Editor for my category is a competitor

What do I do if the editor to all of the categories where my site can appear, by letter/regional is edited by a competitor in my field. Can a meta editor override the decision to keep my site out? Especially when the editor claims to have no affiliation with any sites in the category, but has their own site listed?

First, any category can be edited by a number of different editors, so yes, if one editor for whatever reason doesn't review a site, another editor can do it.

If you have some kind of proof of abuse, we would be really grateful if you would report it at http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/ . However, you should be aware that the fact that a site hasn't been listed is not by itself proof of abuse, and if one of the editors who can edit in the category in question is a competitor, that is also not proof of anything - we have plenty of editors who happily list their competitors' web sites. Not reviewing a site isn't abuse; removing a listable site from the pool of unreviewed sites can, however, constitute abuse.

Thank You

Thanks for clearing that up, my site may not be good enough to be listed, or doesn't meet the criteria for whatever reason. I just know that the editor listed at the bottom of the page is a competitor and may have not listed my site for personal reasons. It has been searched already according to my logs and not added to the directory, so I knew that it wasn't still waiting.

I sent the editor an email, which is what I was told to do on a different forum. That even could have made the editor mad, who knows?

It's not worth arguing over, if I gave you the URL, I am sure you could find a reason to justify the editor's decision (which would be true for any site). I just thought it was against your policy to edit a category with your own sites in it.

But then again, I'm not 100% certain that the editor in question didn't list that on the application to you (that they had a site in that category).

If you sent me a private message, could I at least be given a reason why my site was not accepted and I will try to improve on it and resubmit?

Thanks again for your quick response.

Thanks for clearing that up, my site may not be good enough to be listed, or doesn't meet the criteria for whatever reason. I just know that the editor listed at the bottom of the page is a competitor and may have not listed my site for personal reasons. It has been searched already according to my logs and not added to the directory, so I knew that it wasn't still waiting.

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Translation: you don't know what happened, and you don't know if your site is listable, so you decided to publicly impugn the character of the editor.

Gee, thanks.

Your logs mean nothing in terms of the ODP. All it means is that an editor looked at your site. It could simply have been that they were using a told to determine if all the sites in that category were still working. There is absoluyely no cause-and-effect between a log entry showing up and an editor reviewing a site.

I sent the editor an email, which is what I was told to do on a different forum. That even could have made the editor mad, who knows?

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You were told incorrectly, but as you said, who knows? In all proability, if the e-mail were even read, it was mostly ignored. But only that editor knows.

It's not worth arguing over, if I gave you the URL, I am sure you could find a reason to justify the editor's decision (which would be true for any site). I just thought it was against your policy to edit a category with your own sites in it.

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Again the jibe. Can't you ask a straightforward question without taking a cheap shot?

In any event, it is not against policy to edit a category with your own site in it.

But then again, I'm not 100% certain that the editor in question didn't list that on the application to you (that they had a site in that category).

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No, you do not, so why are you raising that issue, other than to impugn the character of the editor?

If you sent me a private message, could I at least be given a reason why my site was not accepted and I will try to improve on it and resubmit?

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Most definitely not. It is your responsibility, prior to submitting a site, to ensure that it complies with the editing guidelines, it is nt our responsibility to tach you how to build your site. Either it is listable or it is not. Further, given your propensity to attack the integrity and honestest of editors, why should anyone be inclined to try and bend the rules to help you?

What's your problem

I just had a question as to what I should do. Isn't that what this forum is for?

If I wanted to put down or trash an editor I would have used the editor's name, given the category, or at least my submitted URL. I have done no such thing, nor have I reported the editor to anybody. I was just trying to understand the process of the directory. And ask a question that is not listed in the FAQs anywhere that I have found.

I didn't not know that if I got a hit from DMOZ then it could have been a "told", actually I am not sure what a "told" is.


What is all of this about;
"Can't you ask a straightforward question without taking a cheap shot? "
I think you are the one taking cheap shots.

Well here's a straightforward question for you
How did you become an editor with all of those typos?

