Help with Listing Issues

I first tried getting my site listed in May of 2003. I waited a year and tried listing again. I think it is time to try once more, but would like a suggestion on which topic I should list my site on since the others did not work. This is the Open Directory Category I tried the last time:
Regional: North America: United States: Ohio: Travel and Tourism: Travel Guides
The site is: <URL Removed> and is a travel guide for Ohio including parks and recreation areas. It is nearly exactly like the only one listed for the category, but with more information. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

If you have suggested the site twice there is no reason to suggest it anymore, unless the type or amount of content has changed dramaticaly since the last time you suggested the site.
If it didn't change in a major way there are 2 possiblities
1) it is still waiting review, no need to suggest it again
2) it is rejected, no need to suggest it again
If an editor thinks the category you suggested to site to is not the best he will move it to a better category.

Still Not Sure of Answer

But I will never know if it was rejected. . . ? What type of system is set up so that we know when and why our listing was rejected or accepted? If there isn't one, there should be some sort of a system where listers can resubmit, contact customer support agent, etc. I understand that this is a volunteer organization. However, I run several volunteer organizations. If they cannot provide these types of services, they should not be "in business". It is not the professional way to run an organization, volunteer or not.

It's a good idea, basicallybored2 , but you'd need a lot of manpower to do that, and we don't, . Are you volunteering?

Actually, I do not agree that it is a good idea -- this is my own opinion as one editor, but I can't see how that would benefit the directory in any way. Don't forget that we provided that service in this forum until a year and a half ago, and it was very obvious that it (the service) filled no valuable function at all. After all, a webmaster can find out if his site is listable or not, the editor guidelines are public. Hence, webmasters know, or can easily find out, if their sites could be listed or not. I'm convinced that a system where webmasters are told that their sites have been reviewed and denied a listing, and inviting them to re-suggest the sites, would be directly harmful. There are lots of places out there who help webmasters. The ODP lists those places, but it isn't one of them!

And as for "customer support" -- yes, maybe there would be call for something like that, but it still wouldn't benefit webmasters as they are not our customers. Customer support would be help for people who search for information in our directory; I can see how that might be useful, but it is unfortunately true that we don't have anything like the manpower to provide that.

But I will never know if it was rejected. . . ? What type of system is set up so that we know when and why our listing was rejected or accepted? If there isn't one, there should be some sort of a system where listers can resubmit, contact customer support agent, etc. I understand that this is a volunteer organization. However, I run several volunteer organizations. If they cannot provide these types of services, they should not be "in business". It is not the professional way to run an organization, volunteer or not.

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The mistake you're making, a common one, is in thinking that "listers" are our customers, that the service we provide is a listing service for site owners. They aren't and it isn't. We offer people the ability to suggest their site to us for review as a courtesy, not as a service product.

> But I will never know if it was rejected. . . ?
Correct. But you could read the DMOZ guidelines on How to suggest a site to the Open Directory and Open Directory Editing Guidelines and determine yourself if your site does not fitt within the type of sites we want to list.

What type of system is set up so that we know when and why our listing was rejected or accepted? If there isn't one, there should be some sort of a system where listers can resubmit, contact customer support agent, etc. I understand that this is a volunteer organization. However, I run several volunteer organizations. If they cannot provide these types of services, they should not be "in business". It is not the professional way to run an organization, volunteer or not.

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There once was a possibilty to ask for status but after several years it was decided that it didn't have value for.
* DMOZ itself
* the DMOZ editors
* the honest people building honest and fine website
You can read more in our FAQ under Why can't we ask about the status of our site suggestions anymore?

And you are right.
If an organization doesn't deliver the promised service to its customers it not run professional.
But (it might be new to you but has been told over and over again by the DMOZ editors): DMOZ does not provide a service to webmasters at all. Webmasters / website owners / people suggesting websites are NOT our customers. On the contrary they are our suppliers and DMOZ is the customer in this relation. And it is very unprofessionaly from these suppliers not to listen to their customer and do what she asks for.

In answer to neas post:

I misspoke. I think it's a very good idea to have some way for a site suggester to know if their suggestion has been received and is waiting for review, or if it has been rejected, not neccessarily by an editor. Even though we're not required to do that, and don't do that, there are several reasons why we should.

