DMOZ categories have not been updated since years

DMOZ categories not updated for years

For months and months now I have been trying to get one of my sites submitted in one of two categories in DMOZ but without result; then I took a closer look and found that both haven't been updated for years ...

What's the deal with editors, are they controlled in some way to see if they perform any DMOZ activity on a regular basis? And when you find categories that haven't been updated for years, is there a possiblity to communicate this somehow?

p.s. I did suggest the site in the right category and submitted a 'neutral' title and description. I also managed to get sites submitted before in other categories so I believe that can't be the problem.
Besides this I understand that all work is done by volunteers but it seems that certain categories may have been abandoned?

>Are they controlled in some way to see if they perform any DMOZ activity on a regular basis?

No, for the obvious reason that a good editor volunteering on an irregular schedule is better than no editor. And, of course, NO editor is far better than a bad editor who NEEDS to be controlled--who wastes more work controlling him than he saves.

>And when you find categories that haven't been updated for years, is there a possiblity to communicate this somehow?

No, for what one hopes would be another obvious reason. Categories are not like chia pets--every one having to be watered on the same schedule. They're edited when they need editing.

How do we know when they need editing? That's very simple.

--Someone we trust with that category (a volunteer with editing permissions there) is convinced that it needs editing, and that editing it is more important than anything else they could be doing. OR...

--Someone we don't trust yet, offers to present evidence of his trustworthiness, and of his great concern about the ODP mission, and that category's place in it--concern great enough to become a volunteer to do the work.

If neither of those happens, the category must not need editing very badly, regardless of what anyone claims to think.

I understand what you're saying hutcheson but it still strikes me odd that in some cases categories are not updated for years; let's be honest here, years in internet terms can be considered as decades in real life (well you know what I mean ).
The (sub)category I'm talking about only has around 4-5 entries since 2007; I'm pretty sure more than one new site has been suggested since then and would have fitted in the directory don't you agree? Even the categories above it are updated on a more regular basis (by other editors I presume).

Not trying to blame anybody, just expressing my concern and curiosity how things work.

I am also not implying that editors don't do their work correctly but you know how it goes, sometimes there are people who just drop their tasks or are unable to continue it.

So basically this could/would mean that DMOZ is not up to date i.e has a back drop of years in certain fields, not good for anybody and certainly not considering the goal of DMOZ I would think.

I used to run a high traffic forum so I totally recognize the DMOZ volunteer setup and situations it may bring but with my forum when certain moderators (I had over 30) stopped participating on a regular basis the forum stopped being, let's say, accurate and was in danger of becoming, well a bit 'chaotic' in specific sections.
In these cases forum sections were closed or co-monitored by other moderators. Just as a precaution/backup.

These were all volunteers just like me dedicated to bring something good and I agree that it's better to have a good editor on an irregular basis than none but one could question cases where months or years of irregular activity is good at all?

my 2 cents

Let's try this from another angle. If none of our thousands of editors thinks that a category needs editing, it's probably not very important in the overall scheme of things

If you think that's a problem, become part of the solution by volunteering to become an editor yourself. We're happy for editors to be passionate about the categories where they operate.

jimnoble said:

Let's try this from another angle. If none of our thousands of editors thinks that a category needs editing, it's probably not very important in the overall scheme of things

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... then they are all bad editors ...

If you think that's a problem, become part of the solution by volunteering to become an editor yourself. We're happy for editors to be passionate about the categories where they operate.

Click to expand...

I considered that but find it kind of hard to -how you say- be unbiased. Also DMOZ clearly says that one should not become an editor to get listed

But maybe I should reconsider, can you apply for specific categories and if so how many months will it take to be accepted?

Seriously: I'm willing to help out in the category but also have a lot of other things going on, so I hate to say yes to something when I can't deliver or also have to let submissions wait that long. Can you put in a good word?

If none of our thousands of editors thinks that a category needs editing, it's probably not very important in the overall scheme of things

then they are all bad editors

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Click to expand...

I know you may have meant this as a joke, but I think that maybe the premise behind it is inaccurate. You're probably assuming that we have an excess of editors in some areas who could (if they so wished) turn their attention to some of the more neglected areas. While this may be true in a very small number of cases, most of the time, if editors were to switch from what they were doing to somewhere else. The "what they were doing" does not get done. So by moving editors around, you'd largely be replacing one set of less edited categories with another set. You might be happier if the particular category you are interested in gets edited, but other site owners would be less happy. More importantly, our editors would be less happy, and probably edit less as a result. Not something we'd like to see happen.

chaos127 said:

... You're probably assuming that we have an excess of editors in some areas who could (if they so wished) turn their attention to some of the more neglected areas.

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I'm aware this varies from case to case and may introduce other problems. Unfortunately such situations are common in the 'community' surroundings and often create catch 22 issues.

One of the reasons I stopped the forum I mentioned earlier, besides having to master all verbal fights ... :yuk:

Posts primarily about becoming an editor moved to the correct forum.

when you find categories that haven't been updated for years, is there a possiblity to communicate this somehow?

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If you find that a category is bad because the listed sites are no longer really valid, you can always use the 'update url' link for each poor listing to report the problem.

Sometimes a user who is interested enough in a topic, is not interested enough to become an editor, but is prepared to put in a bit of time on a one off session of quality control. It may take some time for the updates to be processed, but eventually they will be, and a smaller and better quality category will be the result.

Of course, if no users are interested in doing that, then the category is not that important.

regards

I understand what you're saying about the quality of links, but when not all possible links are there, one can't control their quality

jimnoble said:

Posts primarily about becoming an editor moved to the correct forum.

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Thanks.

when not all possible links are there

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the reason I became an editor

The reason I submitted my site in the first place

Though hard to believe, I reluctantly had to accept that there might be a very small percentage of the world's population who weren't interested in Polish Folk Dancing, and, oddly enough, they had all become DMOZ editors. Strange but true.

Practically, if you were editor of the category you were interested in, would you want to devote a lot of time to handling a selection of sites including garden services, garden centres, furniture maker, domestic oven cleaning services, blind and awning maker, swimming pool sales and services, woodstove maker, seller and installer, decorators, kitchen showroom, solar thermal heating systems, locksmiths, tree surgeon, audio visual equipment and a carpenter (which represents only a small selection of the thousands of topics there are) ?

Were we to be a listing service, then editors would be forced to review suggestions in areas that don't interest them at all and we wouldn't get that many volunteers. However the directory reflects the individual pre-occupations of the editors, not just relating to topic but also on the types of tasks that they undertake.

Currently I'm developing an area and have used up all the suggestions so I'm searching and finding sites myself. There are thousands of suggested sites in other categories, but as my self-apointed task is to develop this particular set of categories, suggestions elsewhere are not helpful to me. Meanwhile all the other editors are carrying out their self-appointed tasks in different areas of the directory as and when time permits.

Sometimes the self-appointed task relates to a particular category, other times to a concept (e.g. building up the quality of a neglected area) or directory task (maintenance). Given that, the chance of any particular site being listed in any particular time frame is small, but the directory slowly marches on.

regards

a very small percentage of the world's population who weren't interested in Polish Folk Dancing

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Believe it or not, I have a Polish wife, so I'm interested as well ... a bit

Thanks for your efforts to eleborate so extensively.

Meanwhile I seriously doubt if I will continue applying to become an editor based on the last rejection with remark I received (don't want to get off topic in this thread so please read the other one involving my efforts).