It is people like you who give the directory a bad name. This is supposed to be volunteering for people with a passion. If you hate doing it so much, then go do something else.

Now, is there any reasonable editor that isn't trying to start a fight that can help me out?

I agree with you

i fully agree with your concern when you say

"I just had a question as to what I should do. Isn't that what this forum is for?

If I wanted to put down or trash an editor I would have used the editor's name, given the category, or at least my submitted URL."

and I also appreciate your kindness in not revealing details.

Also even i feel that many a times answers in this forums are rude

ok, trying to take some of the emotion out of this exchange.

If you choose to PM me the URL of the site, I will take a quick look into whether some sort of editorial abuse may have happened, and initiate whatever action I deem fit.

Please note, though, that I will not under any circumstances be able to give any feedback to you about either the status of your site, or the status of my investigations. This will not be usable as a tool to get a submission status check.

Note to other readers: I am only doing this because of the claim that there is an editor named in a category who is definitely the competitor of the submitter. This is not an invitation to others to do the same thing.

Also even i feel that many a times answers in this forums are rude

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If untouchables had asked a straightforward question, a straightforward answer would have been forthcoming. Instead, the posting was filled with innuendo and cheap shots.

Thanks, but no thanks

I have decided not to send a private message with my URL out of respect for the ODP and it's policies, and to prove my point that I am not just whining to get my way.

I will PM the name of the editor and category, because I truly believe that there is foul play, that should at least be investigated.

I may be completely wrong in my assumptions, but you know what happens when you ass-u-me.

Thank you Alucard, and if you have time can you investigate the previous poster that was making accusations? I did a quick review of his posts, by clicking on the "view all posts" by his name and 90% are either insulting or make people feel stupid by correcting them or redirecting them to FAQs. I'm sure it gets frustrating, like any other job, but customer service should be the ODP's main concern to keep it's reputation up.

What is common sense to the editors is sometimes not known to visitors like myself, who are just looking for answers. I actually read the FAQs and searched the other posts to try and get answers first. When I was unable to find anything I posted. I admit being a little angry about not having my site listed, but in no way did I try to start a fight.

Thanks again.

OK, let's just get the basic assumptions right.

You don't know (and we won't tell) whether the site has actually been rejected. You absolutely cannot tell from the site logs, as a moment's reflection should reveal: the editor has to access your site BEFORE making a decision, hence the log information cannot possibly reflect a decision that hadn't yet been made.

You don't know (and we do not tell) which editor reviewed a site. Usually (for reasons explained elsewhere) it will not be an editor listed as a "category editor."

Since you don't know whether your (name-withheld) editor performed the action that may not have been performed, it really doesn't matter that you in addition don't know whether he was a competitor, or whether if he WAS a competitor, he gave that information to the ODP. (IF he DID, it's available to meta-editors for abuse investigations: it is absolutely not publicly available.)

In other words, without your ass-u-me-s, there isn't a question there to answer. And so the response to you had to be corrections of ass-u-me-s that you made. If you'd read the other questions, you'd have seen that most people do exactly what you did--string a whole set of ass-u-me-s together without stopping to read any of the (admittedly voluminous) documentation about the ODP or stopping to think about what is logically possible. (I tend to think the last bit IS common sense, but common sense is as rare in humanity as it ever was. And with my experience in algorithm analysis, some things are blindingly obvious to me that might be totally inexplicable to a non-programmer. But anyway.)

So yes, nearly every single question we get asked is based on so many incorrect assumptions that it can't be answered in any sensible way without starting from the assumptions. It's like asking a single pacifist female quadriplegic, "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" Well, we'll answer the question, but don't, DON'T come whining that you didn't ask about marital status!

I just had a question as to what I should do. Isn't that what this forum is for?

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You may have started with just a question, a question that was answered by the next poster, but you then followed it up with a post that included a couple of snipes at editors in general. You had to know that was going to get a few hackles up.

In any case, you now know that the proper procedure to follow (i.e. file an abuse report) if you suspect abuse and this thread serves no purpose so I'm closing it.