Receiving A Letter Of Review

nickytcom said:

Hello,

I build websites and usually submit to DMOZ but have never received any correspondence whether my suggestions are under review or denied.

I've heard through a friend that an email is sent after submitting or suggesting to DMOZ stating that his suggestion will be reviewed by an editor, but I have yet to receive an email like this thus far.

Anyone know much about this topic?

Nick

Click to expand...

Same problem with me. I don't know how to fix this problem. Someone at Dmoz can answer.

computerstar said:

Same problem with me. I don't know how to fix this problem. Someone at Dmoz can answer.

Click to expand...

There is no problem. So nothing to fix.
And the answer has already been given to the original question.

no need to be agravated

To hutcheson

A better way to do WHAT?

Click to expand...

- maintain a directory

A better way to ... get a good suggestion for a listable site? Well, what we do NOW with a bad suggestion is ... FIX THE SUGGESTION. IMMEDIATELY. Without the pointless effort and wasted time and potential danger and artificially-induced frustration of a possibly-endless round of communication with a possibly-desperate and occasionally-violent webmaster.

Click to expand...

- that's why you have to improve the process of accepting web sites. If people know at least that there is something wrong with their listing than maybe they'll got the idea. I don't talk about spammers and tricksters of this sort.

you have to improve the process of accepting web sites

Click to expand...

Why, exactly?
First of all, we are volunteers, so we don't have to do anything, least of all something suggested by someone who is not interesting in helping by becoming a volunteer themselves.
Secondly, the purpose of the directory is not to "accept websites", and doing so is not a priority for editors, so why would we be interested in "improving" that process?
Finally, all of this has been addressed many many times in this forum and even this thread, so a little more time spent reading and a little less time telling us what we should do may be beneficial to everyone.

shadowflyer said:

If people know at least that there is something wrong with their listing than maybe they'll got the idea. I don't talk about spammers and tricksters of this sort.

Click to expand...

We have tried to explain over and over again that the only websites that get rejected are the ones we do not (not now and not ever) want to list. The guidelines can be found at Open Directory Editing Guidelines - Site Selection Criteria
Any suggestion of such a website is spam for us. That is the reason we do not want to tell these people we noticed their attempt to sneak in an unlisatble site.

Anything that might be wrong with the suggestion of a listable website will be corrected by an editor. Amongst these mistakes are wrong category, bad title, bad discription, wrong url. These all will be corrected. There is no need to tell the person who suggested the website as there is nothing he has to do.

shadowflyer said:

To hutcheson
- maintain a directory

- that's why you have to improve the process of accepting web sites. If people know at least that there is something wrong with their listing than maybe they'll got the idea. I don't talk about spammers and tricksters of this sort.

Click to expand...

I think what needs the most "improvement" is people's ideas and perceptions of what DMOZ really is ... and is not. Some people expect things from DMOZ that DMOZ never intended to provide, and DMOZ has repeatedly stated what it is and what it is not.

To expect a good deal on a horse from a dealer in cars is not realistic. To expect an auto mechanic to repair your computer is not realistic. Failure to acheive unrealistic expectations is the fault of the one holding the unrealistic expections.

If people know at least that there is something wrong with their listing than maybe they'll got the idea.

Click to expand...

There ISN'T anything wrong with a site suggestion that we can't fix. There never was, and there never will be.

And honest amateurs or businessmen won't suggest more than one or two sites anyway, there's no point in training someone to do something they'll only do once or twice in their life. You let them take their best shot, and then (if it's worth doing right) you fix it.

So who's suggesting more than one or two sites? Only two kinds of people:

(1) Spammers--people who don't follow the rules we've already given them. And we want them to stay as ignorant and inefficient as possible.
(2) Professional website designers or website promoters. And ... they can perfectly well learn whatever they need, at their own expense: it's professional training, and they can pay each other for it. There is no reason, no reason at all, for the ODP amateur volunteers to provide free vocational training to professionals. And it wouldn't be fair to anyone to try.

See, the problem you are trying to solve just isn't real. There is nobody helping the directory who NEEDS the training you're describing and can't get it from their professional peers.

pvgool said:

We have tried to explain over and over again that the only websites that get rejected are the ones we do not (not now and not ever) want to list. The guidelines can be found at Open Directory Editing Guidelines - Site Selection Criteria
Any suggestion of such a website is spam for us. That is the reason we do not want to tell these people we noticed their attempt to sneak in an unlisatble site.

Anything that might be wrong with the suggestion of a listable website will be corrected by an editor. Amongst these mistakes are wrong category, bad title, bad discription, wrong url. These all will be corrected. There is no need to tell the person who suggested the website as there is nothing he has to do.

Click to expand...

We have tried to explain over and over again that the only websites that get rejected are the ones we do not (not now and not ever) want to list.

Click to expand...

This explains the whole process. I agree with you. I doesn't worth it for web masters to try to list they websites and on top it may hurt you if you ever decide to look into this option. As far as I got the point everything is left, presumably, to some editor to look at the application in a not specific time frame and if he/she decides the web site is included. But also there is another trouble here. For example a competitor's webmaster submitting multiple applications on behalf of your web site. So what happens here? Nobody receives any confirmations so it's perfect for spammers to destroy reputation of completely unaware web site owners. On top of that if this unlucky web site decides to get listed here it's already in the black list till, by some miracle, maybe some editor looks more seriously into this problem. Also there is a phenomenon of websites listed in multiple categories which also doesn't stand the claim of only 1 submit in the most appropriate category.

I understand that this is a volunteer project, but ... there is still a lot to be done (check my remarks in previous posts if you want).

Finally, all my regards to all editors striving to clear the web from spammers and dedicating their free time to maintaining a huge directory as dmoz.

For example a competitor's webmaster submitting multiple applications on behalf of your web site. So what happens here? Nobody receives any confirmations so it's perfect for spammers to destroy reputation of completely unaware web site owners. On top of that if this unlucky web site decides to get listed here it's already in the black list till, by some miracle, maybe some editor looks more seriously into this problem. Also there is a phenomenon of websites listed in multiple categories which also doesn't stand the claim of only 1 submit in the most appropriate category.

Click to expand...

So long as there is real work to be done, improving real deficiencies in the directory (like adding more good sites and removing bad listings), don't you think it would be a HUGE waste of volunteer time to build processes for handling purely hypothetical problems?

If the editors ever notice that this is a problem, then no doubt the proper way of addressing it could be discussed -- in confidentiality, of course, NEVER in a public forum.

shadowflyer said:

But also there is another trouble here. For example a competitor's webmaster submitting multiple applications on behalf of your web site. So what happens here? Nobody receives any confirmations so it's perfect for spammers to destroy reputation of completely unaware web site owners. On top of that if this unlucky web site decides to get listed here it's already in the black list till, by some miracle, maybe some editor looks more seriously into this problem.

Click to expand...

Do you realy think that there are people willing to spend an enormous amount of time just to get a small chance of getting one competing website banned.
But don't be afraid all situations are looked at by several human editors and these editors are very experienced in finding spam.

Also there is a phenomenon of websites listed in multiple categories which also doesn't stand the claim of only 1 submit in the most appropriate category.

Click to expand...

There is a big difference between
- suggest a website only once (by a member of the public)
and
- list a website more than once (by an editor)
The first is not allowed the second is allowed.

I understand that this is a volunteer project, but ... there is still a lot to be done (check my remarks in previous posts if you want).

Click to expand...

We as editors know that there is still a lot to do. But we also know that it always will be a balance between what we want and what can be accomplished with the available resources.

Got the point!!!