Rejected

Look, I made an effort to contribute and was willing to volunteer my time to add to this directory. Even though you all say you want editors it is hard to believe that is true. I think, perhaps, you have been burned so many times that you have made your directory editor application process so cumbersome that a lot of good editors are walking away from ODP.

Whoever rejected my application must have jumped to conclusions that could have easily been cleared up with e-mail. Since your procedures do not allow for that I am giving up--you are all probably very happy.

Here is my reviewer’s response to my application to edit the very tiny category http://dmoz.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Louisiana/Business_and_Economy/Agriculture/

"Hello,

In Regional we list sites by physical location, so your site (if it does indeed have a bricks and mortar presence) would be listed in Regional: North America: United States: Louisiana: Localities: P: Ponchatoula , not at the state level. "

Even though I have submitted my site, what does my site have to do with my not being qualified for the editor position? My reasons for becoming an editor had nothing to do with my site submission. I wanted to become an editor because I work in an industry that is almost completely ignored by your directory. I want to help the people in our industry bring their information to your directory.

If this person had asked they would have found out why my company should be in a regional listing instead of a city listing. It is like the mod believes my company is only a website and if it isn't just a website then it should only have a city listing. Should Microsoft only be listed in the cities that they have offices??

I doubt you will agree with me and I am sure from reading these forums you will agree with your reviewer’s conclusion. This directory is far from what it aspires to be and from my experiences here it will never become anything near a complete or superior source of information available on the Internet.

Good luck in the future

In Regional, we list businesses by where the company is physically located. So, if you business is physically located in Ponchatoula, that's where it gets listed. Your area of operation is irrelevent.

Because of the nature of editing in Regional, prospective editors are recommended to apply to a locality-level category, to get their feet wet before trying to edit at the state level. Understanding of the nature of Regional is critical for someone to be editing at the state level or we'd end up having to clean up after a well-intentioned new editor who lists sites at too high a level.

Should Microsoft only be listed in the cities that they have offices??

Click to expand...

In Regional, Microsoft is only listed in Redmond.

If you know your application was rejected, then you apparently received an email telling you so (I don't see a query here from you asking about your application). If you did receive an email, the email tells you what you need to know about the rejection -- if it is just the standard reply without specific reviewer comments, then at least one of the items in the standard reply applied in your case.

Motsa

Your responses are so typical of the cumbersome, sometimes silly procedures you guys follow.

"If you did receive an email, the email tells you what you need to know about the rejection -- if it is just the standard reply without specific reviewer comments, then at least one of the items in the standard reply applied in your case."

The standard rejection reply could be sent to every applicant. So many of your criteria are subjective.

I think the problem with ODP is that too many people have authority to make decisions. Someone said here that applications for editors needed to be reviewed just like job applications. That may be true but 20 people could look at the same application and draw 20 different conclusions--meanwhile the work is not getting done.

That is exactly what is happening here--the work is not getting done. People who have valuable input for your directory are not getting access because of some volunteer or lack of a volunteer. The buck never stops at ODP.

I have yet to read a post from an administrator or Meta that said, "Yes we screwed up that site should be listed" or "that application should have been accepted." You guys try to explain rejections other people made and you can only speculate as to how the decision was reached and every time you seem to agree with the editor or make an excuse for ODP.

I submitted a site and three different editors told me different categories I should have submitted too!! My site is still not listed even though several editors have looked at it. I offered to edit a very specific sub category that would best describe my site and the scores of other sites like it and was rejected because someone thought the category was not needed! Even your own people can't follow the logic of this process. It's crazy.

I hope that someone is at least paying you since you take the time to read all these rants!

>> The standard rejection reply could be sent to every applicant. So many of your criteria are subjective.

The standard reply is the standard reply because the items mentioned in it apply to a lot of applicants. Those items were put there to save the meta editors having repeatedly write the same things in a ton of applications.

Some things might be subjective. Things like submitting locality-level sites to a state category, on the other hand, are not.


>> I have yet to read a post from an administrator or Meta that said, "Yes we screwed up that site should be listed" or "that application should have been accepted."

Actually, there have been posts exactly like that.


>>I submitted a site and three different editors told me different categories I should have submitted too!! My site is still not listed even though several editors have looked at it.

