Editors sorely needed

I submitted my site on 9/2003 and it still hasn't been reviewed, I just found that out this morning on the submission status board. However, in my category, no applications are being accepted for editors. Seems after 8 months and no review, that category really may need more editors. I hope I'm on the right board for this type of post, if not, I'm very sorry. The category in question is http://www.dmoz.org/Shopping/Clothing/Costumes/Historical/Medieval_and_Renaissance/

Hi edenfairy and I am sorry to hear that it is taking a while to get your site reviewed. Unfortunately that is a side effect of the http://www.dmoz.org/Shopping/ category which by all acounts is one of the places within the directory that the 'world and his dog' feel they should be listed in. As such it gets that many submissions, a lot of which are nothing more than spam, that backlog in inevitable.

As for the 'more editors' - the reason that applications have been turned off for that category is simply due to the nature and the size of that part of the directory it would be to much for any new editor to be dropped in the middle of. I have done a short spell in shopping and I tell you now it is not a place I intend to be show my face in often. It is not a category for everyone but at the same time it is a category which needs a great deal of experience (and I don't mean shopping experience - I mean editing experience).

There are several non-Shopping and not-so-big categories related to that one - maybe one of them would be a good place for a new editor to start...

There are lots of reasons why applications could be turned off in a category. The bottom line is that ODP would like to accept new editors in categories where they can be successful initially.

Interesting, thanks. As just the average Joe, seems to me that shopping sites would be easy to validate...Do they have things to sell, do they have a way to process orders, and is their merchandise relevant to their catagory, is their site user friendly and informative, what else could actually matter...I'm know I'm woefully under-informed about what you guys actually do...However, I do know there are some seriously junky sites listed in that particular category. Anyway, I really appreciate you folks taking the time to respond to my post.

I'm afraid it's more complicated than that. There are a large number of site owners who will do whatever is required to get their shopping site listed, in fact make that shopping site listed. That includes making multiple sites for the same business, by creating fake business names, lying about location, alternate phone numbers, sites registered under fake identities, outright lies in emails and threats to editors, etc.

I think it can be quite draining being a Shopping editor.

Sometimes I think a requirement to be an editor there, is to be an armed detective.

Sometimes I think a requirement to be an editor there, is to be an armed detective.

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I once refered to it internally as a 'War Zone' - and I was not kidding!