First, it may stop submitters from repeatedly submitting the same site suggestion because they think it got lost in the mail, decreasing the amount of spam.

Secondly, it creates better relations with the public, which is what we're trying to do here. Their two biggest questions seem to be has it been received and has it been rejected. I see no problem with a simple yes or no answer to those two questions, without any explanation, other than a link to the Guidelines. (by an automated status form)

Otherwise, I agree with everything else that has been said, , and I've said the same things myself.

On the other hand, I wasn't here when you were doing status requests, so, I'm sure you all know much more about it than I do.

Hmmm

> I think it's a very good idea to have some way for a site suggester to know if their suggestion has been received
They already know. After you suggest a site a screen is shown telling you the suggestion is received.

> and is waiting for review, or if it has been rejected,
You can read in the FAQ why we stopped giving this information. It was of no use.

> it may stop submitters from repeatedly submitting the same site suggestion because they think it got lost in the mail, decreasing the amount of spam.
They could ofcourse also read the available information and not suggest again.
And suggesting a (listable) site more than once to the same category is not spam and doesn't give the editors more work to do.

> Their two biggest questions seem to be has it been received and has it been rejected. I see no problem with a simple yes or no answer to those two questions, without any explanation, other than a link to the Guidelines. (by an automated status form)
Search the internal forum for many reasons not to offer such a service. It was discussed several times.

I believe you, pvgool. If there's one thing I have learned in this forum, it's that people don't seem to listen to what we're saying, or don't believe us, .

I would love to volunteer

Yes, I would love to volunteer. Sign me up. However, I was rejected when I tried a couple years ago.

Many editors have been rejected the first time. But they learned from their mistakes and became great collegues. Just try again.

What pvgool said is quite correct. Many current editors, including senior ones, were initially unsuccessful with their applications.
Every unsuccessful applicant receives a letter with a list of the most common reasons, and many also receive individual comments from the reviewing meta or catmod. Obviously the first thing to do when re-applying is to carefully go through those reasons and address any that apply (they may not all be relevant, but it is important to be honest with yourself).

There are plenty of helpful resources in the public guidelines and here in Resource-Zone, so every applicant has more than enough information to be successful, provided he is honest, understands what the ODP is about, and sincerely wants to help build the directory. It's really very easy to become an editor, which is why it is so surprising to see people criticising without offering to help.

Can't Get Listed 4 + Years

As part of my services for the customers I design sites for, I add their website to DMOZ or show them how to do so themselves. My customers get listed within a few months so I know that I am posting the information correctly. However,, my own sites (there are seven with different content and about different areas of travel or web services) have not gotten listed. I am posting the information correctly, stay within the guidelines and taking all precautions to not post a second time as not to anger the editors.
Most of them are from 2003 and 2004 which makes it over five years that my listings have not gotten picked up from DMOZ. All of my sites have rich content and are not spam and the information is provided free for travelers, etc. I have received several replies that those working on submitting my information (editors) could possibly be my competitors, but I of course, firmly state that this could not possibly be true. However, now that this little dark idea has been planted in my head, I have to ask if this could be true! How do any of us know this? I appreciate your help and understand that there are so few editors and your job must certainly be difficult. But what can we do when we don't get listed for 5 years? How can we help to make your job easier?

Submitting 7 sites for one business is spamming the Directory.

Travel and Web service categories are probably among the least enjoyable categories to edit, simply because they tend to have poor signal-to-noise ratios both in terms of suggestions and in terms of general Internet state (think of all the consolidator travel sites that turn up in search results). So fewer editors are likely to choose to wade through them to find the gems among the junk. Your customers, on the other hand, are probably relevant for and being listed in less junk-prone categories where more editors are likely to be willing to process suggestions.

[added: I've merged this thread with your earlier thread since it's all essentially about the same topic.]

7 Sites Spamming

These sites are all for different information sources on different areas throughout the state. They really don't influence my own business, but provide information for travelers. It is a hobby of sorts. My business is a separate entity.

Sounds like something worth listing then, . I'll make a point of visiting the travel cats from now on, I kind of shy away from those, but, I suppose I should get used to dealing with them.