Reasons for being an editor

Many people spend an awful lot of their free time editting DMOZ and do the best they can in what I consider to be an impossible task.

This question is aimed at editors and those who have applied..Why do volunteer all your free time to the project? I am merely interested in the varying sources of motivation.

I know what my reasons for applying are, just wondering what everyone else's are?

Thanks in advance!
Paul

Some people like to visit sites they might not have thought of themselves, others have an intertest in a topic and would like to build a resource of sites in that area, others like to edit and organize what amounts to the worlds largest bookmark file There are some who volunteer primarily to list their own site and then get "hooked" and contribute considerable time and effort to the directory. Some people just like to work on a resource that's going to be useful to others.

For the majority of editors who stick around for any period of time, I'd say it starts of with one principal reason adn slowly grows to a little bit of all of them.

Ask 4 editors and you will get 22 different answers.

One of the things that appeals to many people, I suspect, is the great variety of ways to spend your time. Right from the moment of joining, every volunteer can choose from numerous activities including:

• adding new sites
• checking existing links as part of quality control
• reading editor resources (there is a lot of help available)
• learning new skills
• discovering new topics of interest
• building a useful resource for those with similar interests
• developing a category on a special topic
• improving listed descriptions to increase usability of the material
• joining group projects
• forum participation
• exchanging feedback with fellow editors
• handling Update Requests to keep the directory current
• finding replacement URLs for dead or redirecting sites
• planning/proposing improvements
• creating new categories on as-yet unrepresented subjects
• ... and reviewing external suggestions.

(You'll note that the last item, which non-editors often assume is the main activity, is in fact just one of many.

After gaining some experience in one area, editors are actively encouraged to apply for wider permissions. There is extensive advice on this process, and provided the editor has shown a willingness to understand and apply the editing guidelines, applications are readily approved, so it is not at all difficult to get permission to edit in more and more areas. This keeps editing interesting and challenging. And addictive!