http://www.heartstarthome.com

I submitted this site about a month ago. It's the official website for Philips Medical's new home defibrillator device. Heartstarthome Thanks for any help.

/-gieckboy

Your site seems to be in the review-queue in a couple of categories when quickchecking the history. Since I dont know in which it will be listed I cant give any status of that submission.

But please, as our submission guidelines state save us some work and submit "to the single most apropriate category only" - not to all categories slightly related <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" />

I apologize for that - I first submitted the site some time ago (6+ months) and never heard anything from you guys. I recently resubmitted it but may have submitted to a different category this time.

I asked about this submission here about a month ago. It's been about 8 months since I first submitted it to DMOZ. Can someone please look into its status and see if anything can be done? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Where did you submit? Give us a clickable link please.

I submitted http://www.heartstarthome.com to http://dmoz.org/Business/Healthcare/Products_and_Services/Medical_Equipment and possibly another category.

Your site is awaiting review in that category with over 300 other sites.

Beebware,
Do you know if anyone is actively editing that section?
/-Gieckboy

http://dmoz.org/Business/Healthcare/ has 4 active editors listed, but the unreviewed for the branch is extremely backlogged-the Products and Services category is quite popular.

Perhaps you would care to help out by applying to edit one of the smaller subcategories in http://dmoz.org/Business/Healthcare/Products_and_Services/Medical_Equipment/ ? <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />

Just wanted to check back in to see if www.Heartstarthome.com is any closer to getting reviewed.

BTW Lissa - I'd apply to be an Ed. to speed things up but I don't think I'm very qualified.

Still waiting in a pool of more than 300 sites, I'm afraid.

&gt;&gt;I'd apply to be an Ed. to speed things up but I don't think I'm very qualified.&lt;&lt;

It's not as though they check resumes... <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> All that the meta editors ask is that you are honest (declare your affiliations!, don't abuse your privileges), that you can follow some directions (where to place a site, how to describe a site), and that you write in reasonable English or whatever language is appropriate for your category (check spelling, be concise, make sure that the descriptions make sense). Granted, there's a little more to it than that -- choosing an appropriate category is also important -- and many people take a few tries before they get accepted, but my point is that you don't have to be an expert. Being accepted as an editor is just the start of a learning process, and new editors aren't expected to be perfect, just to do their best. We leave perfection to the metas. <img src="/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

To second lachenm, there aren't really specific qualifications. I would explain it as an ability to learn, follow guidelines and write good descriptions (which can take experience). Definately do explain upfront which sites you are affiliated with, being affiliated with a site doesn't make it impossible to be unfair. Since editors are usually webminded people, a large amount have some kind of website of their own. My degree and work history is in social services...but I've learned to give it my all and really enjoy the time I spend editing even though it has nothing to do with my professional life. If it is something you are interested in, go for it--ODP is always looking for new editors.

Take care and good luck!
Lin <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />

This is embarrassing guys! I submitted this site WELL over a year ago and have still not had a response. This submission is for a legitimate medical business that is a subsidiary of Philips Electronics - and it doesn't get much more apropriate to the category than that. Why can't someone review this site in a reasonable amount of time? Is the final nail already in the DMOZ coffin? Should I quit wasting my time submitting to you guys? Honestly - what gives???

Were you requesting another status check? From what you wrote, I wasn't exactly sure. If you were, your site is still waiting, still with lots of others.

As for what is going on, the answer is simple: we are glad that so many people, including you, are interested enough in the ODP to suggest sites for inclusion. We don't guarantee a specific time for review, and indeed, we don't guarantee a listing for any site. When a volunteer editor has both enough time and interest, the sites in a category will be reviewed.

In the meantime, speaking not as an editor, but as an individual, I highly suggest trying some other web promotion strategies. There are many more appropriate forums where these types of strategies can be discussed. One thing I will mention is that since your site is part of Philips, which is already listed in the directory, if Philips wants to direct ODP users to their HeartStart product, they can certainly do so from their already listed pages.

