DMOZ not responding

Dear all,

I am glad that I could register to this forum so easily, more easily that I expected... after all the trouble I have with DMOZ. The communication with DMOZ is like hitting your head into the wall and expecting the wall to respond

I have a website with over 400 articles devoted to Polish culture:
<url removed>
Last year I moved my website (after 5 years) to a new ID address and I cannot get DMOZ to recognize me at all! Since the articles are devoted to many subjests: culture in general, immigration, fooc etc - I tried to submit to different categories with no avail.

My old website is listed under Polish immigration. I submitted information about the change of the ID address - it is still listed under the old name and old IP address. No any response, no any change!

Finally I tried to apply as an editor - and this time I immediately received the response - denying me the position.... in spite of the fact that THERE ARE NO EDITORS TO ANY POLISH SITES (culture, food etc).

You are searching for editors and then... you denying me to be an editor. Do you really think that I would be promoting just my site? I have over 100 links on my site to other sites! You can check it out! I am not a business, I am a volunteer doing Polish Culture in my free time and then I am punished for it!

Here is the example of your listing which is so INCOMPLETE:
http://www.dmoz.com/Society/Ethnicity/Slavic/Polish/

just three sites are listed here - no editor, even the listing is faulty. Is really "Foundation for Free Speech" something really Polish?

How can I get through DMOZ? How can I make anybody to review my website? I hope that somebody would read this message and reply. I would gladly help DMOZ as the editor but you even deny me this option. So, you do not help me and you do not want to be helped.

thanks for listening

Jaga

>How can I get through DMOZ? How can I make anybody to review my website?

You can't. There is no way to command the volunteers, and the only way to even influence them is by your own work.

>I would gladly help DMOZ as the editor but you even deny me this option.

I did not see your editor application. Certainly, a public spirit is very important, and using your own site to publish links to other good sites is an excellent way to show public spirit. Another way is by finding bad links on the ODP (thanks for the hint!) And an informative website, built on top of real expertise and experience, and giving away valuable information, shouldn't be overlooked in this context.

But public spirit isn't the only issue. I don't see a major language problem: your English is quite fluent. Beyond that, I could only speculate about the "usual causes for rejection", and you have that list already in hand.

You're welcome to review other listings in categories under Society...Polish or Regional/Europe/Poland or World/Polska categories. Since quality control is so important, you'll find that you usually get very quick responses (that is, your help would be appreciated and quickly utilized). And you will be building (and demonstrating) a working knowledge of the complex ODP taxonomy. (The relationship between those three categories is not necessarily obvious.)

Which might (and in the past, has) lead to a more active editing role.

in spite of the fact that THERE ARE NO EDITORS TO ANY POLISH SITES (culture, food etc).

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It is important to note that there are about 200 editors who can edit anywhere in the directory. While a category may not have a *listed* editor there are still people who can edit there. Also, any editor listed higher up in the category tree can edit all subcategories below.

[Jaga, while I can see you are frustrated, please keep your posts in one location, it makes it much easier to follow and also keeps other threads on topic.]

THERE ARE NO EDITORS TO ANY POLISH SITES (culture, food etc).

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Arts/Performing_Arts/Dance/Folk_Dancing/Eastern_European/Polish/

regards

Which might (and in the past, has) lead to a more active editing role.

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Certainly one or two people who have contributed to the QC thread have gone on to become editors. That's natural enough. The type of person who wants to improve the directory may be interested in editing.

But perhaps it should be pointed out that they applied in the normal way. Now I am not a meta and cannot speak for metas, but I seem to recall one meta saying very definitely that all applications are treated in the same way. Contributions to QC here or via update request or in other forums would not be taken into account.

Jean has it right. We go on the basis of the application.

It should be remembered that only a small proportion of metas are active here anyway. Most would be unaware of postings here.

Before I became an editall, and had to apply for categories individually, I often referred to comments in the internal editor forums as part of the application. I see no reason why "Jaga" could not refer to posts in the QC forum in his initial application.

