I hate to depress you guys... but

I think you've nailed it. I DO believe in FIFO and I guess most of the editors don't... which is where we ultimately differ.

And so I suppose my underlying suspicion has been confirmed. That in the absence of any kind of time ordered queuing, a "suggested site" might never get reviewed... simply because it didn't catch an editors eye.

And whilst some editors here have indicated that "years" or "never" is a perfectly acceptable time-scale or an unimportant one, the guidance from "Submit a Site" on DMOZ seems to indicate differently.

An ODP editor will review your submission to determine whether to include it in the directory. Depending on factors such as the volume of submissions to the particular category, it may take several weeks or more before your submission is reviewed.

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The above statement simply does not seem to tally with the views I'm getting here. Perhaps the statement should be changed?

"...it may take several weeks or more..."

That in the absence of any kind of time ordered queuing, a "suggested site" might never get reviewed... simply because it didn't catch an editors eye.

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Or because the category it was suggested to didn't catch an editor's eye.

The editors don't believe in site submittals at all, in the sense you describe. We don't and can't KNOW which site was SUBMITTED first (as if we cared!); it's time-consuming to try to determine which site was PUBLISHED first -- which is all that would matter if someone were interested in FIFO (which, as you correctly state, we're absolutely not!)

But the underlying issue is, submittals. We've heard of them, but they're not missives from God. They are just suggestions.

>That in the absence of any kind of time ordered queuing, a "suggested site" might never get reviewed... simply because it did'nt catch an editors eye.

That's true.

Of course, it's also true of unsuggested sites, and it's also true regardless of what kind of queuing is absent, or indeed regardless of what kind of queueing is present.

Focussing on such a small and insignificant and mostly irrelevant part of the problem, means that any insights obtained are not likely to be generally applicable.

Therfore a more accurate interpretation of the guidlines might be...

An ODP editor will review your submission

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actually they might not

it may take several weeks or more before your submission is reviewed

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. Your submission may or may not be reviewed ever, at the discretion of the editor

To me, that does not feel like what the ODP is about and actually I don't believe it to be true. I do think there is a difference between the expectations setup in the guidelines for submitters by dmoz and what actually happens.

thanks for taking the time...

Signing Out

Thanks for the lively debate and taking the time to contribute and inform.

Guess we might chat again in a few months time but for now I need to sign out and move on!

Have a great christmas all!