Dealing with the submission pool

I've been involved in a few threads that eventually evolved into discussions about the challenges editors face in dealing with the submission pool. Since I'm not an editor, I probably shouldn't give the issue much thought. But, I've always found it difficult to walk away from a good problem.

After reading editor comments in those threads, I am left with the impression that there are some categories that have a very high rate of spam submissions. (I'm using the term spam in a general way, referring to all forms of deceptive practices.) I am also assuming that there are other categories that are then high rate spam (rather than very high) moderate, low, and very low.

Now, shifting gears a bit, I would think that within the editor group, there are some who are more skilled than others at detecting black hat tactics, although I understand that all editors must have the ability to detect. More to the point, I would think that some editors are of the personality that they might enjoy the challenge of the hunt, more so than others.

If my assumptions are even close to accurate, would it then make sense to try to organize a small task force, 'special ops' if you will to combat the problems in perhaps the moderate and high spam categories. Maybe the very high category is what it is, and the approach to it remains status quo.

The task force would aim specifically at flushing out deception. They wouldn't be rewriting titles and descriptions, deciding which is the best subcat, or any of those sorts of things. If they find deception, they 'kill' the submission and move on. If a site looks clean, they note it and move on.

An editor who now chooses to work on a submission that the task force felt was clean, still has to check it for deception, but at least the editor would be less reluctant to handle the submission.

This could possibly shorten the review cycle for some categories. More important, the majority of editors would have to deal with less spam, at least theoretically.

There are several variants of this in actual practice. And yes, some of us sometimes enjoy just whacking the guacamole out of the moles. And yes, when that has been done, a category is less of a futile irritation to edit.

But when all is said and done, that is generally less satisfying and less productive than building up underrepresented areas of the directory ... and so it's not likely (or desirable) that there will be any major shift of effort away from those other more productive and more satisfying areas.

What hutcheson said, certainly!

Looking at it from a different perspective, we do what you say, but in a different manner.

Suppose you apply to become an editor and ask for the fictional category Shopping/Spam You won't get it. It simply won't happen, even if you show your spamfighter badge.

Why? Because you would not have enough experience as an editor to know how to edit in that type of category. Instead, ODP starts every editor off small, in cats that are not spammy, and not overly large. There are a couple of reasons for this. First is damage control, if you turn out to be a misguided or malicious editor, the amount of damage you can do is minimized. Second, small cats are where you learn, you make your mistakes and grow. As an editor grows, they apply for and are granted additional categories. Part of the growth is in learning how to deal with spam, affiliate, mirrors, framed redirects and the like. As one continues to grow and seek responsiblity, one is often granted ever-increasingly complex categories in which to edit. Thus, by taking it one step at a time, we are constantly working to grow editors who are able to deal with the collective spam that we receive.

hutcheson, spectrgunner:

Thanks for the comments. Based on those and comments in other threads, I am left to conclude that in fact the system is designed well and that the decision makers within the system are doing all that they can to minimize the spam issue.

It also helps to know that there are some dragon slayers out there, keeping the village safe. Now I can sleep at night.