Of course, I have no idea whether the metas took those posts into account.

hutcheson said:

>
I did not see your editor application. Certainly, a public spirit is very important, and using your own site to publish links to other good sites is an excellent way to show public spirit. Another way is by finding bad links on the ODP (thanks for the hint!) And an informative website, built on top of real expertise and experience, and giving away valuable information, shouldn't be overlooked in this context.

But public spirit isn't the only issue. I don't see a major language problem: your English is quite fluent. Beyond that, I could only speculate about the "usual causes for rejection", and you have that list already in hand.

You're welcome to review other listings in categories under Society...Polish or Regional/Europe/Poland or World/Polska categories

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Dear Mr. Hutchenson,

I was applying in February, a long time ago. The response was not personalized. So, I could not really figure out exactly why my application was rejected. It just listed several reasons why possibly I was rejected. Here is just a beginning of the response:
++++
Thank you for your interest in becoming an Open Directory Project editor.
After careful review, we have decided not to approve your application at
this time. The most common reasons a reviewer will deny a new application
include, but are not limited to, ....

Due to the large number of applications we get every day, we are unable to
provide personal responses to every application or to respond to inquiries
about why you were rejected. If a reviewer chose to provide additional
comments to you, they will be given in the "Reviewer Comments" section below.

Your willingness to volunteer is greatly appreciated and perhaps we will be
able to utilize your talent in the future.

Regards,
The Open Directory Project

++++

after that there was just a list of possible reasons

maybe there is a time again for me to re-apply?

That list is not very specific, but it doesn't need to be. Everything on the list relates to a basic skill that editors must first be able to recognize, and then be able to learn.

I would think of it as a self-graded and untimed pre-test. I would say it's a time to re-apply when you figure out which of those reasons might have been significant. Sometimes that takes weeks, and sometimes you smack your suboccipital ridge in disgust right after you click the "submit" button.

As for site moves that have not been processed by the ODP, the OLD site needs to contain a note about the new URL, or a redirect to that new URL.

Anything less than that does not prove that the NEW URL is actually owned by the person making the request to delist one URL and replace it with the other. Only the old site can inform us about the move.

Dear all,

thanks for the encouragement to re-apply as the editor again. It is really frustrating to see so many categories "Polish" without any editors at all. It is also discouraging to see the categories not being updated. I do have the forum attached to my website, I was trying to encourage any of my forum members to apply - joking that maybe I am overqualified for the job but they are saying that they are not qualified enough.

My interest in Polish culture is just a hobby. I am working as a physicist, I have a PhD in Physics from Texas. I do not have any real "business" in Polish culture. I do it because I like doing it. I am not really affiliated with any Polish organization besides writing a monthly column to the Polish_American Journal. I did not even see any of their editors because I am here in Idaho

Why I am doing it? Because I think, I am good in this. Physics was always a part of me but it did not take my interests 100% of the time. When I lived in Poland (before 1992) I worked as a tour-guide during weekends and I think, I had a terrific contact with many tour groups. I used to know 5-6 foreign languages really well.

I started my website over 5 years ago (as a part of BellaOnline Women network) and I have the idea what other websites about Polish culture are there around and should be promoted. By the way, I abhore any type of self-supprting groups that promote only their own people and I never was a part of this. For me really the value counts.

In the past, in Bella we had something like "Site of the Month Award". You can see from the list:
<url removed>

We tried to promote different interesting websites with the same or similar subject as our own website. Usually we did not know anything about who created this website, it just had a very interesting content worth to promote!
Recently we were promoting (together with Nancy) the websites with images from Poland. So, we are not trying to isolate ourselves from the world or to promote just us without seeing anything around

Eric-the-Bun said:

Arts/Performing_Arts/Dance/Folk_Dancing/Eastern_European/Polish/

regards

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Eric,

tell me honestly - how many subcategories "Polish" you had to look through to find this one category with the editor listed?

I don't think you've read the FAQ yet have you?

