editor self interest

Hello! I was looking through a relatively small section of the gambling category and discovered that the top listed site and the majority of others were simply affiliate marketing sites. I double checked the ODP guidelines and it says that if you ignore the affiliate marketing and there is still unique and non-copied useful content, then it should be included. The majority of these sites are made up entirely of affiliate marketing with little to no content, let alone unique content, and the category actually has an editor. Maybe he hasn't cleaned up the category because he hasn't gotten around to it, but I'm trying to figure out why these sites are in the ODP in the first place. With all that having been said, is the right step to take then to fill out the abuse form mentioned in this forum? I appreciate your time.

Rob

Based on what you have said here, and without knowing the category, yes, the abuse form would be the best next step for you.

Thanks. Im going to fill out the form right now. The category (games/gambling/[snip]) does not follow ODP standards. Some of the sites are really good and provide unique, useful information about slots, but the rest... Well, they just don't follow the guidelines or the description, "Sites offering articles, rules, strategies, systems and other original content on playing slots," since they just have banners and links to playing slots. Thanks again for the advice.

Rob

That is a part of the directory were we see site content change quite rapidly. Someone submits a nice conforming site with good content, and then over time the lure of affiliate income takes over, and they trash up the site with so much affiliate content that they render it useless from our perspective.

Hello,

I am curious how the abuse forms work. I submitted a form and have not seen any change in the category yet nor received a reply. Is this due to the form not being reviewed yet?

Thanks,

Rob

Did you get any confirmation, like a tracking number?

I would like to bring to your attention the FAQ for abuse reporting at http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/faq.html (which I'm sure you read). In the section called "How do I Check the Status of a Report I've Made?" it tells you how to keep track of it.

See especially the note, saying Even if you provide an e-mail address you will not be sent any information: on the report's status or otherwise.

Hope this clarifies.

If the status of the report gets set to completed (and I'm not sure exactly what wording is used) and the sites are still there, then we would like to invite you to submit to the thread in this forum to get sites reviewed again. Thanks.

Contacting a meta

I went through the abuse report system and the status is still set to new even though I submitted a report back in March. I understand that the editors are busy, so I am not here to complain about that. I looked back at the category in question and made a more detailed examination of the existing sites (than the report originally submitted), cross checking it with the guidelines and different statements made by higher level editors in this forum. At first, I thought the issue was 'bait and switch', but now I'm beginning to wonder since I've been looking at this category a very long time, because at the bottom of the page, it says the last time the page was updated was at the end of May, 2004. If someone took a look at some of the sites, they would be appalled, and there is definately something fishy going on when the ones in question have the exact same style and type of advertising which obscures the reading of the content. After reading some more through forum discussions of this type, I believe I should contact a meta but I don't know which one. Could someone please assist me with this?

Greetings robtrais,

I'm a cateditall in Games/, maybe I can be of some assistance?

Is it suspected editor abuse (in which case it can't be handled here and you'll have to wait on the abuse report) or does it have to do with a grouping of sites that all seem to violate the guidelines? I'd be happy to investigate the latter.

- JT

The abuse report *is* being looked at. Unfortunately, sometimes the process takes longer than one would hope. If you have additional information to add to your original report, feel free to submit another report with the additional information.

Urg, it is terrible that they do these kind of things to the directory.