Hi Lachnm,

I'm already using a number of other promotional techniques on this site so this isn't a matter of my waiting on ODP to make the site successful. Also the site in question is a stand-alone product that is not duplicated on the main Philips site so I think your implication that it might not deserve a link is not correct.

What is an issue to me is that ODP can't review the site within a reasonable amount of time. I've promoted the Open Directory Project from the start to all my clients as a valuable part of the Internet and an important place to be listed. When 1 year later this site still hasn't been reviewed I have to question the continued relevance of ODP. Personally it sounds like ODP has lost their momentum and that's frustating to me because they used to be such a wonderful resource for both searchers and promoters.

/-Gieckboy

Also the site in question is a stand-alone product that is not duplicated on the main Philips site so I think your implication that it might not deserve a link is not correct.

Click to expand...

Actually, that wasn't what I was implying. I was saying that Philips could do a better job of promoting its own product, instead of worrying about an ODP listing.

But now that you mention it, you make an excellent point. Let me get this straight -- the company that owns the site, and ostensibly knew about its development even before the site went live, hasn't even linked to it yet, and you're complaining about ODP response time?

Think about this another way: the company that owns this product, and is supposedly making money from it, doesn't think it is important enough to link from its own site (at least I couldn't find a link) -- but you think that the ODP, which has no interest in the product, should consider it important enough to link from our site?

That's why the ODP rarely lists single-product sites of larger companies. The ODP is not a crutch for companies or designers who can't figure out how to market their products effectively from their websites. Now, I'm not saying that the site definitely won't be listed, but it is somewhat unlikely.

Personally it sounds like ODP has lost their momentum and that's frustating to me because they used to be such a wonderful resource for both searchers and promoters.

Click to expand...

I don't know about losing momentum. As far as I can tell, the ODP adds more sites every day than any other directory. Now, it may not always add sites in the categories of interest to you, but it does add plenty of sites.

Unfortunately, you seem to be sharing a common misconception about the ODP. The ODP is not a service for website promoters, designers, or owners. It is a volunteer-run directory that is aimed at helping people find information on the internet -- in other words, it is ultimately a service for surfers.

Sometimes the interests of website promoters, designers, and owners are aligned with our own. That's why we accept site suggestions from the public -- those suggestions sometimes alert us to excellent resources. However, because those outside interests are not always aligned with ours, the categories with the greatest number of public suggestions aren't necessarily the ones that help users the most (How much value does the 3,001st site selling left-handed, tie-dyed widgets really add for the end user?). As a result, those categories don't necessarily capture the greatest amount of interest from volunteer editors.

It is also important to remember that site suggestions are by no means the only way we build the ODP -- editors are encouraged to find sites on their own, and are not required to process site suggestions in any order or at any particular speed. Adding good sites that editors find can often be more productive than processing site suggestions -- instead of the ODP being limited to a reflection of what designers, promoters, and owners want people to see, it also reflects what people who actually use the web want to see.

Editors edit where they have an interest and where they see a need. If members of the public see a need that is not being addressed, they can apply to be editors. The bottom line is that your site will be reviewed when a volunteer editor finds the time and has the interest. Do I wish the processing times could be faster? Sure. And that's part of the reason why I constantly encourage people to apply to be editors.

It is _reachable_ from the main site and a lot of information about it is available directly onthe site itself - see http://www.medical.philips.com/main/products/resuscitation/industry/home/index.html or anywhere around it. We don't care how the information is spread on the internet and if it is on one or multiple domains s long as it is one package.

Ah, thanks windharp. I didn't try www.medical.philips.com. Information about heartstarthome.com isn't obvious from the main www.philips.com site, where the heartstarthome.com subpage backlinks.

So I'd still say that Philips could do a better job of marketing, and I'll stick with my points about their Philips.com site -- if it's not so important to them, why should it be to us? The answer, of course, is that it shouldn't. And windharp is absolutely correct about our not caring how much a website is spread out -- in general, we'll list it once.