REJECTED....Now what?

I am sure it is not the first time, and definately will not be the last time these questions have been asked:

If you submit a listing and you find out it has been rejected....now what do you do?

Without having a clear path to what the reasoning is behind the rejection, it is pretty hard to do.

Is there any way to find out exactly why you were rejected?

What happens if the reason proves to be bias? Who do you contact?

What are the steps to take to get the site listed in these cases.? Obviously, if someone is trying this hard to find out the details, that they feel their site is just as worthy as the next.

Hope someone can answer.

Thanks.


PS. It's kind like going to the Dr's office with a problem, but instead of telling him what is ailing you, you make him try to figure out the problem on his own.

And to think malpractice suits are high, as so as it is

Your question is rather like going to the vet and saying "I've got a sick creature at home; What ails it?"

Unsurprisingly, our submission guidelines at http://dmoz.org/add.html and this forum's FAQs give plenty of information about the sort of website that might be and won't be listed. Most people find them pretty clear. Had you thought of reading them? The reason will be there.

Yes, Jimbo, I have read them. I am particularly excited about the part that states:

"Please understand that an editor's exercise of discretion may not always treat all submissions equally. You may not always agree with our choices, but we hope you recognize that we do our best to make fair and reasonable decisions."

Figuring you really haven't read MY post, I am referring to the "we do our best to make fair and reasonable decisions." part of it.

I believe that is 100% garbage in SOME cases. This is not a knock against all editors, just the prejudiced ones, and only those that fall into this category would actually be offended.

My question again is, "What if you feel you have been wronged? What can you do about it?" Obviously there is no chance of ever getting listed as long as that editor is in control.

Of course, it may not even be the case, but I am sure there are instances out there.

If you have evidence of abuse, by all means drop a dime at http://report-abuse.dmoz.org/ .

No, no, no, the analogy is still all wrong. It's like bringing a Beanie Baby to a vet and asking how to feed it.

It's not alive. It never was alive. It never had any of the parts that living things have. Just because it looks furry, to the fond eye of a blind grandmother, doesn't mean anything at all. It's not even fair to call it "dead". "Dead" and "alive" are not attributes that could possibly be relevant.

So when you ask, "what is it missing that live things have?" -- where would we start, if we wanted to start? And where could we end up, except eventually saying, "no, it's not alive, and we really don't think you Raelians can create life anyway."

So put it down to religious prejudice against Raelians, if you wish. Find listed sites that have as little unique content as your own, and get them removed, if you wish. Or try to promote your site among people who are willing to promote sites regardless of how worthless they are to the general public, if you wish. Or go take sixth-grade science again, as many times as it takes, until you understand it well enough to understand why nobody with two clues to rub together believed any of the Raelian claims in the first place.

I believe that is 100% garbage in SOME cases

Click to expand...

I bet you mean, in _this_ case.

Submit the site one more time if you're sure that it's extremely listable and valuable (not marginal), but don't expect the outcome to be different. Not all sites are going to get into ODP even if you think yours should.

To address the more general question: "What do you do when you're rejected?"

I worked in a grocery store.

One time a customer walked in. The store contained 50,000 items and ... the customer didn't even look at 49,997 of them. Three items only on the cash register ticket. Rejection to a degree you'll never be able to achieve.

The grocery store is still there. Other customers bought different items. A few of the items were just pulled from the shelves. Down the street, another grocery store has closed.

OK, the ODP is your customer, or perhaps better, your distributor. You have a product. We tell you "we don't sell that kind of product."

OK, pretend for a moment you're inhabiting reality. What can you do? From that perspective, is it not obvious?

You have several options.

1) You can go out of business, and clearly the ODP will not miss you.
2) You can go look for other distributors, or look for customers on your own.
3) You can go to the drawing boards, to design a product someone might want.
4) Only if you're really stupid, you can keep offering the same people the same product.
5) Only if you're really arrogant and dishonest, and you think the customers are really stupid, you can try to change the package so the customer will think the product is different than it really is.
6) If you're very dishonest, but the customer isn't sufficiently more stupid than you are, the next step is obviously to try to get them to tell you how they figured out you were a con trying to commit a fraud -- so you can disguise yourself better and try again.

It is perhaps unfair for ODP editors to generalize: surely all these options, and perhaps some more, are tried every day. It's just that Option #5 wastes more of our time than the others, and option #6 just plain irritates us. Just because we work together to donate something to the public, for the public good doesn't mean we're stupid!