microstar.net

Re: Still Waiting

I find it hard to understand exactly what is going on with the 'powers that be' on DMOZ, besides the fact that we have been trying over 3 months to get our site listed (a site that has been around over 8 years) in a small pool of unevaluated sites, the biggest problem I have is the fact that my employee has been trying to become an editor for this cat and also a music cat, half the time dmoz is down then when he finally does get in, he sends a 'becoming an editor' email and half of those times it has an error and the other half he does not get any reply, perhaps dmoz should concentrate more on the editor approval problems, this may relieve the thousands of submission status questions on this forum.

Thank you

Re: Still Waiting

No, we should not and cannot concentrate on the "editor approval process." That is handled by professional staff at AOL.

This year has been frustrating for everyone, first the mammoth server overloads that made it impossible to edit (by the way, a VERY GOOD reason NOT to concentrate on the editor approval practice, don't you think?) and then the various "rolling brownouts" of dmoz.org functionality that affected all of the functionality at one time or another -- usually at multiple times. Throughout this period staff made the conscious decision (which is indisputably correct) to focus on keeping the basic editing functionality up, and succeeded remarkably well in that (considering the complexity of changes that were constantly going on). In order to achieve that, non-editors were sometimes locked out, given older data, metered/rationed, etc. We regret that, but would not have traded a millisecond of EDITING response time -- that's what dmoz.org is for.

The "editor application" process is one of the most complex parts of the system, since it involves both the editing databases and the public pages. Obviously, it couldn't BEGIN to work until both the editing server and the public server were both up and running in their new configuration. So it had to come last--not as a design choice, not even just because it would have been insane to concentrate on accepting editors into a database that couldn't be edited, but because it was a logical necessity.

Currently, editor applications are believed to be working. If you have specific problems, please report them (with details of error messages, etc.) in the "Bugs and Features" forum here. If you have questions about the status of an application, you should ask them in the "Becoming an Editor" forum.

Re: Still Waiting

Thanks Hutchenson, Cliff will try again today at volunteering, If AOL needs to put their stamp of approval on each and every editor chosen then I can definately see the reason for the backlog of that process. Perhaps with all dmoz hardware now working harmoniously, things may run more efficiently. We all get frustrated when servers are down but lets be glad we are not using the old computer punchcards to get our electronic work done


...if you have the chance please let me know if the small pool of sites in my regional cat. has wittle down any I know it's only been about 3 weeks since my last inquiry on it.

Thanks
Ray

Re: Still Waiting

AOL reserves the right to review editor applications, and professional AOL employees do review some -- partly, I think, to keep a fresh feel for life in the trenches, partly volunteering their own personal time. But volunteer editors ("meta-editors") review most editor applications. But the process of applying (and accepting) editors is programmed by AOL technical staff. The recent problems with applications have been from the programming side. (When that happens, we grimace and try to find something else constructive to do.)

While the new process was being debugged, resource-zone was the main source of feedback from the outside -- and it helped track down problems more than once or twice (editors passed the facts back through internal feedback forums.)

Status of microstar.net

Please let me know status on the inclusion of microstar.net, it's going on 5 months since it's submission, it is also going on 4 months since my employee has been trying to become an editor for two different small cats!!!

Thanks
Ray

Re: Status of microstar.net

Can't comment on the editor deal but your site is still waiting for review in both cateories.

Re: Status of microstar.net

Thank you, that was a very imformative and helpful detailed reply

Re: Status of microstar.net

Your site has to wait for a review just as every other site does.

As far as your employee's editor applications are concerned, this forum is strictly for Submission Status checks. I would recommend pointing your employee to the proper forum regarding this matter:
http://www.resource-zone.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=bemome

Re: Status of microstar.net

I am aware of that fact, however, 5 months wait in a regional cat seems like a long time, besides do higher editors not see a high number of threads (which indicate long months in queue)in the submission status on a given site and perhaps try to move that one along? There are thousands of others in my same predicament that are waiting months (if not years) trying to get their site listed, yet If I go through many of the dmoz directories I see duplicate sites in same category. Case in point; computersforless and computers4less on http://www.dmoz.com/Computers/Hardware/Retailers/C/

You're right, editor approval issues should be addressed in the proper index (which I will use in the future).

Re: Status of microstar.net

5 months is not that bad - my own business site waited a year in a Regional category. It is over 2 years waiting in its topical category. You just have to be patient. I know you are frustrated but we are doing the best we can.

BTW - thanks for the heads up on the computers4less deal - I took care of that.

Re: Status of microstar.net

alright alright I'll just try to be paitient and do the waiting game.

Thanks