How long 'till Arts-Illustration?

Hello,

I read the guidelines and I hope my question is general enough to be asked here...
I decided to submit to Arts: Illustration: Illustrator Portfolios category--I never had an occassion to get a message from any of its editors, but I learned that these categories don't have too many editors and I will have to wait for some more "Meta" kind of guy.

Does anybody of you editor guys have an idea of how long (how many months) it takes to get a listing there? Just curious...

No, we don't.
Please read the FAQ for more answers.

BTW we will never send a message to a person that suggested a site.

pvgool said:

Please read the FAQ for more answers. BTW we will never send a message to a person that suggested a site.

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Thank you... I have already received plenty of discouragement from my previous reading, but decided to suggest the site and ask anyway. By chance I may learn something new if I ask.
Bye.

Our perpective is different. It takes anything from 30 seconds to 30 minutes to get a listing in. That's from the time we first go to a site, to the time we add the listing.

But ... first submittal? when was that? four years ago, yesterday, it never happened: WHO KNOWS, WHO CARES, WHAT POSSIBLE DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

Noone, nobody, no matter, obviously: a submittal doesn't make a site more worthy to be listed, it doesn't give it special status, priority, deadlines, estimates, assigned editors, anything like that -- because there IS nothing like that.

A submittal just makes the site EASIER TO FIND. That's all. And that's good. But you can hide in plain daylight, like political malfeasance in Massachusetts, so long nobody's looking.

So who looks? the volunteers. Who tells which of them when and where to look, and for what? Nobody -- except each editor's own internal demons.

That's how the ODP got built: find people with the right kind of demon, and let them into the asylum. Then ignore the nocturnal alarums. (And eschew the management techniques of the cattle drove.)

By chance I may learn something new if I ask.

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I think the reason you were referred back to the FAQ, is that you initial posting posed several questions, and demonstrated at least one complete misunderstanding, all of which were pretty well covered in the FAQ.

So, having said that:

I never had an occassion to get a message from any of its editors,

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There are no messages to receive. We don't do notifictions or e-mails, so not hearing from us was exactly what should have happened.

but I learned that these categories don't have too many editors

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More than 200 editors can edit in every given category, and the presence or absence of a named editor is irrelevant.

will have to wait for some more "Meta" kind of guy.

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Nope. Not true. While it is possible that a meta editor (regardless of gender) may review your site (they are part of the 200 I mentioned above) odds are that it will be another Arts/ editor.

Does anybody of you editor guys have an idea of how long (how many months) it takes to get a listing there? Just curious...

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We truly do not.

Hope this helps.

Geez...

It was not that I was turned back to FAQ, I used to have a few encounters on this forum and asked some very general questions--the guys who answered me were very pollite and helpful. I think I got the idea that people taking care of this forum, including editors, may give some general advice and they did, about the specific Art Cat issues. And I *really* appreciate that. That's why I beileve I included the word "curiosity" in my post.

The discouragement I mentioned is true--most of the information about DMOZ really says that there's no straightforward advantage (for example in boosting site rank) when you submit and I think that I understand your point well. It's just that I guess some people in the past have had their aggressive way of demanding faster submission and this finally caused DMOZ volunteers (at least some) to be obsessed about people asking for the general timeline (and maybe repetitive and stupid from your perspective, you call it). If you were machines, I would not ask, but there's always a chance some human will tell you, "it will take, but I've heard it took someone some N months in this cat."

I read your posts a couple of times and I made my best to understand you want to explain why you cannot help me. it's that I always had the general impression that there are more disclaimers in DMOZ and more "what we don't do"s than actual invitations to participate in the project... that's why I get the general impression that *some* of you guys would be much happier if people did not sign up for submission at all.

So, sorry, I was too general to explain what's behind the concerns I had.

there's always a chance some human will tell you, "it will take, but I've heard it took someone some N months in this cat."

