Application Rejected - Reasons do not make sense

Hi,

Name Applied in: efes123
Area Applied for: http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/Suffolk/Guides_and_Directories/
Date applied: 15th June 2010
Request 20100615117471

I applied to become an edit for the above section on the 15th of this month, and I was pleasently surprised to receive a response the same day. But the response didn't make any sense. The area I applied for only has 6 entries, and no current editor. This is the response I received:

Thank you for your interest in becoming an Open Directory Project editor!
Although we would like you to join us as a volunteer editor, you have chosen a category that is already well represented, or is broader than we typically assign to a new editor. We would encourage you to re-apply for a category that has fewer editors or is smaller in scope, in order to increase your chances of being accepted.

Feel free to reapply by submitting an application in another area.
If you wish to re-apply, you must fill out another application.
Please do not reply to this email.


Unfortunately, I didn't receive any mail with a link to be able to discuss this. It was only when I re-applied putting this information in that I received a link to these forums. Obviously my second application was refused as I'd not filled the form in properly. I'm not quite sure where to go from here, so any advice would be welcome.

Thanks

I can't read the reviewer's mind, but I think you got that message because the category isn't really suitable for a new editor. It's general scope -- covering general guides for the whole of Suffolk -- actually means that few sites will be listed there -- most would go to more specific categories. Guides related to a specific aspect (eg Accommodation, Travel Guides, or Pub Guides) would go in the Suffolk categories for those things, whereas sites providing a guide to a specific locality would go under the category for that locality.

So after you'd listed the two or three sites on your application (assuming they all belonged there in the first place), you'd most likely be stuck with not much more to do. While it's important for new editors not to be joined to a category that's too large, it's also important that there's enough for them to do once they do join. (Or at least enough that they can successfully demonstrate their editing abilities and so be able to gain additional categories to edit.) If this is the reason, then I'm sorry that the reviewer didn't provide a fuller explanation.

If you'd still like to become an editor, I'd suggest applying for a category for one of the medium towns in Suffolk, say with between 20 and 80 listed sites. This means it won't be too big, but will still have sufficient scope for development.

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response and explanation. I'll have a look around and see if there's anything that looks suitable for me and DMOZ.

Cheers