Contacting Category Editors

I've read a lot of posts in these forums basically saying "there is no schedule for reviewing proposed sites". Presumably editors have access to huge lists of 'not reviewed' site proposals but only do anything about them when they have time and feel like it.

Other posts suggest that category editors may respond more readily to sites they've been alerted to outside of the DMOZ application process and have actually seen for other reasons.

So...

If one were to find the contact details for a category editor, is there any value in contacting them directly with a request to review a site?

The site I'd like to add <url removed> is one that I believe (I'm sure your records could prove me wrong!) has been on the awaiting-review pile for nearly 2 years and recently (weeks/months ago) resubmitted. I cannot confirm which category is was submit under (application feedback would help with this!) but I believe it was http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Real_Estate/Employment/

On the subject of application feedback, it would be very rewarding for applicants to receive a confirmation of application e-mail, so they don't end up like me, wondering whether their application ever went anywhere. (Or after 6 months, whether I'd actually made the application at all.) Is there any reason why confirmation and a means of checking the current status of applications is not more transparent?
Sorry, that's two questions!

Answering part 2 first.

On the subject of application feedback, it would be very rewarding for applicants to receive a confirmation of application e-mail, so they don't end up like me, wondering whether their application ever went anywhere.

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There is a confirmation. After you've submitted the review suggestion you get a confirmation screen which says something like "Thanks for your suggestion".

Is there any reason why confirmation and a means of checking the current status of applications is not more transparent?

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Yes. We used to check status of site review suggestions, but we stopped doing so after a couple of years, because it was obvious from all feedback we got that only a very small percentage of those who asked for status were interested in the information we were able to give. Obviously, all we could say was "yes, it's waiting in the category" or "no, it's not waiting in the category", and that information didn't help people much.

So, confirmation is already transparent, and site status reports were tried and abandoned. (If you are interested in the sordid details, all threads with requests for status reports are saved in the archives section at the bottom of this forum. It'll pretty soon be obvious why we stopped.)

If one were to find the contact details for a category editor, is there any value in contacting them directly with a request to review a site?

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That is very, very unlikely. You have already asked an editor to review the site, by suggesting it to the directory. Editors are hobbyists, who volunteer to build a link directory; there is no mechanism for requesting anything from any one particular editor. In addition, editors are strongly cautioned not to respond to email from site submitters.

Hi nea,

Thanks for your response.

I hear what you're saying but my suggestion was confirmation of a more retainable form (like an e-mail). I suspect the vast majority of first time submitters to DMOZ do not realise the timescales involved between submission and the point at which either somethig happens or they believe they are right to reattempt a submission.

In my case, I submitted, thought to myself "that's done" and forgot about it for the next 6 months. It's only after this time where you realise it would have been nice to have some record on file to remind me of when I'd made my initial submission (and to which category). By that point it's too late. If you didn't realise that it was worth putting the initial submission in your diary at the time you did it or printing the confirmation screen off and filing it somewhere, then subsequent attempts to even explain to someone else what happened and when become pretty vague. A simple "we have received your request with the following details... ...and its in our queue" style message would eliminate this issue for many first time applicants.

A means of checking status does not seem unreasonable - presumably category editors themselves can see an existing but unactioned application easily. Is there some reason why this should not be made visible to the applicant? From what you say, the old simple system of "yes, we've got your submission but it hasn't been reviewed" or "no, we've no record of your submission" or "submission reviewed + outcome" is all the feedback the majority of users want.

I'm very interested in checking your suggestion to find related comments in the archives section but I don't see the appropriate link. What is it entitled? The confirmation and status checker side of things seem reasonably easy to run and it seems a shame if they were discontinued.

Forget my question about archives - found it!