But, your goal is for us to keep up with the site suggestions that are submitted, our goal is to build a Directory of quality sites for the websurfer, which are two different goals.
How full the suggestion box gets has nothing to do with our goal of only listing the most useful sites for the surfer to choose from, (which is why we are not all inclusive) and organizing them in a way that best fits into the Directory as a whole.
Also, I think you're under the misconception that our only job is to review sites suggestions, it isn't, we do many things. For instance:
Review sites and write an ODDP compliant Title and Description.
Investigate dead urls and either try to fix them or replace them.
Rewrite existing titles and descriptions if a bad one has slipped through.
Check for spelling errors in current listings.
Investigate and move site suggestions or current listings to the proper category.
Build new subcatagories when neccessary, and sort the current listings into them.
Create related category links where they are missing.
Create @links from the higher categories to those beneath it.
Create category Charters and FAQs in every category.
Investigate abusive submitters.
Investigate abusive editors.
Find new sites on our own.
Join in Ontology discussions and come to a group concensus.
Implement the changes.
Welcome new editors.
Mentor new editors.
Ask the editing community for advice or help about certain matters.
Ask for higher/wider editing permissions.
Join in any of a multitude of ongoing projects.
Create new tools for editors for specific jobs.
In the Regional section of the Directory, much of our time is spent sending site suggestions to the proper category. 50% of all site suggestions in Regional (and I'm being kind) are submitted to large cities (localities) where the site suggester believes he will get a wider audience (which is false) , like in advertising, instead of their true location.
Can you understand why we keep saying that reviewing site suggestions is only a minor part of what we really do, and that they are just one of many tools we use to accomplish our goals?
I just received permission to edit in a Topical category about water gardens (ponds), which I have a personal interest in. The first thing I'll do is to look at and investigate all of the listings in it, checking that the urls are alive, that the site belongs in that category, that the title and descriptions are ODP Guidelines compliant, and there are no misspellings.
Then, because it's a small category with few site suggestions, I may go through those and deal with them, or I may not, I may follow a lot of the links that are in the current listings to find new sites to list, or I may use certain search tools to go find new sites.
My goal, as a newbie pond builder myself who knows something about the subject from experience, is to find some of the most interesting, helpful, unique sites that I can, and get them listed for who? for other newbie pond builders like myself, not for the site owners. And, for me, my interests expand beyond just the building and maintainance of the pond, but, into specialized categories, in another part of the Directory about the plants and wildlife that go into the pond.
How I build this category into a quality resource is totally up to me, but, I can also draw on the experience and knowledge of more senior editors in this area of the Directory for advice.
So, you see, this is a little different scenario than the assumption that we're a listing service for all and that our primary purpose is to serve site suggesters.
