Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the ODP

Hi Everyone,

I have been submitting my site to several categories in the ODP.

Unfortunately my submission, which I sent in almost a year ago, has not even been reviewed.

The main reason is that the editor has over 200 sites to review in one of the categories and another 400 sites in another category.

The problem is the same editor [details deleted] is responsible for both categories. Worse yet this editor is responsible for 17 yes that is correct 17 categories. These 17 categories are very important categories as well not just some obscure categories

Here is the list of categories she review:
[details deleted by an editor who has 19 yes that is correct 19 categories]

So the question I have is why is she allowed to hoard all these categories. She is doing a disservice to ODP and to the thousands of frustrated website owners who are waiting for there sites to get added to the directory?

Also are there other editors [details deleted] hoarding categories users please let us know.

Lastly I would like some officials from ODP addressing these issues. I would like to know how they can possibly condone this behavior while they reject daily many applications from would be editors because of silly reasons.

Signed
Frustrated with the ODP

Just because she is the listed editor in those categories doesn't mean that she's the only editor for them. There are editors listed in sub-categories, in higher categories, and editors who can edit in every category (editalls). So there is nothing wrong with her having those categories, it just means she can edit them if she so desires... so can a whole lot of people.

As for the amount of unreviewed.. well there is over 1 million unreviewed sites in the directory in total. That's a lot and I would never blame any single editor for not doing enough. Every one of us is a volunteer, in other words no one is expected to edit, rather they are given the opportunity too and can do as much as they like.

To get unreviewed down you should actually be happy that some editors like her are prolific enough to be accepted into these categories to help as much as they can with the backlog.

Re: Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the OD

No editor can hoard categories. It simply isn't possible. Editors will throw rocks at you in the internal forums if you even USE the expression "my category".

First of all, the metas, not the category owners, review new volunteer applicants. And _they_ do accept multiple volunteers in the same category.

Second, every "editall" (and there are dozens of them) can edit anywhere they feel competant to edit.

Finally, "inability to work with other editors in a category" is grounds for removal of editing privileges. As far as rejecting applicants, that's mostly done by the meta-editors, the same folk who moderate this forum. (Staff does very few applications, and doesn't post in these forums. In any case, your application was probably reviewed by a meta.)
While I don't edit in Adult categories, I can say that Adult is a highly-abuse-prone area, and the reasons for rejections aren't always obvious to someone who hasn't spent a lot of time dealing with problems inherent to the category.

When you guys hoard categories you prevent other would be editors from having the opportunity of editing those categories. I know for a fact that they will not assign a new applicant to a category if there are already many other editors signed on to it. What good is it if there are a dozen editors to a category when no one is reviewing the submissions?

6-12 months to get a site reviewed. I guess that is very prolific and efficient I should be very thankful?

Also, please tell me why she is the only editor listed under those categories if there are other editors?

Re: Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the OD

I appreciate your response. But I am not submitting my site to the adult categories. I am submitting it to the womens shopping categories.

Also I think a better way of assigning editors would be by the number and amount of time listings in specific categories have been in a que waiting for review. I mean if you have 200 listing waiting for review in a category and each listing has been waiting an average of 6 months priority should be given to that category.

A listed editor denotes the level at which that editor can edit. If all editors who could edit her categories where listed it would be a list of over 200, maybe 300 people. Just isn't practical.

And yes, sometimes submitters have to wait. ODP is not here for webmasters, it's here for users and as such there is more to editing than unreviewed.

Re: Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the OD

>I know for a fact that they will not assign a new applicant to a category if there are already many other editors signed on to it.

Which, if true, would be irrelevant if she were the only editor listed under those categories. Moving on to the next point,

>tell me why she is the only editor listed under those categories?

These guidelines ( http://dmoz.org/guidelines/subcategories.html ) are probably the best place to go to understand how editing permissions work.

Re: Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the OD

All right, I'm beginning to feel like an echo. Can somebody hobble enarra's keyboard or network connection or something?

