How to know if my site submission was received

Hello,

I just submitted my site, but I didn't get any confirmation number or any email stating my submission was received. I understand it could take a very long time for my site to be listed, but I just want to make sure my submission was received.


Regards,

Shiraaz

When you made your site suggestion you recevied an on-screen confirmation.

That is, essentially, the only communication you are likely to receive.

spectregunner said:

When you made your site suggestion you recevied an on-screen confirmation.

That is, essentially, the only communication you are likely to receive.

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Spectregunner,

Thanks for the clarification. How long have you been an editor and what made you want to become an editor? I am curious because I am considering applying to become one. I am a fairly a new webmaster and I am still learning a lot. I am hoping I can learn from other seasoned editors by becoming an editor. I think it’s really easy to think as a webmaster, but forget to take the surfers point into consideration. Of course I have the best website (according to me), but you and others might have a different view. I am assuming by becoming an editor, I can not only have the webmaster and the surfers’ point of view, but also gain a critical eye for what needs to be improved to make the web experience a better one for all.

Again, thank you for taking the time to answer my question.


Regards,

Shiraaz

At the risk of putting everyone else on the planet asleep, I have been an editor since Christmas day, 2002. I wanted to become an editor for two reasons, I love military aviation, and felt it was woefully underrepresented, and I just happened to have a military aviation website.

As an editor, you only have one target audience, the surfer. If the webmaster's goals and desires happen to coincide with that of the surfer, then life is grand, but when there is a divergence, we side with the surfer every time. Our public and private mantra is: we are not a listing service.

Editing is addictive. I expected to do about 250 edits a year -- I passed the 20,000 edit mark earlier this year, and by many standards I am still a rookie. There are editors whose numbers seriously put mine to shame.

It is great fun, a wonderful learning experience, and highly addictive. It can also be scary, as you get a close-up look at the dark underbelly of the Internet. All in all, it will make you a better webmaster because as you develop your own sites you will truly understand unique content and will be able to apply that concept to your own site.

spectregunner said:

At the risk of putting everyone else on the planet asleep, I have been an editor since Christmas day, 2002. I wanted to become an editor for two reasons, I love military aviation, and felt it was woefully underrepresented, and I just happened to have a military aviation website.

As an editor, you only have one target audience, the surfer. If the webmaster's goals and desires happen to coincide with that of the surfer, then life is grand, but when there is a divergence, we side with the surfer every time. Our public and private mantra is: we are not a listing service.

Editing is addictive. I expected to do about 250 edits a year -- I passed the 20,000 edit mark earlier this year, and by many standards I am still a rookie. There are editors whose numbers seriously put mine to shame.

It is great fun, a wonderful learning experience, and highly addictive. It can also be scary, as you get a close-up look at the dark underbelly of the Internet. All in all, it will make you a better webmaster because as you develop your own sites you will truly understand unique content and will be able to apply that concept to your own site.

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Wow! 20k, that's quite a number, all in just 5 years. I think 250 per year seem more manageable, specially if the editor is employed full time. I can see my self doing about 5 per week. How long does it take you to edit each site? What about spams? I’m sure you come across sites that are purely spams, and it must be pretty frustrating. What % of the total sites you look at are spams? I hope I’m not asking for highly classified information here.

What about other intangible benefits? Do you get to interact with other seasoned editors, and do you get to pick their brain? I think that would be invaluable. I think my problem is I am very biased with my own work. I have worked my tail off building my site, so it’s really hard to be critical of my own work. I am hoping I can see differently if I start being a critic of other websites.


Regards,

Shiraaz

I think 250 per year seem more manageable, specially if the editor is employed full time.

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That is what I thought. There is something magical about the idea of five edits a week. Then the addiction hits.

How long does it take you to edit each site? What about spams?

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In the beginning, 20 to 30 minutes a site. Fortunately, the initial categories I was granted had very little spam. In fact, I had been editing for quite a long time with very little spam experience so I asked if I could "greenbust" (a sort of OJT status) in regional, so that I could begin to taste spam. Taste it I did!

What % of the total sites you look at are spams?

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Varies greatly by category. Some categories are virtually spam-free (often the more esoteric or technical ones) some cats at 99.44% spam. This is but one of the reasons why new eidtors are only given very small cats. Imagine how demoralizing it would be to be a brand new editor, have a pool of 500 suggestions, where 497 of them are spam. You probably wouldn't last a week.

What about other intangible benefits? Do you get to interact with other seasoned editors, and do you get to pick their brain?

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Absolutely, and that is one of the joys of editing. You meets some exceptionally interesting people, with a much lower percentage of total jerk than you meet in real life. Sharing, coaching, nudging and being nudged, that is all part of the interaction. Sure, you'll run into a few editors you may not like, but that is life. If someone rubs you the wrong way, you can usually ignore them.

I tell new editors not to edit for the first week, just read, read, and read. After 5 years there are volumes that I do not know. Still, what I have learned has helped me in so many ways. And I have some lifelong friends courtesy of the ODP.

I must concur with the "addiction" that being an editor has become. I only started about 3 weeks ago and thought I would be able to do about 5 per week. Then "it" grabbed a hold of me.

In 3 weeks I have done about 400 edits (which obviously includes going over the category that is already there and sorting things out a bit). This only includes finding about 195 new sites that weren't already in but that increases daily.

I love it here and I have had GREAT support from EVERYBODY from other new editors to the Metas. You couldn't actually do it without that support as there is so much to learn. It is indeed a true community. The fact that you learn everyday makes this worthwhile in my book and to hear somebody like spectregunner after 5 years say that they are still learning is great.