remove my old site submission

Hi, I urgently need to remove a submission of my old website (http://www.adrenalyn.com.au). I submitted on on May 07, 2004 but it never got listed. Does anyone know how to do it?
Thank u
Passepartout

It's not possible to do that.

However, if the site does not work [it does not now] when reviewed, it will not be listed.

If the site does work, and the editor feels it is appropriate for ODP, it will be listed.

Delete an old Site Submission?

Hmmm ... I made a horrible mess up of a submission too ... I do want to start all over again ... Can't anything be really done about it?

As such, wouldn't this (option of deleting a submitted site still in queue) make DMOZ's job easier since they wouldn't have to waste time reviewing the site and deciding on the right category; it would also allow a lot of backlog to be cleared ... ?

Can't anything be really done about it?

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Not really. Why exactly would you like the submission to be removed?

As such, wouldn't this (option of deleting a submitted site still in queue) make DMOZ's job easier since they wouldn't have to waste time reviewing the site and deciding on the right category; it would also allow a lot of backlog to be cleared ... ?

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If your site is listable then we don't consider reviewing and listing it a waste of time.

We have a perfectly good and efficient mechanism for removing invalid submittals: editors use it thousands of times daily. It is far far far less efficient to try to contact an editor through a back-channel, hoping to find one that CAN work in the right area, and IS working in the right area, and explaining why -- after first convincing the editor that you really are the webmaster (which is, on the internet, basically impossible -- and we know it) then explaining why the editor should care why, when it is our fixed determination not to....

Because we've listed millions of sites without asking the owner's permission, or caring whether we had it -- and we'll continue to do so.

So, basically, if you can't do at least six impossible things before breakfast, you'd do well just to drop this one.

Here's another way of looking at it.

We aren't going to ask you whether you can really speak for the webmaster, because (1) it would be difficult or impossible to prove it (talk about massive inefficiency: you cannot imagine how to go about starting to do this!) and (2) we don't care. The website has to stand on its own to surfers who don't have the webmaster peering over their shoulder and giving a running commentary, and so we judge it the same way, and (3) It wouldn't matter: both webmasters and non-webmasters frequently lie to us, so we have to check everything anyway, which involves ... reviewing the site.

So when you talk about inefficiency, you aren't understanding what we do now or what we'd have to do to implement your proposal.

By the way, before i proceed, I need to clarify that I wasn't talking about deleting a listed site. I was talking about deleting a submitted site that HASN'T been listed.

hutcheson said:

(1) it would be difficult or impossible to prove it (talk about massive inefficiency: you cannot imagine how to go about starting to do this!) (2) we don't care. The website has to stand on its own to surfers who don't have the webmaster peering over their shoulder and giving a running commentary, and so we judge it the same way, and (3) It wouldn't matter: both webmasters and non-webmasters frequently lie to us, so we have to check everything anyway, which involves ... reviewing the site.

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Actually, I do have an idea ...

Introduce a system where DMOZ requires the submitter to have a username and password to submit his/her site. This way, you can offer the following benefit to the submitter :

--> An option to delete his/her submitted sites not yet listed.
--> An option to edit the 'title' and 'description' and change category, if the submitted site hasn't been listed and not 'locked' (which would mean it is being reviewed.)


As you can see, it has little scope of (actually even nothing do with) manipulating DMOZ or its decision making system in anyway.

Advantages :

--> This way, you can also prevent resubmittal which delay the process more and surely doesn't make your job easier.

--> Prevent a site being re submitted into another category if its already pending in some or has been listed.

--> Let the user know the status of his site at any instant. (yeps, that might mean that this forum might have to die a slow death)

You aren't a programmer, are you?

Let the user know the status of his site at any instant.

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This presumes we want the user to know the status of a given site at any given instant. We do not because it gives too much power to the spammers.

yeps, that might mean that this forum might have to die a slow death

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Not the worst thaing in the world, but remember, this forum does much more than just provide status checks. The abuse/changed content/hijack thread alone is massively worthwhile.

hutcheson said:

You aren't a programmer, are you?

