LukeDouglas

What are your options if a site has not been listed in a couple of years, much less months? In addition, if a category has no editor and you have volunteered to become an editor, why doesn't someone respond to a request to become an editor? A couple of years ago and a few months ago, I submitted a request to become an editor for a category that didn't have an editor for "Regional: North America: United States: Alabama: Metro Areas and Regions: Dothan Metro". I haven't heard anything other than the 'standard' automated email response indicating they DMOZ has received the request.

I have about 60 websites that I do, most commercial but about 20% pro-bono for organizations, and, for most, I do submit on DMOZ but, to date, only about half have been added. Here is an example of a site that still hasn't been listed:

A few months ago, March 1, 2010 specifically, I submitted <URL removed> to DMOZ.org. From my documentation, it looks like it was to the "Arts: Visual Arts: Painting: Frescoes,Murals,Faux-Finishes" which does not have a 'become an editor' link. I used the following submission information:

1. Title: AM PM Design Studio & Rococo Cat Atelier
2. Description: AM PM Design Studio is a working Art Studio specializing in Commercial and Residential Interior Painting, Murals, Faux Finishing, Tromp L'Oeil, Art Restoration and Renovation. Our staff is made up of experienced Artists and Designers to bring time tested techniques and the latest trends to your home or business.

I've read your guidelines and I believe the Title and Description meet the DMOZ terms but, if not, could someone give me some pointers.

I know this is a volunteer organization and that you are receiving thousands of submissions, probably daily, but it's frustrating when you find sites that have been listed under multiple categories using different pages on their site. Should I do a different submission for several of the pages for this website that cover other areas that 'really' doesn't fit into the "Arts: Visual Arts: Painting: Frescoes,Murals,Faux-Finishes" category? This business does a wide range of interior design work, not just for 'Frescoes,Murals,Faux-Finishes'.

I hope this is not received as criticism as that is not the intention. All I want is to be able to do submissions and get them listed within a reasonable period (although I don't know what DMOZ thinks is a reasonable period).

As far as becoming an editor, I still volunteer my services so if anyone wants to check for my submission with the email <email removed for your protection>, go right ahead.

Thanks for reading.

Luke

You might have misunderstood our objectives and how we operate here. ODP is a volunteer organisation building a directory as a hobby. Editors edit where they wish, when they wish and as much as they wish within the constraints of their permissions. We have no schedules or systems to force people to do work that they don't volunteer to do. ODP is not primarily a free listing service for website owners and it does not attempt to process their listing suggestions within the time scales desired by them.

Some volunteer will process your listing suggestions in time but we can't predict who or when that might be. Elapsed times can range from a few days to a few years. There is no need to re-suggest your websites and doing so could be counter-productive because a later suggestion overwrites any earlier one.

We routinely have to rewrite suggested titles and descriptions so that they conform with our guidelines. We don't decline such listing suggestions. In over 100,000 edits, I've seen maybe 100 that were acceptable without change.

Our suggestion guidelines, which you claim to have read, forbid the suggestion of deeplinks so please don't do it. It just consumes our scarce resources, thus slowing down the process for everybody.

Categories without 'become an editor' links are unsuitable for beginners.

As to your applications to become an editor, there's one awaiting evaluation but I can't trace anything earlier. Elapsed times are longer than we would like at the moment because many of our volunteer meta editors are focusing on the introduction of new back end software.

While you're waiting, you might like to read http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines . A look at http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/describing.html and current listings should help you with titles and descriptions in future.