It's been a year, this is crazy already...

Hi - I've been trying to get my friends site listed in DMOZ for over a year now. The domain is <URL removed>, and the most recent submission is from this morning in the New York, Peekskill regional category.

I've tried multiple categories, contacted the editors (no response), and I've still not had any luck getting it in the directory.

I'm really hoping someone here can help!

Thanks in advance....

Posting to 'multiple categories' is against the submission guidelines. That is only making more work for editors, and in no way will get your site listed any faster.

Submit once, and wait. It may take weeks, months, years to get listed, if ever.

mollybdenum

I wouldn't be submitting to multiple categories if someone would look at the site.

And this submit and wait (if ever? Come on Mollybenum, are you serious?), attitude is precisely why DMOZ is in trouble. This offers zero benefit to your directory or it's potential users. If it takes an editor more than a few weeks to review and either reject or approve a site then they shouldn't be editors.

I've never understand the logic behind thinking that getting rid of editors will magically speed up the review process .

There's no "hurry up and wait" mentality here. It's a much more nuanced approach.

The attitude is basically:

(1) Do what you think most needs to be done;
(2) Be grateful for whatever other people do, that you agree needs to be done.
(3) Tolerate whatever people do that DOESN'T fit what you think needs to be done,
(4) Realize there's no grounds for criticizing someone else for not doing something that you're not doing either.
(5) Try to gain a broader appreciation of human culture, so you can find more things to be grateful for.

So long as you're stuck with the attitude "only one site matters, and that site matters only to me", you're going to be isolated. But if you can learn to appreciate the fact that a thousand sites were listed today, and ten of them might impinge on some of your interests, then ALL of the internet will be a more enjoyable and less frustrating place.

I'd agree with you Hutcheson if we were talking about waiting 2-3 weeks, but as I mentioned this has been in the que for over a year. I know the ques the editors have can be daunting, but come on, but it doesn't take a year to get through them.

Jimnoble - well they clearly aren't doing their jobs as editors if they've got sites waiting for over a year for a review, so you'd be better off getting rid of them and finding someone else with more time to do what they've signed up to do.

We should bring back the press gang? Get people drunk, put a shilling in their hands and drag them aboard in chains?

ODP is a volunteer organisation. No editor owns a category and over 200 editors can work wherever they wish - which is a good job because the huge majority of categories don't have named editors. If no volunteer chooses to evaluate your website in the time scale required by you, that isn't a problem for us.

I wouldn't be submitting to multiple categories if someone would look at the site.

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So instead you create more work for the editors, which inevitably leads to longer waiting times for everybody who has suggested their sites to those categories (including yourself).

well they clearly aren't doing their jobs as editors if they've got sites waiting for over a year for a review

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No, that's incorrect. There are many different tasks that an editor is expected to do, but reviewing suggested sites within any particular time frame isn't one of them.

Particular time frame??? Dude, wake up, it's been over a year. And we're not talking about super busy categories either, give me a break! Quit acting like I am a moron and that I have no clue about how DMOZ works (or rather doesn't work).

I thought I'd give this one last kick at the cat to help my friend out, but clearly you are all too busy making excuses for each other here instead of addressing the problem(s).

I don't care what you say, or what excuses you come up with, having to wait over 1 year clearly indicates something is broken at DMOZ.

Thanks for all your help here guys. Nice job. Oh, and Jimnoble, you've been particularly helpful, lol.

Since everything you say indicates that you don't actually understand how the ODP works, or what it is about, you can't really blame us for trying to explain it to you. If you think we're making up excuses, there is not much we can do about it - I'm sure you are an intelligent person and I won't insult you by saying the same things again phrased differently.

However, your opinion of the directory won't affect whether your friend's site is listed. If it is listable, it will be listed when an editor has reviewed it.

jfidler38 said:

.... and that I have no clue about how DMOZ works (or rather doesn't work). ....
I don't care what you say, or what excuses you come up with, having to wait over 1 year clearly indicates something is broken at DMOZ.

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Nope. It only indactes that you don't understand what DMOZ is about and how it has decided it wants to work.
Nothing wrong. Probably DMOZ is not what you (and a lot of other webmaster) want it to be: "a way to promote websites". But it still is what it was intended to be and what the editors and its customers want it to be: "a collection of human selected websites".

Particular time frame??? Dude, wake up, it's been over a year.

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And your point is? Waits can exceed two or even three years. It takes as long as it takes. Get over it.

Quit acting like I am a moron and that I have no clue about how DMOZ works (or rather doesn't work).

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Well, it is clear that you do not know how it works.

There is no required timeframe for reviewing a site. If it takes 10 years, it takes 10 years.

Editors are not required to work suggestion queues. Just because someone is not working where YOU want and when YOU want is not a good reason to get rid of them.. it is not about you or your site, it is about building the directory.

Oh, and Jimnoble, you've been particularly helpful

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He has. Jim does a most excellent job of explaining things -- even if it is not what you want to hear.

Maybe you would rather he tell you that:

Oh, your site hasn't been listed. We'll get someone right on it and fire everyone who could have listed it but decided they had different priorities.

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editors

If it is taking over a year someone is not doing properly, does DMOZ have management system to pass feedback. I think the editor of that category should be repalced.

Someone help this guy and look into EDITORS

No, there is no system to "replace" editors. The system actually implemented is infinitely simpler, cleverer, more flexible, and more efficient than that archaic notion.

It works like this: each volunteers work as much as they volunteer for. And what they don't do, is merely left for someone else.

And even if there were a system of replacing editors, what credentials would entitle you to be in charge of it? An editor who doesn't do what YOU want to do today, may still be doing something useful for surfers. (How would YOU know, one way or the other? And without knowing, how could you give CONSTRUCTIVE criticism?)