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I am ... but have lost interest in that ... I am currently focussed on establishing myself in the field of Visual Communication ... Thought I'd begin with the internet as a web designer ...

spectregunner said:

This presumes we want the user to know the status of a given site at any given instant. We do not because it gives too much power to the spammers.

Click to expand...

um ... how can it help a spammer to know if his site is still 'pending in queue' and not yet reveiwed?

Anyway, I don't know how your system works, but with the limited knowledge available I think this should address your concern :

Show only 3 kinds of status :

--> Pending - This would mean that submitted site is in queue and hasn't been picked for review.

--> Locked - This would mean the site is currently under review. (As far as I can see, this can tell the spammer that DMOZ is checking the site and perhaps he can use the oppurtunity to change content and all ... but he can also know that after DMOZ hits his site checking the links ... ?)

--> Rejected / Accepted - What it means ...

Anyway, every system has the potential to be abused ... One has to weigh the potential benefits against the perceived possible abuse ... I always beleive transparency increases credibility (And NO that doesn't mean I'm implying that DMOZ is any less credible now ... )

Not the worst thing in the world, but remember, this forum does much more than just provide status checks. The abuse/changed content/hijack thread alone is massively worthwhile.

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Yeah, I understand ... What I meant was fewer people would visit the forum ... anyway, that was just a speculation and adds no value to the topic of discussion. Please ignore ...

Unfortunately, if spammers know as soon as their spam is deleted, it gives them information. If their spam is deleted 2 minutes after submission, three times in a row, they can probably guess that we've automated against that type of spam and will try something else. If they have no idea when exactly their abusive submissions were deleted, they can't refine their spam techniques.

I don't notify people who spam my blog and guestbook with porn ads when I delete their stuff, either. That would just be giving them free information that might help them get better at spamming.

About the only time I personally do any kind of notifications is in the case of a very large website design house, that make legitimate submissions, but just dumps them in the most convenient category for them. Siunce they are the website professionals, I send them an e-mail with the URL they submitted with a note that I have deleted the submission because it was submitted to a singnificantly incorrect category and they are welcome to resubmit to the correct category.

My own personal form of tough love.

Sometimes when I get a clueless realtor I'll send them a form lettter explaining tha tthey only get one listing, they've got it, and to stop submitting.

Of the hundreds of submitter e-mails I have received, I've probably only replied to a handful.

spectregunner said:

About the only time I personally do any kind of notifications is in the case of a very large website design house ... I send them an e-mail with the URL they submitted with a note that I have deleted the submission because it was submitted to a singnificantly incorrect category and they are welcome to resubmit to the correct category.

Click to expand...

Can be automated into the system whereby a user gets notification (if he/she chose to), when a site is accepted or rejected, with an explanation (if the reviewer has specified any).

spectregunner said:

Sometimes when I get a clueless realtor I'll send them a form lettter explaining tha tthey only get one listing, they've got it, and to stop submitting.

Click to expand...

Can be automated into the system, whereby you can prevent a site from being resubmitted again till a certain period of time (eg. like 6 months or 1 year) if it is pending / rejected / listed in the directory.

flicker said:

Unfortunately, if spammers know as soon as their spam is deleted, it gives them information. If their spam is deleted 2 minutes after submission, three times in a row, they can probably guess that we've automated against that type of spam and will try something else. If they have no idea when exactly their abusive submissions were deleted, they can't refine their spam techniques.

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Simple. Introduce a delay in notifications of these kinds of spam sites that are rejected automatically by the system. Choose a random period of time (say sometime the spammer might be informed after 3 months. Sometimes after 45 days sometimes after 147 days).

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Guys. Seriously, a little brainstorming is all that is required to build a good system of this kind.
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I kinda like that one.

No, we don't need brainstorming by people who have to have the obvious problems explained to them one by one.

I've gone through the exercise of figuring out what information can be given out (it's not very much) and how to give it out (the random delay is pretty obvious.) A lot of work is involved.

