Can I Talk to a Live Person?

Is it possible to talk to a live person at dmoz?

Here's my problem. I have been listed under web templates for about 4 years. Last Nov-Dec I noticed my listed was deleted. I contacted the editor ([snip]) and they told me to not bother to list my website because it was "an affiliate site". I know that this person did not look at my site because I have 1050+ of my own web templates for sale. I do have template monster templates on my site. Still, my content is unique and is one of the larger web template sites. I feel this was editor abuse because while my site was deleted the following sites remained:

http://www.buydezign.com/ - no templates, forwards to another site
http://geocities.com/bymisslinda/ - no templates
http://dcdesign.port5.com/ - no templates
http://www.heeha.com/ no longer template site
http://www.geocities.com/trend3chick/wimages.html - no templates

Those sites now have been deleted but CSMarea and Mambo Hunt are now listed and both are Template Monster affiliate sites. I filed a complaint (ca0b1b6543472166d99ed5fd5f5e75c4) so that my site could be reviewed again. Clearly it was not because my site is not back in the directory.

I would like to talk to someone to explain this issue and see what I can do to correct it.

Gina

Well, every editor is living, except some who might belong to more of an undead sort of category....

Seriously, though, if you believe that this is editor abuse, then I would suggest you read thread http://resource-zone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5455 which talks about what you can do to initiate an abuse investigation.

The ODP does not provide any sort of telephone support, so this is your best course of action.

One thing which you should take into consideration, though - just because one more more editors believe that a particular site is not listable when you think it is, does not automatically constitute editor abuse - it is a difference of opinion. You say you filed some sort of claim for a review - and you say that it has not been acted upon because you do not see your site reviewed. Again, it may WELL have been reviewed, and the same conclusion come to.

There is no "appeals process" for inclusion. The terms of ODP submission clearly state that it is editor discretion. Once multiple editors have come to the same conclusion (and I haven't looked at the specifics of this site - I am making general statements), then there is very little more you can do to try to get your site listed in the ODP. I suggest you find other ways of promoting your site.

I can understand that this is all not the news you want to hear.

You can see that the abuse report has already been processed, when checking the abuse report system for the current status. Quoting the FAQ for abuse reporting:

As we do not guarantee the inclusion of any site, that your site has not yet been included is not in itself reason for filing a report.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. I do understand that my site is not guaranteed to be included in the directory. I'm trying to figure this out because my site has been listed for 4 years prior to being deleted for no apparent reason. I never heard anything about the abuse report other than looking it up and seeing that it was closed. I can not believe that multiple editors reviewed my website and found it to be "an affiliate web site". 1050+ web templates of my own constitutes an affiliate website? The url for my template site is http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/templates or http://www.hooverwebtemplates.com. Do you all agree that this is an affiliate website?

Gina

The conditions of use of this forum state QUITE specifically that it is not to discuss specific editors or specific sites. So I'm sorry but that is not the sort of discussion that can be entered into here.

I don't understand what the problem is, your site http://www.hooverwebdesign.com is (and has been for a long time) listed in
Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Designers/Dynamic_and_Multimedia/H/
and in
Regional/North_America/United_States/Tennessee/Localities/M/Memphis/Business_and_Economy/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/

The problem is that I sell web templates and am not listed in the directory under web templates. There are lots of sites that have multiple listings. My web design and web templates sites are large enough to be separate sites. Each with their own unique content. I did not know my web template site was going to be so big or I would have put it on it's own domain when I first started the site. I have not been told that's a problem.

Gina

What Alucard said above: Discussing the merits of your site is contrary to the guidelines of the abuse forum.

If you are not happy with the resolution of the abuse report, please email staff@dmoz.org.

>I filed a complaint so that my site could be reviewed again.
Thanks.

>Those sites now have been deleted ...
It looks like your complaint had some merit, in the opinion of the reviewer.

>Clearly it was not because my site is not back in the directory.
Several non sequiturs here.

Some general advice:
There is no law against mixing original and affiliate content. However, it is highly imprudent.

You apparently expected a review to consist of looking at every one of your thousands of templates, search the web to see if each was unique, and if the number was greater than x%, list the site. A moment's reflection will show how unrealistic that was.

What actually happened? My guess is that an editor visited this submission (in, as you doubtless know, a highly-affiliate-spam-infested topic) with one question foremost in mind: "is this UNIQUE content?" Spot-check! Well, how do we spot-check? Obviously, we pick a likely template and check to see if it's unique. How do we pick a likely template? Remember, this hypothetical editor had very likely already deleted a dozen Template-Monstrosities THAT DAY. So, he casts his eye down your list of templates. "Hmm, that looks familiar," he says. "I think I remember seeing that template on the last dozen sites. Let's check. Yep. Another template-spammer. One more for good measure." Same result. And your site is history. Did the editor make a mistake? Absolutely not! That is the only way we can review sites. But you say, "The result wasn't wrong! That wasn't spam! That was spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, BACON, EGGS, and spam! You should have at least listed the bacon and eggs!"

No, that was not the editor's fault. That was your failure, and the editor's misapprehension will be shared by other surfers, and so it is inarguably a fair and accurate review! Bad design, and concealed information, cost a possibly valuable site a listing.

How can you fix this? Simple.

(1) Make it possible for the visitor to INSTANTLY distinguish between your unique content, and your filler-affiliate content. Two possible ways of doing this are to list them in separate catalogs labelled "original templates" and "Template Monster", or in one single integrated catalog to mark each original template with some little icon -- light bulb or something -- and then put a note on the home page "site contains xxx original templates, marked by a light bulb". You may think of a better way; you can certainly come up with better wording for one of these ways.

This will provide more information, and more valuable information, to the surfer, and it will avoid you being slammed as 100% spam when there are some bits of bacon on the side.

Then resubmit with a note to the editor in brackets after the site description: "[site redesigned to feature original content more clearly.]" If surfers like us can pick out the bacon, then we'll judge you on the bacon content.

>CSMarea and Mambo Hunt are now listed and both are Template Monster affiliate sites.

File another abuse report, please? The forum thread in these forums is the quickest way, and for this purpose is good enough. Thanks again.