What you have to understand is that to us editors we are merely pursuing a hobby.
I joined because I realised that adding links to my own website to build up a resource for folk-dancing was possibly a waste of time as sooner or later my website would be defunct. It made more sense to make my work available for use by other people. I didn't sign up to do anything more nor did the directory expect anything more of me. Since then I have found I enjoy finding and listing sites as a hobby.
Now I am aware that every site I list gets some form of benefit but I am not hypocritical enough to claim any credit for that. When I spend time, as I did last night, listing disability resources and charities in a county, I did not do so out of charitable instincts, When I list clubs, societies, sports facilities, I did not do so because I like sport. When I list theatres, dance groups, artists galleries, it is not because I support the arts. When I list bed and breakfast accommodation, holiday resorts, travel firms, I have no interest in the industry. When I list the myriad of businessses, political issue sites, you-name-it, it is not because I care.
I list sites because I enjoy looking at a community and putting together a resource that tells people how it ticks. I enjoy discovering things - the sites that have a different perspective, that show people doing things, that inform me.
I have no concept of fairness as you would imply - is it fair that this county has a good selection of disability resources listed and those other counties do not? Is it fair that the baker in this UK village is listed whilst several hundred factories in India supporting thousands of workers are not? Is it fairness that the Shopping category has 92,000 listings whilst Health has only 58,000 ?
But you don't imply that - you say that you specifically deserve a listing on ?moral? grounds because someone else has - but is it fair that you are listed in search engines when many sites are not? Surely it is more fair for us to concentrate on the latter?
Just because someone else takes the results of our work and uses it for their purposes, does not mean I am obligated to make everything fair. I might as well ask whether it is fair that I spent all day shovelling concrete to fix my driveway when there are plenty of website owners who could have come round and helped me finish the job quickly.
Understand this - we are following a hobby for our amusement and pleasure, we are not trying to resolve the moral dilemmas or woes of the world. The fact is that everybody's time (yours included) would morally be better spent raising money for charity.
So some people go and watch TV, football or baseball, play darts, collect stamps, or go out drinking, I edit. When I look at the results of what I do, I end up with the feeling that it is not such a bad way to spend my time.