Re: Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the OD

<img src="/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" /> We gave different, but agreeing replies, that's a good thing. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />

Re: Editors Hoarding Categories are ruining the OD

When you guys hoard categories you prevent other would be editors from having the opportunity of editing those categories. I know for a fact that they will not assign a new applicant to a category if there are already many other editors signed on to it. What good is it if there are a dozen editors to a category when no one is reviewing the submissions?

Click to expand...

Here's my 22 cents. I hope it helps you comprehend better how the ODP works.

1) Editors are not assigned. They volunteer for each category in which you see their name.

2) Categories can have multiple named editors. The presence of one editor's name by no means prevents other editors from volunteering for that category. The concept of "category hoarding" is nonsensical.

3) Every category has multiple editors. In addition to metas and editalls, each editor named in a category higher up has full edit permission "all the way down". Made-up example:

jjones is listed editor of "Home/Kitchen", which contains the subcategories "Appliances" and "Recipes". Recipes itself has 7 subcategores, and a listed editor, thechef. jjones can edit in Kitchen itself, Kitchen/Appliances, and Kitchen/Recipes as well as its 7 subcats. thechef is limited to only editing in Kitchen/Recipes and its subcategories.

4) An editor can specifically request to be one of the named editors of a pre-existing category. She does this when the category has a particular interest to her, and she wants ODP users to know about it.

5) An editor can make new subcategories to a category where he has editing privelges. As part of subcat creation, he can choose to be named editor of the subcat. However, in this instance, he must actually justify why he wishes to be named. He will have full editing priveleges in the subcat if he names himself or not.

6) If a category already lists "many other editors", it is likely a very large category containing lots of subcategories. You are probably correct, a non-editor applying to edit this category will be turned down. The reason will not be, "there are already named editors". It will be, "the category is too large for a new editor".

7) If you are concerned about ODP's backlog, volunteer and help. If you get/got turned down, volunteer again, possible for a smaller or less spam-prone category. Each new editor helps reduce the load on mid-level and senior editors, and they can spend more time working specifically on heavily backlogged categories. Once he gains some experience, he can request to be given another category -- perhaps one with a backlog of submissions.

-- Rich

Simple observation to the original poster: if that editor with 17 cats were to resign some of them, this would not in itself mean anything would get edited faster. In fact, all this would mean is that there is less potential work that editor could do. Also, there is nothing in the rules that prevents another editor being appointed to a cat that already has an editor. In fact, this is the norm very high up the tree such as at the top of Health/. There is no particularly good reason to assume that if this editor resigned most of those cats that new, qualified editors would suddenly appear out of the woodwork and apply for them. I assure you, if all of us editors with multiple cats were to resign half them, this wouldn't translate into more work getting done here. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> Also, if one of the cats she edits happen to be top level, or perhaps the very high up a large branch, having hundreds of greens would be unavoidable.

I admit, it's grand notion... to resign from a category when you get higher permissions, or if you aren't as active in the cat as you once were, to entice new editors who might be hesitant to apply where another editor is listed. And, we're encouraged to do just that. However, in practice, it just doesn't seem to make that big a difference. In my time as an editor, I've resigned from a dozen or more cats, and not one of them has been picked up by another editor. There are just so many categories in the ODP, that a few editors hoarding cats just doesn't affect the overall picture much.

It's certainly far from "ruining the ODP".

I sometimes feel sorry for my little orphaned cats... they must feel so abandoned... <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

&gt;However, in practice, it just doesn't seem to make that big a difference. In my time as an editor, I've resigned from a dozen or more cats, and not one of them has been picked up by another editor.

Sometime is happens. After becoming editor of Health/Addictions, I immediately resigned the Substance Abuse subcat on the hope someone else would want it. This is fairly large cat space, and a lot of work. Someone else a couple days ago was approved as editor of Substance Abuse. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" /> Needless to say it was somebody who already was an ODP editor, as I'd doubt any newbie would be granted that as their first cat. However, I doubt this is ruining the ODP. This would only be the case if some editor had a ton of cats AND was ignoring them. Likely quite rare.