ODP Quality

It has been stated, by the ODP officials, that the objective of the project in the early stage was to list as many sites as possible with little focus on quality. This objective since has changed quite drastically. The quality of the content is henceforth the primary and leading criteria while determining its inclusion. I have two separate but related questions regarding the content quality issue;

1- Since during its infancy, numerous website must have been listed that would not pass muster if evaluated to the current, much higher standards, Do editors consciously reevaluate the listed website?

2- Does the listing of certain websites, with dynamic content delivery based on locale, in regional subcategories with minimal to absolutely no relevant content, satisfy the higher and more stringent standards?

I will elaborate the second question with an example; listings of Topix.net, a news aggregator, in numerous local categories. I have observed this practice in most of local listings in Wisconsin. There are towns here that have newsworthy events take place once in a blue moon. These towns are small enough where the complete details of such events are shared amongst the residents through personal interaction. These events will have little to no value to wider audience. If the event commands national attention, there are numerous main stream media outlets that will provide the appropriate coverage. There are substantial numbers of local Topix.net listings that will not have any local news for months. I can substantiate this assumption by searching the archives at Topix.net.

I am genuinely interested in opinions rendered by regular members, not just the ODP officials, on the second issue.

Since during its infancy, numerous website must have been listed that would not pass muster if evaluated to the current, much higher standards, Do editors consciously reevaluate the listed website?

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This is something that editors frequently do. The frequency of this effort, like any other editing activity, is left to the discretion of the editor.

Does the listing of certain websites, with dynamic content delivery based on locale, in regional subcategories with minimal to absolutely no relevant content, satisfy the higher and more stringent standards?

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The decision to list, or not list, a given site is made on a site-by-site case basis. It is impossible to give a direct question to your question as posed.

It is possible to tell you that it appears (at least to this editor) you are confusing the ODP with Google, which lists large numbers of these sites, as evidenced by any sort of "city, state" search.

topix.net is a special case.

Finally, please keep in mind that the purpose of this forum is not member-to-member communication, it is a forum designed to allow editors to communicate with members.

Now I have a question for you: what are you trying to accomplish here? You keep asking marginally on-topic questions, and I'm beginning to fear that you are simply trolling -- wasting editor's time with questions you are seeking to debate, rather than questions designed to educate.

Please specifically address this.

When you see a site that has hundreds or thousands of deeplinks, almost always one of two things has happened:

(1) Staff/admins will have made the decision, possibly after discussing with the administrators of some significant content-aggregator site; groundrules will have been laid out, often discussed in internal forums. Editors are still free to review individual listings (as they are any other listing.

(2) Editors will have noticed some very large, high-quality, information-rich site. Again after internal discussions, in which editors encourage each other to take advantage of the information riches, individual editors either list pages, or systematically mine the site for links appropriate for specific topics.

What these sites never never NEVER represent is an individual webmaster who has determined that his site deserves more exposure and submitted it hundreds of times. Such sites are banned, which is no loss to anyone: they basically never deserve the attention that the webmaster desires. (It is almost a truism that the more deeplinks a webmaster wants, the less worth listing at all the site is. Over twenty deeplink requests, and it's 1000-to-1 odds the site is pure spam on every page.

Heavily deeplinked sites are subject to editor review: both individual listings in the context of individual categories, and globally.

spectregunner said:

topix.net is a special case.

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Hence the question and the specific example.

spectregunner said:

Now I have a question for you: what are you trying to accomplish here?

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Enhance my understanding of the ODP.

spectregunner said:

You keep asking marginally on-topic questions, and I'm beginning to fear that you are simply trolling -- wasting editor's time with questions you are seeking to debate, rather than questions designed to educate.

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I reserve the right to ask a question about certain ambiguities, in my understanding of certain issues. You on the other hand are not obligated to respond to any. A debate, focused on a certain issue, helps dispel preconceived and uninformed opinions. If my questions are so irrelevant, that you will categorize my intentions as trolling, you certainly have the authority to close the thread or just ask the officials to remove me as a member.

A debate, focused on a certain issue, helps dispel preconceived and uninformed opinions.

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Aha, that is where the difference lies.

This is, at least as far as I understand it, not a forum to debate issues.

Debate about the merits of listing, not listing, or deeplinking the heck out of any specific site are not appropriate here (and that includes Topix.net). In fact, this *isn't* the place to debate ODP issues or concerns in general.

Your questions frequently *do* border on trolling -- it would be nice if you'd stop doing that on your own without someone having to moderate or remove you.

On that note, I'm closing this thread.