Responses to posts here should not be taken to mean that any given site will be reviewed any more quickly than it would if you'd never posted. This forum isn't a fast track to getting listed. You've been told the site is waiting in the correct category. As our new forum guidelines tell you to wait at least six months before coming back to ask about the status of it again, I'd recommend you come back at the end of the year to ask about it again.

Never mind

I never came here asking about my site. I was told on the site submission forum that category editors had looked at it but it was still pending. That has nothing to do with this thread or my application.

So you submit a site to this supposedly fantastic directory, the category you submit to has no editor, a meta tells you to come back in six months, six months latter an editor decides you submitted to the wrong category, you submit to another and the process starts again. You volunteer to help with catgories and are rejected because the meta thinks you want to improperly list your site. (if you have several locations in one state--none of which have an editor on your directory--where should you submit your site???) What if I hadn't even used my site as an example URL?

I can't get listed in any of your regional categories because none have an editor.

One more thing

"Responses to posts here should not be taken to mean that any given site will be reviewed any more quickly than it would if you'd never posted. This forum isn't a fast track to getting listed. You've been told the site is waiting in the correct category."

Why did you jump to this conculusion?? I never thought posting here would help. I told you about the category confusion to make the point that there is no clear cut reasoning to the decisions you guys make here. You can't even explain it. You say now that I am in the correct category but is it not true that the editor of that category might decide it does not belong there and reject the site?? You obviously read over the site submission thread on my site, you should know my competitors are spread over several different categories. It's ridiculous.

Perhaps you should let people pick their categories--list their sites and then let volunteers delete the ones that do not belong. Owners of sites know much better than the volunteers what their sites offer. I am sure there will be abuse of such it system but the users of the directory would have access to much more information than they do now.

I can't get listed in any of your regional categories because none have an editor.

Click to expand...

There's no editor for my category - will my submission ever get reviewed?

>> I never came here asking about my site.

The reason I mentioned it here is because you brought it up in your post. Just wanted to address the point when it was brought up. The reason I mentioned the wait time and the fact that posting here won't get a site a faster review is because you expressed frustration that no one had listed your site yet. That's all.


>>(if you have several locations in one state--none of which have an editor on your directory--where should you submit your site???) What if I hadn't even used my site as an example URL?

You submit to the right one, which is the physical location of your business. No category is without a potential editor, even if there isn't one listed on the category. All parent category and editall+ editors can edit there. If you hadn't used your own site but the others belonged at the locality-level as well, then you would have still been rejected (I haven't seen your application so I don't know if they did or not). The fact that one of the sites was yours would have been irrelevent if the application was for the right Regional category.

"mlm" said:

Whoever rejected my application must have jumped to conclusions that could have easily been cleared up with e-mail. Since your procedures do not allow for that I am giving up--you are all probably very happy.

Click to expand...

Actually there were less than a quarter of the editors at the party. You should see how much punch is left over.

Seriously... if you think you wrote a good app and it got rejected... just try again. Lots of editors got in on the 5th try from what I hear. OTOH if getting turned down once sours you on the whole idea, don't bother. Your call.

I can assure you they don't shoot down apps randomly or wantonly, but the guidelines for editing are available via the "Become an Editor" link, so if you didn't excercise the initiative to read/follow them, don't get unhappy with the guys that review applications.

On the other topic... I'll tell you a little secret that should make you feel better. In the big scheme it really doesn't matter what category they put you in. Seriously.

Once in ODP you get picked up by the big engines, and they are search engines, not directories for the most part. A lot of how you show up on them will have more to do with what their spider sees on your site than where our guys put it or how they described it. Virtually nobody but editors actually search ODP directly from our site. My own is placed once... in a small town that constitutes a miniscule portion of my market area (and frankly isn't described very well, but I don't touch my own site). I still kick butt on the Search Engines. Once you're in ODP, how well you fare on the big SEs depends on your site, nothing more.

Bottom line... it aint that bad. Relax and have a good one. If you decide to reapply... best of luck.

When reviewing new editor applications, one thing that metas look for is that editors have an understanding of the types of sites that belong in a category. If you submitted a locality-level site (yours) at a state level, it would appear that you don't really understand what types of sites belong in the category to which you're applying. Granted, I didn't take a look at the other two sites you suggested.

Here's the thing though.... the meta who reviewed your application cared enough to fill you in on the specifics of why you were rejected. Metas are not required to provide comments... She/he wanted to give you that info.

You are now armed with the information you need to submit a better application (both from the rejection information and from this thread). You can use it or not, your choice!