Contacting Staff@dmoz.org; Editor Fallibility

kctipton wrote: Nobody is promised a _reply_ from staff@dmoz.org

Why then is everyone always told to write staff@ - Is it just a way of sweeping them under the carpet?

As for editors going astray - it has nothing to do with subjectivity - though thats a good excuse - over used too. My inquiry was sincere - are you telling me its not possible?

The honest fact is that - yes - I am dissapointed - I think I have a strong case with regards to claiming my site is just as worthy of being indexed as numerous other sites already indexed. At least 2 other editors shared my feelings and added my site - other editors deleted it.

The claim of affiliate links doesnt hold water - I think you know that. Ive put a lot of hard work into the creation of my site - and you can rest assure Im going to fight for what I believe in. With that said - I have began documenting sites - whois,ns, and other relevant info to validate any subsequent claims. I reckon if no editor is willing to do it I WILL!

As for your last comments regarding the guidelines - I fully understand them - I also understand that no site is guaranteed a listing. But that doesnt mean the directory can, should, or will discriminate. I doubt thats the position of the directory.

Expect an update soon.

Re: If You See or Know of Something Wrong, Tell Us

>>Why then is everyone always told to write staff@ - Is it just a way of sweeping them under the carpet?<<

No. Abuse allegations are handled by staff and the metas and are not discussed with the public in general or within the editing community either. The only ones who know exactly what abuse is being investigated is the meta team - that's their job. Sometimes a problem is really apparent (even externally) and swift action is taken, sometimes it takes a while to determine if there has really been abuse. But it is nobody's business except the metas and any specific party involved and details are not disclosed.

In the specific case of the category that you are concerned about, it is far less likely to be an issue of individual editor abuse and more likely to be a case of the guidelines and/or sites in that category having changed over time to the point that the editing team needs to re-established the standard for that category and scrub the sites in it. Attention has been called to the category, there is active editing going on, be patient and see what happens.

-Lissa

Re: If You See or Know of Something Wrong, Tell Us

The Gambling category has been/and will continue to receive a great deal of meta attention, due to the difficult nature of the category. We are trying to come up with standards that can be fairly applied across the whole category. Until that time, however, you can be sure abusive activity will be noticed immediately and corrected.

Re: If You See or Know of Something Wrong, Tell Us

lissa and apeuro,

Thank you so much - its nice to see that a person can actually get a straight forward honest answer that actually addresses my issues.

I look forward to the restructuring of the categories in question - if youve reviewed my previous post - you understand my desire to see a concise set of regulations adopted and enforced.

Thanks,
Brian

Re: If You See or Know of Something Wrong, Tell Us

Gypsy, just so I don't raise your expectations - even if/when we come up with category guidelines for the Gambling category it will not be a document that specifies exactly what content a site has to contain in order to be listed. Rather it will be more general in character. The whole reason behind the ODP is that it is not mechanized, but rather at the whim of individual editors making individual editorial decisions. Therefore you will not see a Gambling category guidelines which will state unequivically "Site X must have Y amount of content, in relation to Z amount of affiliate links, in order to be listed." If that was to be our intent, we could easily program a computer to do it.

Re: If You See or Know of Something Wrong, Tell Us

My only hopes are that its fair for each and every submitter. I think the subjectivity needs to be limited so that this will in fact be the case. If the editor doesn’t have precise guidelines to follow with respect to gaming portals - disagreements will always arise – between the submitter and the editor – and as in this case even between editors.

I’m not worried about content – my site has it and every time someone mentions content I can only assume they haven’t reviewed my site.

Thanks again apeuro ... regards,

Brian