (about) November 2003 and yielded no change.
On March 9, 2004 I requested a description change for the 2nd time and again yielded no change.
Tomorrow, I will check here for a reply, and then I will submit my change request a third time.

REASON:
The description currently listed only describes a very small part of what we do and does not mention any of the unique features that we work very hard to offer.
We are one of the 2 biggest real estate firms in Manhattan and we have more than 7 real estate related divisions offering substance found no place else on the web (such as our market report covering over 10 years of research).
I did keep my new description as terse as possible. I even omitted several features in order to keep the description shorter than some in this directory. I also passed it through our marketing department so that our wordsmiths could verify that it does adhere to proper English rules.

CURRENT DESCRIPTION:
Citi Habitats, llc. - Apartment rentals and sales.

REQUESTED DESCRIPTION:
New York City brokerage with over 800 real estate professionals. Features rental and sales listings, open houses, Manhattan neighborhood maps, landlord services, mortgage information and, how to rent or buy in NYC guides.

Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy post.

We don't normally change descriptions merely to add keywords to it. Not only is it a waste of our time, it's of no use to you (since keywords in your site's description don't make your URL more visible on ODP's search, Google, or anywhere else). And it annoys our users. So I wouldn't hold your breath.

In particular, we avoid repeating words from the site title, category title, or elsewhere in the description. In your case, that means no editor is going to change your site to add "real estate," "Manhattan," or "New York City" to your description. From our POV, those things are redundant. ALL the sites in that category are about real estate in Manhattan; our users wouldn't have gone to that category if they weren't expecting to find Manhattan real estate sites there.

If you have an update url request pending you have to use the submission status forum to check those. Please make sure that you read that forum's guidelines before you post. Since you said you submitted an update url request we will not answer any further about the status of that request outside of the submission status forum. Please do not try to explain to us in your status request update the reasons for your update as you have plainly done so here rather if you want those points to be noted by the reviewing editor include them in the Update URL reason section of the "update listing" link in the dmoz.org category you are currently listed in. Thanks and have a great day!

Flicker and Thehelper beat me posting (teach me to be so verbose) - I've snipped a chunk, but figure the rest of what I wrote might be useful - so left it

By the way your site is currently listed in:
Regional/North_America/United_States/New_York/Localities/N/New_York_City/Manhattan/Business_and_Economy/Real_Estate/Residential

Also - if you do not submit a totally compliant description it is likely that a description request will be ignored.

However - since you do appear to have tried with the description, and not just stuffed it with keywords and hype - I'll pass on a few tips for your next update request.

REQUESTED DESCRIPTION:
New York City brokerage with over 800 real estate professionals. Features rental and sales listings, open houses, Manhattan neighborhood maps, landlord services, mortgage information and, how to rent or buy in NYC guides.

Click to expand...

The first sentence wouldn't get past the guidelines - as it doesn't tell a web user anything of use to them.

A good description should provide a user with a concise description of what they can expect to find on your website. It shouldn't tell them anything they already know from either the title or the location.

If I worked in NYC and was looking for an apartment on the web and in doing so I've browsed down to the dmoz category your site is in.

What do I need to know about your site?

- As flicker said I don't need to know that it is a "New York City brokerage" because I've already browsed to a category in Manhattan - so I already know where you are! So that can be dropped from the description. Drop NYC from the how to rent or buy guides bit too.

- I don't need to know how many employees your company has either. Not really one of the criteria I'd use when picking a flat.

- I do need to know what range of properties you offer and what services your site offers.

The second part of your description (except repetition of NYC) would pretty much work as a whole description IMO.

Personally I'd be tempted to drop the bits on open houses and maps of manhattan. (Partly because I'm British and the term Open House doesn't mean much to me.. so I could be wrong on that bit!)

I would probably include that you offer market analysis reports and relocation assistance - which you have missed - but which as a customer I might find useful to know.

Hope this helps,

Andy

What a huge help and relief these replies are.
Thank you so very much Flicker, thehelper, and andysands.

I feel a need to respond to each of you here.

flicker: I wasn’t taking key-words into account when the description was written.
I will remove the words "real estate," "Manhattan," and "New York City" as well as “NYC” because they are part of the directory structure and you are right, that does make it redundant.

thehelper: what can I say… oops sorry. I really do hate breaking forum/board rules and had no intention of doing so. There sure are a lot of rules here, but I’m learning them as time goes by.

andysands: WOW, thank you for your valuable input regarding this matter. I do believe that I can suggest a far superior description if I utilize the plethora of information you have armed me with.
btw… real time listings of open houses are of great interest and a fantastic resource to tenants looking for a new place to live in Manhattan.

CHEERS!

The official guidelines on descriptions are here btw:

Dmoz Site Description Guidelines

Thankyou for taking the time to try and write a description that's in the spirit of them.

If more of our users did, our job would be that much easier. I reckon I see maybe 1 out of every 250 externally submitted descriptions that I can publish straight away, if that.

Thanks again people.
Using what I've learned from you, my web site has already been updated using nearly the exact text that I submitted this time around.
Kudos!

Informative thread

This has been a very informative thread because I am trying to learn to make better submissions and to be an editor. Maybe I am a little dumb but the FAQ is not always crystal clear. No complaint. I know how hard it is to write. I hope being a little dumb doesn't disqualify me from being an editor.

This info also helps me design better web sites. Fancy that!