And, frankly, anything done will probably be counterproductive. You know what WE want? Every time a jerk submits another affiliate/doorway/mirror/dropship advertiser/ad banner farm site to us, we want a tactical nuclear strike on his house. We don't want to "coddle" him or "help" him to hide his spam better. We want him dying, slowly, in excruciating pain, along with all his relatives and pets. We want neighborhood watch committees doing packet sniffing to make sure there aren't any of those people nearby, just to protect themselves from the fallout.

That would make the world better, that would make the net better, that would make our job easier.

Now: would your proposal help us accomplish this, and if so, how?

hutcheson said:

No, we don't need brainstorming by people who have to have the obvious problems explained to them one by one.

Click to expand...

I guess this is what some people mean when they say that some DMOZ editors are rude (or impatient?)... first time I've encountered one ...

hutcheson said:

I've gone through the exercise of figuring out what information can be given out (it's not very much) and how to give it out (the random delay is pretty obvious.) A lot of work is involved.

Click to expand...

I just pointed out how automation could help reduce the delay and make the editors job easier.

hutcheson said:

And, frankly, anything done will probably be counterproductive. You know what WE want? Every time a jerk submits another affiliate/doorway/mirror/dropship advertiser/ad banner farm site to us, we want a tactical nuclear strike on his house. We don't want to "coddle" him or "help" him to hide his spam better. We want him dying, slowly, in excruciating pain, along with all his relatives and pets. We want neighborhood watch committees doing packet sniffing to make sure there aren't any of those people nearby, just to protect themselves from the fallout.

That would make the world better, that would make the net better, that would make our job easier.

Now: would your proposal help us accomplish this, and if so, how?

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I strongly beleive that for any problem there is always a solution. Collective brainstorming is even better (distributed computing).

Here's what my brain came up with for your 'problem' :

1) First you need to identify the person. How?
You've got 3 info in your hand to begin with ... the website, the IP number, and the email ID of the submitter.

--> Do a look up on the on the website url.
--> Search google's database for the email ID. (90% of the time you'll get it.)
--> Look up on the IP.

With the information in hand you can get a pretty picture of who the submitter is.

Buy some nuclear weapons from Pakistan or North Korea. (If your govt is unwilling to help).

Integrate the launch mechanism with your system. As soon as a spam site is rejected, feed the geo information you've gathered into the navigation system of the missile. BOOM.

Actually, you won't need to kill everybody ... the first few 20-30 people would be enough. Leave a hint that you guys were behind it. Everybody will get the message.

(Ofcourse, things can be much easier. If you can get your hand on nuclear weapons, then you can easily hack onto the NSA database, find the guys social security number and credit card and track him ... which can make your system highly accurate ... )

I am sure my brain can come up with something better if I give this prob more time and attention but ....

The idea behind stating all this rubbish is the philosophy : There is always a solution. Everything can be improved. Any system.

Anyway, my . If you don't want to bother about this, that's your call ...
(Humans might do it better, but humans with a proper system do it best.)

Look, most people already know that we don't list mirrors, vanity domains, affiliates, doorways, etc (and if they didn't know that early on, then they should by the time they get to the end of the "suggest a site" form because it is mentioned on there too), but they still keep on submitting them.


The ODP has probably deleted 2 or 3 million such submissions over the last 5 years, but still people keep submitting them. Rather than say "the first three million out of the trenches were all killed, so lets go play somewhere else", they say "the ODP MUST list my site, lets try another spam tactic and see if that works". Three million prior casualties and still they aren't listening to our guidelines; so there is no way we are going to do anything at all that might help them in their cause, because their cause is the polar opposite of ours.

I understand that completely, believe me ... I was just offering a suggestion from my perspective ... Obviously, I do not know enough about DMOZ to know how you guys do stuffs, so its easy to get irritated at something I say!

Anyway, if anyones interested in brainstorming on how my suggestion could be improved upon, I'm game even if DMOZ doesn't implement it ... It's a simple method of just focussing collective attention on to a single problem at a time ... idea swapping ... improves creativity ...