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But they can't and if they did it would be as reliable as a 1975 Skoda Estelle! And when we used to give a rough indication of the number of waiting sites it simply created expectations and frustrations when the indication wasn't met, as it wouldn't be since the whole concept and structure of DMOZ means that the information is completely useless. Once upon a time many/most editors would review in order of date submitted so if you had reached 3rd in line and on a straight progression you would most like be listed next week you could be hopeful. But most editors don't do that any more - we have learned to be more selective in how we review heaps of unreviewed (you'll see us say "heaps" now, not "queues"). It is far more efficient and favours the innovative and those who have read and applied the guidelines at the expense of the affiliate travel agents and inkjet cartridge retailers. Thus, we don't do the time thing any more though you will sometimes see hints not to hold one's breath if the heap is exceptionally large. Not the other way - a site waiting in a heap of 1 may still wait a year or two before someone get to it and from the title and description thinks it worth looking at.

I get the general impression that *some* of you guys would be much happier if people did not sign up for submission at all.

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Two thirds of submissions are (to be honest) spam, duplicates, and contentless rubbish and it isn't balanced either - in some areas it is 90% and above. A very large percentage of people who ask for status checks here are owners of the 66 - 90%. The vast majority of the submitters of the sites we very much welcome don't come anywhere near this forum, in part because they have a much better chance of being listed a lot faster, in part because the marketing motivation to check and chase just isn't there. So what you see here is not representative at all.

The vast majority of the submitters of the sites we very much welcome don't come anywhere near this forum, in part because they have a much better chance of being listed a lot faster

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Thank you for your time.
I just hope you did not find me a spammer... I don't sell anything, I'm not looking for splendor here, I just thought that my site was "good enough" according to your guidelines, that's it. The first time I got here was actually when I was hoping to submit a charity website (must check on it, BTW), but I get the idea that people would kill one another to get their commercial sites listed faster.

Thanks for all the explanation and help--at last, this is what forums are for... (I guess?..)

I just hope you did not find me a spammer

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I have no idea! I don't know your site but you can ask for a status on another part of this board.

I get the idea that people would kill one another to get their commercial sites listed faster.

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No doubt they would for all the good that would do them - those who are listed are invariably disappointed with the result. But DMOZ lists non-commercial sites faster - more editors are interested in non-commercial sites and there is little if any spam to drive them to despair.

There are some good honest webmasters with excellent original sites that do come here, commercial and non-commercial. Watch us encourage them, see how quickly their sites are listed compared to others. Not because they asked here as only a dozen or so editors come here, and even the regulars only check on threads that are looking for an answer so chances of the reviewing editor seeing a thread are negligible. But because they have excellent original sites we really do want to find and list and it has caught an editor's eye.

Thanks, oneeye!

I hope posting here is not as dangerous, otherwise I'm already doomed and have nothing to worry about, anyway! if someone is really angry with me, my website is literally two clicks away from this post. BANG, BANG, dead.

I like the idea of encouraging good, non-commercial webmasters, and from your post I learned it gets worse than I thought... I didn't know how much trash you get, I swear. No offense.

Keep up the good work! bye, bye!

EDIT: shoot! I misspelled your sudo! sorry!

I hope posting here is not as dangerous

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If you've submitted a spam site: affiliate, mirror, vanity, etc. then it isn't the wisest thing to stick it directly under the noses of the ODP rottweilers. If you have a decent website then it doesn't matter.

People have heaped vitriol and abuse, insulted editors as a group and personally, even banned from this forum, and their site, if it meets the guidelines, is listed shortly after.

We receive maybe 6000 submissions a day, list 2000, and the heaps aren't growing significantly overall that I've noticed. That gives you an idea of the trash we have to get rid of daily. Trash can be more difficult - there are some clever buggers out there who constantly try to beat us and investigation takes time. Imagine if there were no trash, how long sites would take to get listed! That's why we come down hard sometimes on their originators. Maybe 90% of my editing time is spent taking out the trash. Think how many sites I could list, how many submitters would be happier, so it surprises me that the webmaster community is not more intolerant of the antics of the spammers than we are. At the end of the day we don't care about commercial advantages to submitters, it isn't our remit, but if they are to be believed genuine people are losing money because of the actions of the spammers clogging up submissions.