It explains that there are over 200 editors who can work anywhere they choose but aren't named to many categories. With around 8000 editors but over half a million categories, did you think that each one had to be allocated to a named person? That's not the way we work.

I expect that Eric-the-bun already knew who edited that category without searching .

Jaga said:

tell me honestly - how many subcategories "Polish" you had to look through to find this one category with the editor listed?

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None.
Just look at his profile here at R-Z http://resource-zone.com/forum/member.php?u=31913 he is that editor

My interest in Polish culture is just a hobby. I am working as a physicist, I have a PhD in Physics from Texas. I do not have any real "business" in Polish culture. I do it because I like doing it.

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Sounds like the type of person we would like to apply for editor.

jimnoble said:

I don't think you've read the FAQ yet have you?

It explains that there are over 200 editors who can work anywhere they choose but aren't named to many categories. With around 8000 editors but over half a million categories, did you think that each one had to be allocated to a named person? That's not the way we work.

I expect that Eric-the-bun already knew who edited that category without searching .

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Jim,

no, I thought that the categories that do not have editors are seen by the editors from the higher (more general) category.

Who is reading the "Submit website" e-mails for the categories without editors? I donot think that these 200 extra editors receive all these submission requests.

They don't come as an email.

They are listed per category on webpages much like threads are listed in a forum... and they don't disappear from the list until they are reviewed and put in the public category, or are deleted. There is one list per category.

Many editors have access to multiple categories to see those lists. Some editors have access to all of them.

tell me honestly - how many subcategories "Polish" you had to look through to find this one category with the editor listed?

Click to expand...

None it's me! [though actually throughout regional, IMHO, Polish topics are quite well represented (special subcats) compared to many other nationalities]. But you are right - there are many categories that would benefit from having a dedicated editor.

My hobby is folk-dancing and I chose this category as my initial category to apply for not because I knew a lot about Polish folk-dance (in fact quite the reverse), but because it was a good choice for a beginner (no contentious issues, no spam, etc) to learn editing skills. The two sets of knowledge are different - one can have the knowledge to navigate to reach one's goal but to actually reach there one needs to be able to drive.

I am finding that editing skills are as challenging (and interesting) as the subjects I edit. Like any puzzle, it can be frustrating at times until one sorts out the reasoning and to do that successfully one must think as an editor rather than a folk-dancer, physicist, etc. Having to look at one's subject from a different perspective, can be very rewarding.

Who is reading the "Submit website" e-mails for the categories without editors? I donot think that these 200 extra editors receive all these submission requests.

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The 200 editors you refer to are those who have been given license to edit literally anywhere.

As an ordinary editor, I am listed as an editor of ../Folk-Dancing and ../Folk-Dancing/Polish. I can see all the unrevieweds in all the categories under Folk-Dancing though I am not listed as editor on any sub-cat other than Polish. Most of my edits are not in categories for which I am listed which is typical for the majority of editors. Where an editor can edit follows the same hierachical structure as the directory (anything 'below' where they are listed).

regards

PS if you do have any sites on Polish Folk Dancing not listed there, please suggest them

giz said:

They don't come as an email.

They are listed per category on webpages much like threads are listed in a forum... and they don't disappear from the list until they are reviewed and put in the public category, or are deleted. There is one list per category.

Many editors have access to multiple categories to see those lists. Some editors have access to all of them.

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Eric, Giz,

I am learning more and more from you. This of course makes sense that every meta editor can see the submitted websites ! Can you also see the submitted links to the website from a year ago or after a certain time the links are just deleted?

I just noticed that some of the categories are not really updated at all....
but I noticed that somebody already updated the one I talked about earlier, thanks!

Can you also see the submitted links to the website from a year ago or after a certain time the links are just deleted?

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I believe giz already answered that -- "and they don't disappear from the list until they are reviewed and put in the public category, or are deleted."

>> >> >> they don't disappear from the list until they are reviewed and put in the public category, or are deleted.